Learning Resources > Tutorials > Getting Started with Maya > Animation > Lesson 4: Nonlinear animation
with Trax >
Beyond the lesson
In this lesson, you learned some fundamental techniques for using the nonlinear animation tools in Trax. You learned how to:
Clips can contain minimal or many animated attributes. You can create clips from existing animation or key animation specifically for use in clips. You should consider what attributes you need represented in a clip when you key the animation before you decide to use nonlinear animation in your work. In this way, a clip can be used to control a specific attribute.
When you create a clip, a character set is created if one does not already exist. You can load and work with multiple character sets in the Trax Editor. To select different character sets when working in Trax you can use the Select Current Character drop-down menu. Clips can also be arranged, scaled, and moved as groups. For more information see Move clips and Track view area in the Maya Help.
If a character animates or scales in a manner you had not expected when working in Trax, you may want to check to see if the clips overlap or are arranged in a manner that doesn’t provide the expected results. In addition, a clip containing motion that is intended to be appended to another clip’s motion must have its Offset attribute set to Relative, and Absolute Rotations set to On (in most instances). There are many other tasks you can perform with clips in the Trax Editor that are beyond the scope of this lesson. For more information see Nonlinear animation components in Trax in the Maya Help.
The Trax Editor is useful when working with motion capture data. Since motion capture data usually contains a lot of keyframe information, the Trax Editor can be useful for creating, modify, and extending the motion data provided. Cycling and redirecting motion are two methods that can be used to get more from your motion capture data. For more information see the section on Motion Capture Animation in the Maya Help.
You can use redirection controls to redirect any type of motion in Maya (Keyframe, motion capture, expressions, dynamics, and so on). For more information and additional examples on redirection see Redirect the motion of an animated character in the Maya Help.
You can trim a clip either before or after the current time indicator discarding the remainder of the clip in the process. You can also split a clip into two parts. The original source clip is not affected. For more information see Split clips in the Maya Help.
You can blend the animation between clips. Blends allow you to create smooth transitions and mixes between different motions. A blend can be applied between any two clips that overlap entirely, partially, or not at all. The best results are obtained when blending between similar motions. In some situations, a blend can be used to correct jump cuts. For more information see Create and edit blends in the Maya Help.
You can set keyframes to alter the animation within a clip. This process is called Keying into a clip. When you key into a clip, keyframes are placed at the current time on all the animation curves in the selected clip. For more information see Key into a clip in the Maya Help.
Time Warps let you change the timing of a clip without modifying the clip's animation curves. You modify the Time Warp by editing the animation curve that controls the warp. Time Warps can also be used to reverse the animation in a clip. For more information see Create and edit time warps in the Maya Help.
Both the Visor and Outliner can be used to access clips. The Visor provides a graphical interface to access other resources (such as clips, poses, shaders, textures, and brushes) in your scene. The Outliner displays clips in a textual manner, and is a bit more compact.
You can display and play multiple audio files in Trax allowing you to synchronize your motion clips to specific audio events (sound effects, musical notes, drum beats) in the audio file. Once you import an audio file into Trax, you can then move and rename the audio clip. For more information see Work with audio in the Maya Help.