Can i use Keyboard to move objects for animation like some shortcuts for ease

[Anonymous]

I recently Installed MAYA,

as a beginner, i want to ask if there are any options to move my rigged object or give animations to my object with the help of keyboard or mouse movements for easily animation.

like we do in video games we move our characters with keyboard and mouse.

e.g:- W for forward ,S for backward Z for roll etc etc.

If there is any option then please tell me how to do that. 

Thanks in Advance.

[Roland.Reyer]

You could attach MEL commands to keys:

For example the command

    move -r 0.1 0 0;

will nudge the selected object by 0.1 in X.

[stephenkmann]

   alt + arrow keys with NUDGE objects when you have translate. 

but you sound like you are looking for an automatic walking character.. 

 that it not so easy   *( read as, start googling a lot of things) 

 you can however animate the camera as if in WASD move ( standard game character movements) 

 ctrl + x will put your camera into Game control mode ,. and you can use W A S D to walk fwd, back, left, right 

 the mouse will turn you 

hth

-=s

[kirbysteele]

Hey harpreet,

If I'm understanding your question correctly, then you are looking for a way to generate new animations using some already generated animations. The example you give of attaching movement to a keyboard input in gaming is combining a lot of separate features, one of which is animation. In order for animation to happen in Maya time has to change, and once the timeline is changing (or you are in playback mode) pressing a key or interacting with the program will just cause Maya to pause while you make an adjustment then continue playback. Because of the nature of when you can provide input into the program and when you can view animation, I don't think that you could make a character achieve locomotion based on a hotkey. Unfortunately there is no such thing as easy animation in Maya.

Other workflows that can speed up animation generation is copying and pasting keyframes between rigs (if they are similar enough). Doing this could make creating a new walk faster since you have a base to work off of. Also using animation layers could make creating a leaning walk cycle from a normal walk cycle fast and also blend well when exported to a game engine.  

Hope this helps.