Actual Breadown keys

[DrDardis]

Hi Guys,

first of all, great plugin, we have just bought it at work, and I really like it.

The one issue I have though is that the breakdowns set by hitting the "breakdown" button are ordinary keys, as opposed to the Maya breakdown key type (the kind that keep its relative timing between the nearest keys on either side).

It would be great if you could add a check box to enable the breakdown button to set a true breakdown key. I really like to use them when animating, they can be really useful.

Thanks

Chris Dardis, Torus.

[Dimos]

Hey Chris,

Thanks for the feedback.  I understand your concern about the Maya Breakdown functionality but we purposely avoided the MAYA breakdown because of the "relative" timing thing.  I do not believe that MAYA should alter timing of the breakdowns relative to the Keys around it and that the animator should have full control of the timing.  The tool was initially design to suit my work flow which is based on a very strict traditional methodology.  We want to put the control back into the animator's hands.  Timing should be handled on a key by key basis (including breakdowns).  In essence a breakdown is a KEY and should be treated as such.  The colour tick is just for the animator's reference and only meant to keep things organized in the timeslider.  That being all said, the relative timing or MAYA breakdown option sounds like a nice idea though and we will definitely look into implementing that.

Thanks again for your help and PLEASE keep them coming. We want to make sure our tools work for everyone as best as possible.

-Dimos

[DrDardis]

Thanks Dimos,

I generally agree about Maya's breakdowns, especially for my own acting shots. However, I find it useful sometime for the games work we do (cycles and such), as it allows us to make a quick 1 sec adjustment to general timing, then re-export and test etc. So the idea of just enabling it in certain circumstances would be useful from our point of view.

Really loving the tool though, keeps things nice and organized!

Chris

[Dimos]

...I find it useful sometime for the games work we do (cycles and such), as it allows us to make a quick 1 sec adjustment to general timing, then re-export and test etc. So the idea of just enabling it in certain circumstances would be useful...

Point well taken.  I'll see what we can do.  This is great feedback by the way.

Thanks.

[thedaemon]

I actually don't use TradigiTOOLS' breakdowns because it doesn't make them relative like Maya. To me, it seems like in CG to have the power to not worry about your breakdowns staying between two key poses saves hassle of accidentally overlapping keys. Having the power now, to set a relative slider (like TradigiTOOLS has for keys) for relative movement on the time slider would be great. I don't use Maya's breakdowns because I find them too cumbersome and lacking the feature I just stated. If TradigiTOOLS could allow for an option to do this it would be great. Maybe a 2.0 feature? Just a thought. Happy animating.