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- [Instructor] In this video,
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we will see how to use a curve as a path
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as in the tree climbing sequence.
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In the corresponding file,
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I have two collections, one
including a simple arrow
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and the other one including
our squirrel character
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and the tree.
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Getting back to the arrow collection,
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I will press Shift + A
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to add a curve, Bezier curve.
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As any other object added to your scene,
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it is spawned onto the 3D cursor.
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It has an origin point
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and if I press Tab to enter edit mode,
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I can access the handles of the curve.
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It's pretty close to the handles we have
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in the graph editor.
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Curves have an orientation,
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meaning that they have a starting point
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and an ending point.
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To see it, we can go into the overlay
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and display the normals of the curve.
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Arrows will be displayed along the curve,
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showing you the orientation of flow
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of the curve, also called
normals of the curve.
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In edit mode, you can
manipulate the handles,
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as I explained before,
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using G, R and S.
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You can change the handle type
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as you will do in the graph editor,
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pressing the V key.
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Then you will get the same behavior
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as the one we have in the graph editor
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but this time for a 3D object.
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And with any curve point selected,
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you can press E to extrude a new point.
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As any object, we can access the curve
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that are in the properties panel.
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You can give a bit of thickness
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or geometry to your curve
going into the geometry panel.
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The simple extrude will
generate a rebound-like shape,
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while the bevel will allow you
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to create some kind of pipe.
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While we don't need
geometry for animation,
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it makes the curve more
readable in the 3D space.
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In object mode, I can
select my arrow object,
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then select the curve to make it active.
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Press Control + P and choose Follow Path.
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Now if I scrub into the timeline,
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I can see the arrow following the curve.
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In the path animation option of the curve,
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we can see the value frames.
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And it is set to 100 frames.
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It means that the object
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that is parented to the curve
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with the follow path option
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will take 100 frames to get
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from the beginning of the curve
'til the end of the curve.
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Switching to 50 frame value,
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you can see that now
my arrow get to the end
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of the curve on frame 50.
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As our arrow object is currently a child
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of the curve, we can move it at will.
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It will still follow the path.
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And we can see that by default,
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our arrow object will rotate
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to follow the curvature of the path.
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If I go into the option of the curve
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to the path animation and uncheck Follow,
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the object is no longer rotating
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to follow the orientation of the curve.
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The curve path only affect
the location of the object.
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Let's restart from scratch.
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I have removed any
influence from the curve.
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I will reselect the arrow,
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then the curve, press Control + P
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and this time, choose Path Constraint.
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This will add a path
constraint to the arrow
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that we can see in the Constraint tab
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of the properties editor.
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From there, if I scrub into
the timeline, nothing happened.
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Our object gets stuck on the initial point
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of the curve.
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If I click the Animate Path button,
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now our object is
traveling along the curve
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and you can see that
it takes it 100 frames
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to follow the curve, as before.
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It still use the frame's value
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from the curve properties.
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Let's go back onto our arrow object
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and check out the constraint.
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We can see the forward
axis and up axis option.
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To better understand it,
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I will display the axis on my object.
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So we can see that our arrow
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is pointing in its y direction
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and the up axis is the z-axis,
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exactly as set into the constraint.
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So if I now click the Follow Curve option,
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the orientation of the arrow will change.
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It will follow the curve.
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Its y-axis will be aligned
with the curve path
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and the z-axis will still be pointing up
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as set in the constraint.
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If I switch the orientation to -y,
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it will flip the arrow but it
will still follow the curve
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and so if I choose the
x-axis, for example,
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logically you can't use the same channel
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as a forward and up axis.
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It will deactivate the constraint
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and it will no longer work.
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The offset value have
two different behavior.
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Let's move to frame 20
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and in the offset value,
set the value to 10.
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Our arrow is moved back on the curve.
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Its current position is
frame 20, -10 frames.
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The offset value is how
we delay the position
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of the arrow in time.
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Basically, we are
subtracting the offset value
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to the frame's value of the curve.
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So if I set it to -10,
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it will currently move the arrow forward,
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10 frame earlier in time.
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Exactly as if I was on
frame 30 without any offset.
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If I now enable the fixed position,
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our arrow object will be stuck
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to the beginning of the curve.
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Now the offset value is
no longer a value in frame
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but a value that goes from zero to one
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and indicate the position
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between the beginning
and the end of the curve.
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Finally, if I enable
the curve radius option,
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our constraint object scale
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will depend on the curve radius.
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So if I now go into edit mode
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onto the curve and press Alt + S
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with one of the control points selected,
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I will be able to change
the radius of the curve
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and this will influence the scale
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of our arrow objects.
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Finally, in edit mode,
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when working on the curve,
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with a control point selected,
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I can change the tilt value
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and I will see my curve
twisting or tilting.
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And so will the object
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that is constrained by the curve,
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creating very nice animations.
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We can tilt the curve with
the Control + T shortcut.
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Let's now see how we can use this trick
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to animate our squirrel character.
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I will display the squirrel collection.
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I will move the current curve
into the arrow collection
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and I will press the
Shift + A in object mode
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to add a new curve.
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This is going to be our squirrel path.
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This time, instead of
constraining the squirrel object,
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I will constrain the root
bone of our character.
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In pose mode, I can go
to the bone constraint,
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not the object constraint
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and add a follow path constraint
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and source our curve.
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Now the root bone of
our character gets stuck
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at the beginning of the curve.
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If I click the Follow Curve option,
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I can see my character
getting align with the curve
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and if I now scrub, I can't see it moving
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because we need to click
the Animate Path button.
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And by default, our character
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will follow the curve and
reach the end on frame 100.
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To give a proper orientation
to our character,
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we need to switch to -y
as being the forward axis.
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Now our character is
properly following the path.
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A big warning here.
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Whenever you are using a curve modifier,
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make sure that the constraint object
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has its origin aligned with world space,
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meaning that its origin is reset
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because if you offset the object,
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the constraint will behave weirdly.
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You can move the curve as you want.
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The constraint object will follow
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but make sure that the constraint object
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has all its transform channels reset.
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Now that you understand
the curve constraint,
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you can go into edit mode
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and start building your motion path
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for your character.
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I'm doing it into a little time lapse
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because I'm using a simple rotation scale
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and extrude functions.
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My main advice is use as
less point as possible
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and try to have your curve
as smooth as possible.
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Also, you can use the bevel option
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to give a bit of thickness to your curve
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so that it's easier to
read along the tree trunk.
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The less control point
you set onto your curve,
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the easier it will be to keep it smooth
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and so the animation of your character
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will also be smooth.
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If you create hard
angles or too curvy path,
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then the animation of your character
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will look weird unless you
heavily edit the animation
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on top of the cycle.
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When you're satisfied with the path,
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you can zoom in and tweak
the tilt and position
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of the control point
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so that your character
feet stick to the trunk
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and you avoid the clipping.
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Don't forget to double
check from camera view
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because sometimes, even if your character
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is a bit floating, that's perfectly fine,
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'til it looks good from the
camera point of view as usual.
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Back to object mode,
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we need to set the correct speed
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for our character to climb the tree
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and we can do it by
modifying the frame's value
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into the curve's option.
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As the feet are moving backward,
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it means that our character animation
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is faster than the locomotion.
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So I need to reduce the frame's value.
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With a value of 70, it
seems that now the feet
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are sliding forward.
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So our character locomotion is too fast.
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So it's just a matter of trial and error
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to find the correct value.
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A value of 85 seems to work well for me.
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And it depends on the curve length.
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So you may not have the same value.
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Another way to control the speed
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at which our character is moving
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is to use the offset.
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We can enable the fixed position.
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Now our character is no longer moving
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and insert a keyframe
on the offset factor.
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I'm setting a value of zero on frame zero
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and on frame 85, a value of one.
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If I now go into the graph editor,
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I will be able to see the curve
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of this animated value
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and we can see that there is easing in
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and easing out,
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so our character is slowing
down and accelerating.
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What I do need to do
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is whether change the
interpolation of the curve
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to linear or select all the handles,
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press V, and switch to vector.
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The cool thing about choosing this method
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is that I can insert a keyframe
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whenever my character is about to jump.
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Then another keyframe
when he's just landing
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and then I can offset a
bit the landing keyframe
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if I want my character
to make a larger jump.
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The only thing not to forget
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is to also offset the latest keyframe
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so that the interpolation
between those two keyframe
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doesn't change, and so our
character speed remain the same.
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But between frame 22 and frame 29 here,
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the speed of my character
is no longer the same
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and it seems he's doing a bigger jump.
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This is a little trick that will allow you
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to break the rhythm of your animation
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and make it more appealing.
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At least, less linear.
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This is the end of this chapter.
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You now know everything to be able
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to create the same shot as I did.
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Don't forget that failing
is a part of the process
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but giving up is not
a part of the process.
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Stay strong, repeat
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and I will see you in the next chapter
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where we will learn new
animation techniques.
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To summarize, we have seen
that we can use a 3D curve
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as an animated path for
an object to follow.
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We can use parenting or path constraint.
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The frames' value determines the time
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to travel along the whole curve.
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We can use the offset value
to delay the path animation.
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00:12:41,090 --> 00:12:42,840
We can use the curve to scale
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and tilt the constrained object.
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We can use the constraint on a bone.
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Make sure the origin of
the constrained object
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is reset to world origin
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before applying the curve constraint.
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