Adding a full stop between expressions?


https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic479138.aspx
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By jessicalcrichton - 4 Years Ago
Hi again!

Again, I looked here and in Google for about an hour for this, so if it's already been answered, I apologize.

Anyway, I have a character who needs to stop walking, look to one side with one expression, and look to another side with another expression, before starting to walk again. I THINK I got the stop and start walking down, but the expressions are killing me. She needs to PAUSE at each expression, but it just slowly changes her face through them all. I know those are smooth transitions, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to UNsmooth them.

They're on the motion layer. Here is a screenshot of the setup:



What am I missing here? This should be easy, right?

*Is quickly learning NOTHING is easy about digital animation, and developing a "healthy" maniacal laugh...*

ETA: I have seen that spacing between motion clips should stop them during the space, but mine already have large spaces and they still morph together. Screenshot of the spaces:




By TimothyMasters - 4 Years Ago
I'm still in the early learning stage, so forgive a possibly worthless answer.  I have learned that with a lot of changes/motions of various sorts, if they steadily morph in between keys and I want a halt and then a snap jump, I right-click on the LATER key, select "Transition curve presets", and select "Step".  Maybe this helps?
By Amper Sand - 4 Years Ago
As one who like to play with robots, I had to deal with such scenario; me I'm using Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V of the keyframe which needs to be stopped - copy it and paste it 10-20-50 frames later, according to how long you want the "stop" to last.
By Kelleytoons - 4 Years Ago
As mentioned here, there are two ways to achieve this.

With any key, for ANY thing (whether it's an arm moving, a hand changing poses, or a face morphing) iClone (like most animation programs) will calculate the interval between keys for you.  It's autokeying will use the default curve (which is a bezier one) to smooth out the transition.  So in order to sharply change things you have two options -- either you copy the key from the start of the sequence to the very end, right before the next key changes, or you change the curve between keys.  Both accomplish the same thing but as a rule most pros use a "hold" key (copying the key to the end of the sequence) just because it's a bit easier to then control exactly how things happen (you might not want a complete SNAP from one expression to the other, for example, but at least a few frames for your character to change expression -- no human can snap that fast).

It's important to experiment with both to understand the process of keyframing as well as get complete mastery over it (understanding the curves means you can do things like have momentum in movements that need to start slow and finish fast, or vice versa).
By jessicalcrichton - 4 Years Ago
Thank you everyone! This was exactly what I needed. You all ROCK! <3