What is the best way to put together multiple animations in the same timeline?

[alo95.costa]

Hi, I would like to understand how to place multiple animations in the same timeline without having them replacing one another.

The idea is that, on the same timeline, I place the following animations of a keypad's keys being pressed in sequence to form a series of dates:

• 12/25/0000
• 10/26/1985
• 11/05/1955
• 10/21/2015
• 11/12/1955
• 09/02/1885
• 10/27/1985

Each animation is separated from the others while being all on the same timeline, but, once the model's been exported to FBX, I get a result like the one in the picture (each color represents an animation, while the red line represent the static model).

[mcw0]

Sorry I didn't understand the image.  But if your goal is to combine all the animations into one continuous animation, might I suggest the Trax Editor.  You can bring in each clip and arrange them on a timeline as you want.  If you don't want to use that method, then you will have to script the process.  Basically, make a dummy copy of your animated keys and import animation onto the dummy.  Copy and paste the keys from the dummy onto your original keys with an offset.  Once all animations have been imported, delete the dummy keys.  Hope that helps.  Good luck

[alo95.costa]

Hi, apologies for the strong delay in providing an answer to your message.

My goal isn't to combine all the animations into one continuous animation, as you suggested. The idea is to have a model that, when open in any 3D model viewer (like the proprietary software provided by Windows 10), has a list of separated animations that can be explored and chosen from a list.

For example, the model of a cube with the following list of animations:

• Floating
• Spinning
• Jumping
• Exploding

Each of them is independent from the other, and can be chosen to be visualized instead of another one. I'll try to provide you with a better example of what I have in mind by using a model I downloaded from a website.

[mcw0]

I think I understand what you want to do.  The only thing not clear is your "list".  How do you propose presenting the list of choices?  Are you familiar with how blendShapes work in Maya?  You can apply the same idea to your situation.  Blendshapes take any number of different shapes ( in your case, animations) and allows a blending (in your case, a selection) between them.  In your cube example, you would have your presented cube.  You could add the choices as an enum attribute.  Now reference in all of your various cube animations.  I recommend referencing so that you don't inadvertently alter anything in the referenced files.  Now use a choice node to connect attributes together.  How your cubes are animated will dictate how your connections are made.  For instance, if all you have are transform animations, such as translates , rotates, scales and shears, then you could get away with just one choice node.  Connect the matrices of each reference cube to the choice node and drive the selector with your enum attribute.  But you mentioned an "Exploding" option.  I'm assuming the cube breaks apart.  In which case, the choice node won't work.  Actually, nothing will work other than to control the visibility of the cubes.  This is because the number of points and faces would be different, so excluding blendShapes.  I hope that's clear.

Actually, now that I think about it, if you're animation choices are still applied to a cube (meaning each animation has it's own cube), then why not just control the visibility of each animated cube with condition nodes?  

[alo95.costa]

Truth be told, I'm only partially familiar with blendShapes in Maya. However I can still give it a shot and see how it goes. As for the rest of your message, I think I might have got what you suggested. I'll make a test with those techniques as well and see how well they work.

Below I provided a recorded MP4 showcase of animations tied to a 3D model I downloaded from the web. As shown in the video, the model is shown by default with the first animation (which is the one called "Animazione 1"), and, inside that model, there is a total of 13 animations, each one independent from the others, and shown only when selected from the list.

[mcw0 · Accepted solution]

I think your simplest solution is the visibility one.  I would create a window that lists the various choices in a textScrollList.  Create a procedure that controls the visibility of each referenced animation and only displays the one selected.  You might also want to reset the currentTime to the start frame.  That would be the most elegant solution.  How are your MEL scripting skills?

[alo95.costa]

Unfortunately, I haven't developed any MEL scripting skills. My only skills are limited to those MEL scripts my school provided during the Maya course. However, I think I can try and do some research about that topic and see what I can find. But I'll also give a try to the visibility solution you just recommended.