Aside from the need to model objects and texture them, there is the task of animation setup. Check your pivots, your geometry, and your grouping to make sure your scene will hold up when you animate it.
It’s also common practice in setup to animate a proxy object—a simple stand-in model that you later replace. The next exercise will show you how to replace the axe you already animated with the fully textured NURBS axe from the previous chapter and how to copy an animation from one object to another.
Replacing the Axe
Load your completed, keyframed axe-animation scene (not the one using path animation), or switch to the Axe project and load the scene file axe_v7.mb from the CD. Now, follow these steps:
1. Choose File ⇒ Import.
2. Locate and import the Axe_Replace.ma scene file from the Scenes folder of the Axe project on the CD. The new axe appears at the origin in your scene.
Transferring Animation
To assume all the properties and actions of the original axe requires some setup. Follow these steps:
1. Move the pivot on the new axe to the same relative position as the pivot on the original animated axe (up toward the top and a little out front of the handle, just under the blade). This ensures that the new axe has the same spin as the old axe. If you don’t make sure the pivots line up, the animation won’t look right when transferred to the new axe.
Figure 8-30: The new axe placed next to the original
2. Rotate the new axe’s top node 180 degrees in Y to get it to face the right direction.
3. Use grid snap to place the top node of the new axe at the origin.
4. Freeze transforms on the new axe group to reset all its attributes.
5. Choose Display ⇒ Transform Display ⇒ Selection Handles to turn on the selection handle of the new axe.
6. Go to frame 1. Select the original axe, open the Graph Editor, and choose Edit ⇒ Copy.
7. Select the new axe to display its curves in the Graph Editor. It has no curves to display yet. With the axe node selected in the Graph Editor, choose Edit ⇒ Paste. As shown in Figure 8-30, the new axe is slightly offset from the original axe.
When you copy and paste curves in the Graph Editor, make sure you’re on the first frame of the animation. Pasting curves places them at the current frame. Because the animation of the original axe started at frame 1, make sure you’re at frame 1 when you paste the curves to the new axe.
8. Move the new axe to match the original. Because it’s already animated, move it using the curves in the Graph Editor as opposed to moving it in the viewport. With the new axe selected, in the Graph Editor, select the Translate Y curve; move it up to match the height of the original axe.
9. Select the Translate X curve, and move it to match the axe’s X position, as shown in Figure 8-31. Line up the axe handle as a guide.
Figure 8-31: Lining up the two axes
Scrub the animation, and notice that the new axe has the same animation except at the end when it hits the target. It doesn’t have the same follow-through as the original axe. Remember that you grouped the original axe under the target node for follow-through animation. Place the new axe under this node as well.
The file axe_v8.mb in the Axe project on the CD has the new axe imported and all the animation copied. It will get you caught up to this point.
10. After you scrub the animation and make sure the new axe animates properly, select the original axe’s top node and delete it.