Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
t roubleshooting and a gg r avati o n
t roubleshooting and a gg r avati o n
Why should you intentionally go through steps that create a problem, such as the axe's
movement back? Understanding how to troubleshoot is the biggest challenge in learning
a CG program. A good CG artist needs to know how to diagnose issues with their scene and
be able to find a way to fix them. Your first forays into CG may be highly frustrating—riddled
with simple troubles and issues that you just don't understand. When you can't figure out
why things went wrong, you may turn red with aggravation and want to walk away. This is
where you start molding yourself as a CG artist. Instead of giving up, ponder the steps you've
taken, and see if you can spot where your CG has taken a weird turn. You'll probably find
yourself in such spots several times as you study this topic. Instead of throwing the baby out
with the bathwater, stay patient and try, try again. You'll learn more from your mistakes and
missteps in the tutorials in this topic than you will if you follow everything to the letter.
Why should you intentionally go through steps that create a problem, such as the axe's
movement back? Understanding how to troubleshoot is the biggest challenge in learning
a CG program. A good CG artist needs to know how to diagnose issues with their scene and
be able to find a way to fix them. Your first forays into CG may be highly frustrating—riddled
with simple troubles and issues that you just don't understand. When you can't figure out
why things went wrong, you may turn red with aggravation and want to walk away. This is
where you start molding yourself as a CG artist. Instead of giving up, ponder the steps you've
taken, and see if you can spot where your CG has taken a weird turn. You'll probably find
yourself in such spots several times as you study this topic. Instead of throwing the baby out
with the bathwater, stay patient and try, try again. You'll learn more from your mistakes and
missteps in the tutorials in this topic than you will if you follow everything to the letter.
Auto Keyframe set a keyframe for Translate X at frame 15. At frame 40, you moved the
axe in both the X and Y axes to strike the target. Auto Keyframe set a keyframe at 40 for
Translate X and Translate Y. Because the last keyframe for Translate Y was set at 1 and
not at 15 as in the case of Translate X, there is now a bobble in the Y position of the axe
between frames 1 and 15.
With the axe selected, open the Graph Editor (choose Window Animation Editors
Graph Editor) to see what's happening. As you saw in the Bouncing_Ball exercise, using
the Graph Editor is crucial, and the more practice you get with it, the better.
When you open the Graph Editor for this scene, you should see red, green, and blue
line segments running up and down and left and right. You'll probably have to zoom
your view to something more intelligible. By using the Alt key (or the Alt/Option key on
a Mac) and mouse-button combinations, you can navigate the Graph Editor much as you
can any of the modeling windows.
The hotkeys A and F also work in the Graph Editor. Click anywhere in the Graph
Editor window to make sure it's the active window, and press A to zoom all your curves
into view. Your window should look something like Figure 8.19.
Figure 8.19
The Graph Editor
displays the axe's
animation curves.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search