2009

Table Of Contents
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.
Use the Trax editor to position, re-arrange, cycle, and scale clips in order
to create and modify animation sequences in the scene.
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 doesnt provide the expected results. In addition,
a clip containing motion that is intended to be appended to another clips
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.
Use the Trax Editor to work with motion capture data.
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.
Redirect the motion for a character using the Redirect tool.
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.
Trim clips in the Trax Editor.
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.
Blending clips
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
260 | Chapter 6 Animation