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Create Motion Path CV, but in corner - not smooth

Kenneth_Greenblatt
Participant

Create Motion Path CV, but in corner - not smooth

Kenneth_Greenblatt
Participant
Participant

Hi. 

I routinely need to create motion paths for sets of bones. After creating the curves and hitting "Convert to", I need to change the curve from "smooth" to "corner". I have to do this a lot. Like, a lot. Of course, if I knew a lick of Python I could just script it, but I'm curious if there's any way around this?

 Is there some kind of option, preference, or menu detail that I can use to set the CV curve to spawn in on 'Corner' instead of 'Smooth'?

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thealightm
Community Visitor
Community Visitor

In Maya, when you create motion paths using curves, the default behavior is to create smooth curves. However, if you want to create motion paths with corner points instead of smooth curves, you can achieve this by changing the interpolation type of the curve. Here's how you can do it:

Create the Motion Path Curve: First, create the motion path curve as you normally would by animating the object along a path using the "Motion Path" tool.
Convert to Editable Curve: After creating the motion path, select the curve and go to Modify > Convert > Motion Paths > To Geometry. This will convert the motion path to an editable curve.
Change Interpolation Type: With the curve selected, open the Attribute Editor (Ctrl+A) or Channel Box/Layer Editor (Ctrl+Shift+A) and navigate to the curve's shape node attributes. Look for the "Interpolation" attribute under the "Curve Shape" section.
Set Interpolation to "Linear": By default, the interpolation type is set to "Smooth". Change it to "Linear" to create corner points instead of smooth curves. You can also select specific points on the curve and set their interpolation type individually if needed.
Adjust Handles: After changing the interpolation type to "Linear", you may need to adjust the handles of the curve to fine-tune the shape of the motion path.
By following these steps, you can create motion paths with corner points instead of smooth curves in Maya. This allows for more precise control over the motion path's shape and can be useful for certain animation tasks.

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wernienst
Collaborator
Collaborator

That's similar in 3ds max.

Another option: Right-click on the object. The Quad-Menu opens. Click on Curve Editor... opens the editor, with all motion keys already selected. Now click on Set Tangents to Linear.

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