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Timeline animation locks assets?

Discussion in 'Timeline' started by dukerustfield, Jun 5, 2020.

  1. dukerustfield

    dukerustfield

    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2019
    Posts:
    33
    I have objects animated from various timeline tracks. The animation has different roots.

    [ONE CHARACTER]
    Character->Track
    Character->Head->Track
    Character->Head->Eyes->Track
    Character->Head->Blendshapes->Track

    They aren't overrides because they have different roots. But I found if I have anything in Head Track, the Blendshapes Track doesn't register. Even if nothing is going on in Head and the animation there post-extrapolates to None (or anything).

    I can't simply move the animation because it's recorded with different roots. So an override won't work because the eye track assumes it is animating the root of character->head->eyes. Likewise for the others.

    Am I missing something here? Even though different game object roots [Character->Head, Character->Head->Blendshapes] are on Tracks, they seem to lock out each other. Is there any way I can free up a track once it is done? I can't use an avatar mask because sometimes they will animate the same things. I can understand there being a conflict if it was the same time, but does a track lock everything and it's children as long as it exists?

    Thanks.
     
    dukerustfield, Jun 5, 2020
    #1

  2. gekidoslayer

    gekidoslayer

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2016
    Posts:
    134
    I think what you're looking for is 'additive animations' - which have a special trick to getting them to work:

    https://forum.unity.com/threads/additive-animations-not-working.419382/

    The TDLR is that you have to select the animation asset and on the 'animation' tab specify the 'additive reference pose' for the animations. Once you've done this then the animations 'should' layer properly I think?
     
    gekidoslayer, Jun 5, 2020
    #2

  3. gekidoslayer

    gekidoslayer

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2016
    Posts:
    134
    I'm doing something similar in a personal project, I have face blend shape poses layered on top of base animations, you can see a video here:

    https://twitter.com/gekido/status/1263678258605744129

    Took me a bit to figure out how to get the additive face poses to play nice with the rest of the animation system - it's that magic checkbox in the actual animation that is the key
     
    gekidoslayer, Jun 5, 2020
    #3

  4. dukerustfield

    dukerustfield

    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2019
    Posts:
    33
    The timeline locks them.

    https://forum.unity.com/threads/additive-tracks-in-the-timeline.472964/

    The reference pose might work in Animator but this is Timeline I'm talking about. Which is what I'm using to animate. This is a big problem with motion capture. We got input sources from all over and timeline can't handle it. If an animation track is touching the blendshapes, for instance, no other track can modify them. It just ignores it.
     
    dukerustfield, Jun 6, 2020
    #4