Combining Multiple Animations into One File in Maya - Seeking Help

[nadir_mimouni_9]

Hey everyone,

I'm currently working on a project that involves multiple animations, and I need your expertise on combining them into one single file. I have four different scenes, each with a separate animation: jump, idle cycle, walking cycle, and running cycle.

Is there a straightforward way in Maya to merge these animations into a single file? I'd appreciate any tips, tricks, or guidance you can share to streamline this process.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[mcw0]

Not sure if I understand, but you can simply import each cycle animation file into a common scene file.  But I'm guessing this isn't what you want?  Can you be a bit more specific if that's not what you want?  Are you trying to get all 4 animations onto a single asset as opposed to 4 versions of the same asset?

[nadir_mimouni_9]

Hi, thank you for the reply! 
So basically I want to have the 4 animations into one single asset or mesh, and export it to Sketchfab where the viewer can cycle between each animation in one file.
Currently, each animation is in a different scene (file) but used the same mesh.

[mcw0 · Accepted solution]

In that case, I would start with your first animation open.  Then reference in the second animation file.  Select the root of the referenced rig and copy the animation.  Make sure to set hierarchy to below so you copy all the animation in the rig.  Now, select your original rig and note where the last frame of its animation is.  Give yourself some buffer frames between animations.  So if your first animation ends at frame 100, when you paste your second animation to the first rig, set the start frame at 150.  This way, the first animation will play.  And then when it ends, 50 frames later, the second animation will start.  Do this again for the next animation scene.

There's a caveat to this approach.  If not all of your animatable channels are keyed, then you will have issues.  Animated channels will override unkeyed channels in the other animations.  My mind is trying to debug an issue of my own, I hope that made sense.

Forgot to mention that once you've pasted the animation, you can either remove your reference or swap it for the next animation file.