I'll do my best in laymans terms but I hope someone with the real answers steps up. I'm not one to read too many instructions and I tend to experiment on the fly . . . getting away with it most of the time.

1) The alignment. Assume your starting from X0.Y0.Z0 You apply a motion. Now if the motion moves the character forward, (as opposed to a motion which the character appears to run but stays stationary, and you then manually adjust its position), and then you add it again, it wants to restart from X0.Y0.Z0. The alignment as described in my first post makes the character start from the end position of the first motion as you have found out. The downside appears to be that this depends on the motion, (who made it), and the direction the maker starts the motion in, etc. Thats why I experiment with several alignments, align right leg or whatever. Not put in technical terms but I hope you get my drift. I cannot answer the second part of this section because I have never dragged a motion to the character, but if it works for you and colour I'm sure gonna try it.

2) Duh. I've no idea. Your answer is as good as mine would be to be honest. I must read up on this myself . . . if I ever get time. I suggest you press F1 and look at the online manual. The only ways that I know how to remove motions are to either go into your Timeline and click on the motions for that character, right click and delete. You may have to delete a key in the motions layer too. Or click on the Reset button under your preview screen (an arced arrow). BEWARE this results in you losing ALL your motions or animations from just about anything you have loaded into the project.

3) As two.

Hopefully some else will come along and give us a better explanation to everything in due course. In iC5 it appears things may be easier for us all. Lets hope so. But it would still pay you to learn about what we have now because it will come in handy someday no doubt. Cheers.

:cool: gizmo

colour - thanks for the list of ideas. I'm slowly working through them. I have found the timeline loop tool (didn't know it existed!). It looks like just what I was after, but I find that I cannot reset the root, so each repetition returns to the same starting place. What am I missing?

Also, what do the Align Actor Motion and the Reset Motion Root options mean - I just seen these come up on the right-hand side options settings panel (not sure what it's call, sorry).

Thanks for your help - with other software I've found forum help is the fastest way to learn because of the generosity of more experienced members, and it's certainly proving to be so here.

Fergus

Thanks to gizmo - that worked.

Can I ask 3 follow up questions?

What is that alignment doing and why is it necessary?
I note (thanks to colour's first suggestion) that if I apply the clips by dragging onto the character rather than copying in the timeline that the movement clips do adjust themselves correctly. So am I right in assuming that dragging sets the alignment automatically?

What is the difference between align and align whole clip?
I experimented with this and it seems to me that "align whole clip" makes the whole clip run in just one place (eg running on the spot) while "align" just affects the start point. And now I've changed the align whole clip setting, I can't figure out how to remove it!

What is the purpose of alignment to the other body parts? This didn't seem to make any difference which one I picked for a running loop clip.

Thanks for your help,
Fergus

Thanks gizmo. Learn something everyday here!!!!

sjonesdc :hehe:

STILL LEARNING!!!

Ensure that the Gold/Yellow motion progress bar under the Input Preview Screen has completed, before you repeat the Motion at the point where the previous Motion stops..

Or:

You can Select the Timeline Loop Switch & Drag the Motion Progress Bar to the Frame at which you want it to stop.

And then:

Apply Character Transform Keys at the start & end. 

Or:

Right-Click on Character / Select "Walk Forward" or whatever & then Click on the Preview Screen, the point you want your Character to Walk towards.

Or:

You can have yur Character follow a Path.

Anyone-else?

ADDED - Gizmo & I Posting at the same time. Read his Post above, first.  

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Hi Fergus. Try opening the Timeline, select the relevant character, select motion, select the 'second' grey motion line, right click, select align, select root.

Pict to help . . . hope you can see details. If not experiment with one of the the other selections. Cheers.

:cool: gizmo

Hi, interested in some help as a newbie.

I have iClone 4 Pro, and am enjoying making little adds for my church's food drive with Mr Pose et al.

I have an issues that's holding me up at the moment.

I've found that when I want to use multiple copies of a walk cycle from the presets one after the other that repeating the animation causes the character to go back to the original starting point rather than continue on from the end of the previous cycle.

If the animation is a different one (eg an end of walk) then there are no problems.

Any suggestions on what I'm missing or doing wrong?

All help gratefully received.
Fergus