8

Load Animation 479
9.
To map a pair of tr acks manually, click a track
in the Current list and another in the Incoming
list, and then click the left-arrow (<-) button to
the left of the Incoming list.
This places the name of the incoming track in
the Mapped list, opposite the Current-list track
to which it is assig ned.
10. To remove a mapping assignment, click its
entry in the Mapped list, and then click the ->
button.
11. Continue setting up the mapping assig nments
as needed. When you’re finished, click Save
Mapping or Save Mapping As, and then specify
afilenametosave.
After you save the mapping file, the Load
Motion button becomes available, and you can
proceed with loading the animation.
12. Click Load M otion.
The animation data is loaded and assigned to
the selected objects, and any animation keys
appear on the track bar.
To retarget an incoming animation:
This is a cont inuation of the previous procedure,
and explains the basic workflow of node
retargeting.
Retargeting means to scale the
animation so it matches the objects onto which
you are mapping the motion. You can use this
feature any time you need to transfer an animation
between two objects or rigs of different s izes and
proportions. For example, an animation of a cat
stretching could be retargeted to a bigger dog
model, resulting in a scaled animation to fit the
dog’s skeleton.
Once your track-mapping assignments are
complete, the Retargetable Nodes list on the
Retargeting rollout displays the mappings available
for retargeting.
For steps that describe retargeting a character rig,
see
To retarget one character onto another (page
3–487)
.
1. First, in the Scale Orig in group, choose the
Incoming and Current objects to use as the
origin and basis for sc aling.
Forexample,whenretargetingarig,youwould
use each rig’s root object.
2. Next, in the Derive Scale B etween Chains
group, chose comparable IK or FK chains from
the Incoming and Current models to obtain a
Scale Factor that proportionally retargets the
incoming animation onto the current model.
3. Click Set to apply the retargeting.
4. If different portions of the model are differently
proportioned, you might need to repeat steps
2 and 3 for different selections of mapped
tracks. You mi ght a lso need to use the FK
Retargeting Extent group to account for the
different propor t ions. See
Retargeting Rollout
(page 3–486)
for more details.
5. When you’re finished, save your mapping to
preser ve the retargeted data, and then click
Load Motion to apply the animation to the
cur rently selected objects.
Retargeting is e ssentially a “by hand” process.
You mi g ht need to try different settings to
get the result you need. You can remove
retargeting by highlig hting a mapped tr ack in
the Retargetable Nodes list, and then clicking
Clear.
6. Close the Map Animation dialog.
Load Animation
Select one or more objects. > File menu > Load Animation
Load Animation lets you load animation from an
XAF (XML Animation File) file to objects in your
scene. Part of the animation-loading process is