Animation layers info

[Enrique Caballero]

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

[Manny Papamanos]

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

[john clausing]

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

j

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

[Philip Melancon]

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

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[Steven Caron]

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! 

[Demian Kurejwowski]

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?

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

[Steven Caron]

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

[Enrique Caballero]

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

[Chris Chia]

Hi all,
If you guys encountered any complicated scene which has the animation layers messed up, just email me the scene file. I will like to take a look. Thanks.


Regards,
Chris
Softimage QA Analyst

On 9 Jun, 2012, at 8:03 AM, "Enrique Caballero" <enriquec...@gmail.com<mailto:enriquec...@gmail.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<mailto:car...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> 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 <demia...@yahoo.com<mailto:demia...@yahoo.com>> wrote:
>>
>> 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<mailto:car...@gmail.com>>
>> Para: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:soft...@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!
>>