Hey guys,
  just looking for some advice.  I seem to remember somebody telling me
that animation layers were buggy. I dont remember the specifics though.
Recently the animators here have discovered them and are incorperating
layers into their workflow.

Any information on whether animation layers are problematic at all would be
appreciated as I dont want to endorse the technique until im sure.

Best,
Enrique

I don't think you have a choice not to use them if you use mocap but I haven't heard anything bad about them really.

-manny
SI/Mobu support specialist

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Enrique Caballero
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 3:51 PM
To: softim...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Animation layers info

Hey guys,
  just looking for some advice.  I seem to remember somebody telling me that animation layers were buggy. I dont remember the specifics though.  Recently the animators here have discovered them and are incorperating layers into their workflow.

Any information on whether animation layers are problematic at all would be appreciated as I dont want to endorse the technique until im sure.

Best,
Enrique

winmail.dat 10K Download

we typically dont use layers in production....mainly because we use partitions and passes heavily in about everything we do.

j

________________________________
 From: Manny Papamanos <Manny.Papama...@autodesk.com>
To: "softim...@listproc.autodesk.com" <softim...@listproc.autodesk.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 5, 2012 5:16 PM
Subject: RE: Animation layers info

I don't think you have a choice not to use them if you use mocap but I haven't heard anything bad about them really.

-manny
SI/Mobu support specialist

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Enrique Caballero
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 3:51 PM
To: softim...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Animation layers info

Hey guys,
  just looking for some advice.  I seem to remember somebody telling me that animation layers were buggy. I dont remember the specifics though.  Recently the animators here have discovered them and are incorperating layers into their workflow.

Any information on whether animation layers are problematic at all would be appreciated as I dont want to endorse the technique until im sure.

Best,
Enrique

A recurrent problem (but hard to isolate and reproduce consistently)
with animation layers is when using in combination with reference models.
Once in a while, you'll load a scene and find that all your animation
has disappeared, as if the delta never registered the fcurves so hoping
previous versions retained part of it is often disappointing. The
opposite also happens from time to time where you still see the result
of your layer but the fcurves are nowhere to be seen.

It's a bit more annecdotal than it used to be with more recent versions,
but it still happens from time to time

Philip Melancon
Lead Crowd TD
Modus FX

On 6/5/2012 5:16 PM, Manny Papamanos wrote:

when i was at blur animators used animation layers extensively. there was a
lot of pains over the years but we got through a lot of them and they are
fixed now. referenced models and animation layers are a bit tricky, if you
nest models you are asking for lots of trouble. since the layers themselves
are not tracked inside the delta they are a bit mysterious. they are stored
with the animation mixer invisibly. once we removed nested models in our
referenced models nearly all issues regarding data loss disappeared!

On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 12:50 PM, Enrique Caballero <

yep before  if you did a motion mixer track,  and put a animation layer on top,   you save the scene and when you open it, all the key on the animation layer were gone, but i haven't seen that in the new version of soft,  i think last one was in 11? might be?

________________________________
 De: Steven Caron <car...@gmail.com>
Para: softim...@listproc.autodesk.com
Enviado: Martes, 5 de junio, 2012 16:29:01
Asunto: Re: Animation layers info

when i was at blur animators used animation layers extensively. there was a lot of pains over the years but we got through a lot of them and they are fixed now. referenced models and animation layers are a bit tricky, if you nest models you are asking for lots of trouble. since the layers themselves are not tracked inside the delta they are a bit mysterious. they are stored with the animation mixer invisibly. once we removed nested models in our referenced models nearly all issues regarding data loss disappeared! 

Hey guys,

well it was that bad. the simple scenarios worked. ie. one model, one
mixer. but when you add  many layers of complexity and the delta got into a
certain state (out of sync) a user could easily be fooled that something
was working and on save and reopen of the scene we get the data lost

On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 2:30 PM, Demian Kurejwowski <demianpe...@yahoo.com>wrote:

Thanks guys once again you save the day. Exactly what i needed to know.

On Jun 6, 2012 2:37 PM, "Steven Caron" <car...@gmail.com> wrote:

mixer. but when you add  many layers of complexity and the delta got into a
certain state (out of sync) a user could easily be fooled that something
was working and on save and reopen of the scene we get the data lost
on top,   you save the scene and when you open it, all the key on the
animation layer were gone, but i haven't seen that in the new version of
soft,  i think last one was in 11? might be?
was a lot of pains over the years but we got through a lot of them and they
are fixed now. referenced models and animation layers are a bit tricky, if
you nest models you are asking for lots of trouble. since the layers
themselves are not tracked inside the delta they are a bit mysterious. they
are stored with the animation mixer invisibly. once we removed nested
models in our referenced models nearly all issues regarding data
loss disappeared!
that animation layers were buggy. I dont remember the specifics though.
Recently the animators here have discovered them and are incorperating
layers into their workflow.
would be appreciated as I dont want to endorse the technique until im sure.