merging two takes together?

[Anonymous]

I know there must be a way to do this, I suspect using the track and story editor, but I definitely need any assistance I can get. What I'm trying to do is merge two separate takes into one move. I have one character toasting and clinking glasses with another character but both were captured separately. Can I merge the two separate takes into one so both characters can be edited together? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

[Anonymous]

I believe I can help you with this one. You're going to be using Story Mode.

Go into Story Mode. Right-click in the Action Timeline (bottom section of the screen) and select Insert->Character Animation Track. A track should appear in the Action Timeline named Character Track. Insert the character you want to use in the "Character" drop down menu (assuming you have your character characterized already). Select your first take and Right-click inside the Character Track and select Insert Current Take. If done properly a clip should now be in your Character Track. Now repeat for your second take. Select your second take and Right-click inside the Character Track and select Insert Current Take. You should now have two individual clips in your Character Track that you can now align, merge and edit at your whim.

Note: Make sure that the "Story" button in the top left hand corner of Story Mode is turned on, otherwise it will be inactive and those clips will not work. I would also suggest making a new take when you start editing your clips.

Hope that helps!

[Anonymous]

Hi mlager8,

TheMattimator’s advice to use Story for this is right- it is easiest way.

As you have two character’s animated in separate takes you will need to create two separate Story Character Tracks:-

1. In Story, Right-Click and choose Insert Character Animation track.
2. Set Take in scene to take you used to animate Character 1.
3. In Story Character track1 drop-down select Character 1 and then right-click in the Story track and choose insert Current Take.
4. In Story, Right-Click and choose Insert Character Animation track. This will be for Character 2.
5. Set Take in scene to take you used to animate Character 2.
6. In Story Character track2 drop-down select Character 2 and then right-click in the Story track and choose insert Current Take.

If you want to further edit the animation for the characters you can either:-

1. Enable ‘A’ accept keys mode for the Story Tracks and key directly on the character. While in Story you can also scale/loop the clips etc.

-or-

2. Create new Take in scene and from Story, Right-Click and Plot Whole Scene to Current Take. Once the Story tracks are plotted to scene, you can edit the animation directly in Take- for this you should disable Story as the edits in Story clips overwrite any edits in Take.

Best Regards,

Lee

[BradClarkRiggingDojo]

This question gets asked a lot,

the short answer is..

Copy/Paste on to (ctrl c, ctrl b) based on were your playback head is it will paste the animation you can just copy from each take and paste.

You can do this on just the skeleton or the control rig, just
make sure you select the entire hiearchy.


This is ripe for a python script.

Brad

[Anonymous]

There is also a simpler way to do this instead of using story mode and inserting takes and plotting and all that jazz, depending on the situation. Assuming you have two separate characters in two separate scenes and when you merge one scene into the other scene it keeps the characters motions on separate tracks. You can simply open character_A scene normally, then Merge in Character_B scene by dragging and dropping from the Asset browser and selecting only the desired take instead of "merge all takes". This will not place the animation on a new take but place it in the take you are currently in. However odds are you will use story mode anyway to get the timing right for the characters, but it is good to know that this option is available anyhow for cameras and things that may not need to be re timed.

[Anonymous]

I would like to thank everyone for their help, this problem was something that just eluded me and has made things a great deal easier. This being one of the only motion builder boards out their has saved me more than once, thanks again

[1084670144]

motionbuilder story take层 里面没有滚动了 就是滑上下 方便看名字 看不到最上面就没有滚动，怎么看最上面和最下面。 用过2018有滚动，2025为什么要取消滚动吗？ 有什么好解决吗？急求解~

[agnisen07]

Yeah as mentioned, there are a few ways of achieving this. Most of them are fairly quick and simple.

1. The simplest first assuming you have the two takes in the same scene file. That means, you will be having 2 separate control rigs. Simply copy the keys from any one of the takes and paste them onto the same control rig (obviously!) in the take which you want as merged.
   • Take care of the layers and the timeline frame ranges.
   • Better to do a Full Body plot before copy/pasting.
2. If you have two separate scene files and the control rig namespaces are different, you should be able to do File > Merge any one of the files into another file that is open.
   • It will ask which elements you would like to merge and it is usually okay to keep things at default, or you can surely go into the details as per your requirements and preference.
3. Two different takes in the same scene file. Create two separate Story tracks for each character and and match the timings of each track. Then simply plot the tracks onto the respective control rigs.
   • Make sure to take a new take (ahh, the pun) so that you will have the original individual take as well as a process step.

Agni