TA Poseworks (suite version 1.0)

Before I stared work on Galactica, my animations had been predominantly about acting and character performance. On the show, I found myself doing a lot of full-screen characters moving (menacingly - yaay, acting! :) from point "A" to point "B." This meant that for the first time since I left Activision ten years ago, I was doing a lot of work with animation cycles.

Almost every professional animator will tell you that cycles are among the hardest things to do in animation because every time the cycle repeats, the things that are not absolutely perfect stand out more... and more... and more!

(Which is why I shudder when a newbie says something like, "Just teach me something easy... you know, like a walk-cycle." ;)

The most time-consuming part of doing a symmetrical walk, run, jog, (or whatever,) cycle for me, is in getting a mirror of what I've done with one stride onto the other, (so the character doesn't limp menacingly across the screen). This, and updating the symmetrical Poses when I make modifications to one side or part of the animation.

And when time gets short, and I have to be doing a five-character, full-torso animation with character interaction as characters march about in the shot, in one day, (the Sunday before the show's Thursday air-date,) I found myself wishing for some extra functionality within the LightWave interface.

And this is the beginning of that wish's fulfillment.

"I got bored so I saved myself...." - Anna Baragli, Hudson Hawk

In short,

TA Poseworks is a suite of LScript plug-ins that let you Cut, Copy and Paste, Pose data (Scaling, Rotation and Translation information across all Channels - so the integrity of the Pose is maintained even when the source Item in the source Pose is in-between Keyframes).

Poseworks also lets you MIRROR the copied Pose data... letting you copy a Pose from the Right (and Center) controls of a symmetrical model, Pasting that data in a perfect mirror onto the Left (and Center) of that model! You can, of course, select the controls for an entire model, and Mirror that Pose, Left-to-Right, Right-to-Left in one, Mirror-Paste action.

And of course, Poseworks also lets you Undo/Redo a Pose-Paste so you can Cut/Copy/Paste with confidence!

Poseworks has made my animating life, worlds easier, letting me do in under an hour, a cycle that before would have taken a day. (And this is just the beginning of this suite... more tools and functionality to come! :)

I'd like to share this job-saving tool freely with you. Why? Because LightWave has the best, most supportive user-base of any 3D software package available, period!

The details,

TA Poseworks are a collection of LightWave LScripts that let you Cut/Copy/Paste keyframe data between Item Selections, with the option of INVERTING that Data over user-specified axes, or MIRRORING that data on a Left/Right symmetrical Rigging over the X=0 center-line.

Pose Copy -
Copies the selected Item(s') current Pose (all channels for all selected Items to preserve Pose integrity) data into a copy-buffer in your current LW Config Directory.

Pose Cut -
Stores the selected Item(s') current Pose (all channels for all selected Items to preserve Pose integrity) data into a copy-buffer in your current LW Config Directory, then deletes the current Key for the selected Item(s).

Pose Re-Select -
Attempts to re-select the Items in the copy-buffer, in order, based on the names of the Item(s) stored in the copy-buffer WRT the Item names of those currently in the Scene.

Pose Paste -
Pastes the data for all channels, for (all) selected Item(s), from the copy-buffer onto the current frame. Different Items may be selected for Pasting than those in the copy-buffer, but the same number of Items need to be selected, however you may paste a single Key to multiple Items. (If there is a mis-match between the number of Items selected and the number of Items stored in the copy-buffer, "Pose Paste" can attempt to re-select the Items in the copy-buffer, in order, based on Item name.)

Mirror-Paste -
Pastes the data for all channels, for (all) selected Item(s), from the copy-buffer onto the current frame, with the option of either INVERTING the data over user-specified axes, or MIRRORING the data over X=0 based on parsing user-definable PREFIXes for Left and Right. Mirror-Pasting is dependent upon name-parsing, and so will attempt to auto-select and act upon the mirror of Items referenced by Left/Right prefixes stored in the copy-buffer. Thus, having the same Item names (and their Left/Right mirrors) in the Scene as in the copy-buffer is vital, however, you may Inverse-paste a single Key to multiple Items. (If there is a mis-match between the number of Items selected and the number of Items stored in the copy-buffer, "Mirror-Paste" will attempt to re-select the Items in the copy-buffer, in order, based on Item Name.)

Undo Pose-Paste -
Will attempt to undo/redo the action of a Pose-/Mirror- Paste based on the names of the Items in the undo-buffer.

New to Version 1.0... Now uses Windows TEMP directory, to make it easier to copy/paste animations between Separately running Instances of LightWave using different Content Directories!

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Due to several factors, not the least of which being the dedication to getting the Kaze feature film, finally and fully off the ground in Grassroots (donation-based) fashion...

...This downloadable resource from LoupGuru.com is now available for a small, $5.00 donation to the Kaze Grassroots Feature Film Fund!

Thank you for your support of ultra-independent animation production!