Animating for Games - Game Character Development with Maya - page 968

FIGURE 16.17 Adjusting the hips' Y translation
2. We now want to offset the hips' dip so it happens when the foot plants. Select all
the keys except for the one at frame -1, and move them along the timeline until the
two lower keys, which currently lie on frames 8 and 24, lie on frames 15 and 31
( Figure 16.17b ).
3. You will now need to set new start and end keys, or the animation will not loop.
Move along to frame 32 and set a key on just the Y translation. This will store its
current value and maintain the curve's current shape.
4. To create the seamless loop, you will copy this exact key to frame 0. Select frame
0 using the middle mouse button, and set another key on the Y translation.
5. Clean up the curve by deleting any keys after frame 32 ( Figure 16.17c ) .
6. Flatten the tangents on the middle three keys only, by selecting them and clicking
on the Flat Tangent button.
Your new curve should resemble that in Figure 16.17d .
We have now smoothed out the waist's animation, so let's do the same on the feet.
1. Select the right foot. In the Graph Editor, flatten all the tangents by clicking on the
Flat Tangent button ( Figure 16.18 , bottom). This will initially soften all the anima-
tion on the foot.