keyframing techniques

[super gnu]

i want to improve my keyframing skills. in this particular project i want to impart a heavy, mechanical motion to the camera, with a "clunk" as it reaches its resting position, and an appreciable feeling of mass in its movement.

ive tried and i cant quite crack it.. the motion is either not subtle enough, or isnt noticeable. im not even sure how to get the "clunk" sensation without actually dropping the camera slightly at the end, but this looks odd.. ive tried small amounts of rebound but deciding on timing and number of bounces is tricky, especially as i rapidly end up wanting to do things shorter than a frame. ive got to the point here im even considering using massfx to animate some geometry then link the camera to that.. but just imagining all the heavy balls and ramps ill need seems a bit silly.


anyone reccommend any good resources out there for general keyframing techniques for different situations? i want to be able to get more subtlety and personality into my animation.

[joconnell]

Might be worth looking into some camera tracking and make yourself some stock moves that you can import into your max scenes. Even if you use your smartphone but stick it on to something really heavy, it'll have the natural swing and overshoot of a properly weighted camera rig.

[steveblake]

You could maybe look at some actual Motion Control / Camera rigs and create one in 3dsmax. I agree with joconnell for extra 'life' you could layer in some mocap noise and / or take that as a reference point.

It's a shame that something like Cameraman isn't available for 3dsmax: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/came...429086818?mt=8

Quick Tangents: http://www.bradnoble.net/scripts/index.html helps with keyframing, also useful to make a previz / blocky version of your scene for super smooth viewport playback. I remember a guy I worked with would carefully break all his key tangents and pull out and shape the anchors for each keyframe he added.

End of the day nothing beats real-world sampling!