Animating for Games - Game Character Development with Maya - page 974

1. Starting on frame 0, rotate the Waist_Control around the Z axis until you reach a
value of around 7. The hips should tilt like those in Figure 16.23 , middle.
FIGURE 16.23 Tilt the hips around the Z axis.
2. Set a key on just the Rotate Z attribute on both frames 0 and 32.
3. Move along to frame 16 and set the Z rotation to -7, tilting her hips in the opposite
direction ( Figure 16.23 , right). Set another key.
4. Go to the Graph Editor and make all of the Rotate Z curve's tangents Flat to soften
their movement.
When women walk, their hips' movement is in relation to the placement of their feet. The
hip doesn't begin to tilt in the opposite direction until the foot has been placed, because it's
the shift in weight that straightens the leg out; this then forces the hip to tilt away from it.
We need to insert a few more keys to implement this detail.
5. Move along to frame 11 in the Time Slider and set a key on the Rotate Z attribute.
Follow that with another key placed at frame 27. You are adding keys here because
these are the frames just before each foot plants.
6. Now, using the Graph Editor, edit the keys so that the hips don't tilt immediately.
Set the key at frame 11 to 1.7, and the key at frame 27 to -1.7.
As demonstrated in Figure 16.24 , the hips will begin to gradually tilt until they
reach frame 12, the point where the foot connects with the floor. Then they'll tilt
more quickly before moving gradually again over toward the other foot.