Animating for Games - Game Character Development with Maya - page 986

FIGURE 16.33 Use the Root_Control to compensate for the movement in her upper body.
2. Select the Root_Control, and rotate around the Z axis until her head lines up with
the gridline ( Figure 16.33b ). Use the part in her hair as a guide.
3. Now set keys on the Rotate Z attribute on frame 0 and frame 32.
4. Move along to frame 16 ( Figure 16.33c ) , and again rotate the Root_Control, this
time backward so her head stays fixed to the line ( Figure 16.33d ). Set a key.
5. Flatten all the tangents in the Graph Editor.
Note
You could, if you want a more precise movement, apply the same value to
Root_Control's Rotate Z attribute in frames 0 and 16; just remember to
make the one in frame 16 a negative number.
The torso movement is now complete. After the rest of the animation is applied, you can
lookatthecharacter'swalkasawhole,seeinghoweverythingworkstogether.Atthatstage
you can play around with the keys for the torso until you get the animation just right.
Arm and Clavicle Animation
Animating the torso helped show us where the shoulders will be at specific times in the
walk cycle. With those keys in place, we can begin work on her arms.
At present, Kila looks like she is shrugging her shoulders a little, so let's begin by anim-
ating the clavicle controls and reducing this shrug. Select both clavicle controls and move
them down slightly, as shown in Figure 16.34 on the right. Then set a key on just the Y
axis, on frames 0 and 32.