The Animation Workbench is a customized version of Track View that you can use for correcting and improving biped animation. It extends the functionality of existing curve editors by giving you different options for visualizing and manipulating curves, and provides filters to perform general rotation, position and other biped-specific operations.
With the Workbench, you can analyze curves for error conditions and apply filters to the identified keyframes, or filter selected biped tracks to generally improve the motion of a track without errors.
Workbench Workflow
Here are the overall steps to follow in analyzing and fixing a problematic biped:
- Create your animation and play it. Note visually anything that jumps out at you as being wrong or incorrect.
- With the biped selected in the viewport, open the Workbench by clicking the Workbench button in the Biped Apps rollout on the Motion panel.
- Select the biped body part that seems to have the problem. You can select it in the viewport, or from the list in the Select panel.
Be aware that some biped objects share tracks. For example, all the objects in a leg or an arm share a single track.
- On the Analyze panel, choose an analyzer from the drop-down list. Set the analysis conditions, then click Analyze. Any errors the analyzer encounters will be displayed in a list at the bottom of the Analyze panel. The Curve view also indicates the problem area by displaying a vertical bar.
- On the Fix panel, select the errors you want to fix. Select the filter for the fix, adjust its parameters, and then click Fix Selected. You can select the errors one at a time, or in any combination. You can sort the errors by time or body part, depending on what kind of fix is needed.
Errors displayed as yellow lines in Curve View
If the results aren't satisfactory, try changing the parameters and fixing again. Repeat the process until you find the combination of parameters that correct the movement. Or try a different fixer or filter (these are described later in this topic).
Animation Workbench Tools
The Animation Workbench provides three types of tools to use with biped animation: analyzers, fixers, and filters.
Analyzers
These are used to find out-of-the ordinary properties in your animation. Certain analyzers parse the waveform of your motion tracks and detect variation from the curves. There are two detectors available that do this; Noise and Spike. There are also analyzers for finding and fixing knee conditions, specifically knee wobble and extension.
For more information, see Analyze Panel.
Fixers
Fixers address problems found by the analyzer. The fixers work by running a specified operation over just the analyzer result. They don't change the complete animation, just areas around the problem.
For more information, see Fix Panel.
Filters
Filters are operations that are performed on the specified animation tracks. Unlike fixers, they affect the complete specified time interval, not just the analyzer result.
The Rot Smoothing, Rot Blurring, Rot Boosting, Adv Rot Smoothing, Pos Smoothing, Pos Blurring and Pos Boosting filters are all variants of one type of filter. They all share the same parameters: Width and Damping.
For more information on these filter types, see Filters Panel.