Set driven keys

Set driven keys can be used to link one attribute together with another using key frames to make some movement. The main difference between a set driven key and a normal key frame is that a set driven key doesn’t have a time slider. For example when the curl attributes is at 0 the dog’s tail will be in a default state and be straight out. When changing the curl attribute to a 10 the dogs tail would raise up and curl above the back of the dog. This is because the set driven key was made to make the tail curl when the curl attribute changed from 0 to 10.

When adding my own set driven keys too my controllers I had mixed success with them. The first few of them would change the Translate X when I wanted to move Translate Y. I later found out after re-taking my steps that I had simply miss clicked and was doing key frames within the wrong attribute. After that minor hiccup I started getting along well slowly working out what axis/attribute I would have to move to get the desired effect.

I added set driven keys:

Feet controllers has Peel Heel, Toe Tap, Stand Tip, Twist Toe and Twist Heel

Tail controller has wag tail and curl tail

Ear controller has ear movement

Head controller has Both Up and Both Down

The feet controllers have the most set driven keys /custom attributes mainly because when i was researching dogs movement and characteristics of dogs I found that the way they use their legs to move their body and the use of their face is how they show their emotions. Even though most of them set driven keys would be added to a biped rig I decided to add them to the dog just don’t move them as much as I would on the biped. This is mostly because a dog’s foot/paw doesn’t move as far as a human/bipeds foot does. Mostly they are there for certain types of animations like a walk or a playful bounce.

Tail controller only has two but for the first one as in the wag tail key is a simple one where it mostly moves from side to side when the attribute is either -10 or 10 with when the attribute is at 0 it is in between the two. The curl tail set driven key is a little bit different because I hadn’t done one like it for a while so it took a bit of time to fully work it out. Too make the curl tail work I had to use multiple different controllers and assign them with keys to make a movement that curls. I jotted down the degrees when I found what I think is a perfect curl so I could use them later to change them into negative. So the tail goes both up above the body and below the body. Having the tail move up above the body would be used for happiness and when the tail goes down below the body/ in between the legs of the dog would be sad / scared.

I made the ear movement key so that when animated the ears could be moved up and down for different types of emotion the dog could have. Having both ear controllers having the same attribute gives the animator the opportunity to be able to do multiple different emotions and lift one ear and not the other. The set driven key is a simple one but would be really effective in this case it as the ears are a main point on a dog.

The head controller has two set driven keys where they both affect the ears. When Both Up is used both ears will be raised up above its head and when Both Down is used both ears are down beside the head. This was mostly added to help out animating and to see what I could actually do with the set driven keys. I found that using different controllers in a set driven key is a lot easier to use than moving joints individually and in theory i could use multiple different controllers and just hide them after using the set driven keys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF2CWD63AUQ