The Master Controller | Animation Tip with Brent George

Recently, a community member asked about when and when not to animate the master control (sometimes called the "coin" in game animation). To answer this question, Brent George (co-founder of Agora.Community) shares this tip about how to decide when you should (or shouldn't) animate the master control!
This tip comes from Brent's "Anatomy Of An Action" series, which you can watch here 👇
• 🏃‍♂️🎞️ "Anatomy of An ...
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[@ashfaqali201]

Helped a lot ❤😊

[@czeqer]

noice, simple & straightforward

[@F10F11hm]

Great tips!

[@EmmanuelYawson-lg7rr]

❤❤❤

[@animShenanigans]

I use the global control to block action shots fast and then run a script to take the animation off the global and put it on the IK goals. It makes it easier to make broad changes fast when a character is covering a lot of space and keeps the rig controls together. Not a workflow for those new to Maya though.

[@AgoraCommunity]

That's a great tip! Thanks for sharing :)

[@BrentGe0rge]

Amazing idea! What script are you using? Animbot by chance?

[@VincentBurmeister]

How would you approach a long shot, where threre is i.e. a walk cycle in the beginning, then a jump then some running, then some acting etc. or in different words treadmill animations mixed with those where the master controller is stationary?

[@BrentGe0rge]

A shot like that is pretty complex and would require a decent amount of planning. It's important to consider cameras as well. Often we can cheat by swapping out the recipe for how we move a character around by using the camera cut as smoke screen to cheat a bit. If it has to be all one continuous camera, I would consider just animating it all in the world (a lot of work) or I would have to process out the bits and pieces i need and then stitch them together using Maya's Trax editor or something similar. The devil is in the details and a custom plan would need to be created for the specific choreography needed for the shot. This is not an easy thing to get into on a RUclips comment reply lol. That said, this is an excellent question that maybe I can dig into with more detail in a future video!

[@VincentBurmeister]

@@BrentGe0rge thank you a lot for the answer. I had a few of those shots when I started animating and knew almost nothing. Needless to say they were an absolute nightmare to do.. I was just wondering all the time if there was an "easy" or at least standard way of doing it. But apperently no. It is simply difficult. Thanks again for taking the time to answer. I loved the anatomy of an action series.

[@ukmonk]

Great video thank you! If I animate a character doing a back flip for eg, then after my animation is finished, could I then keyframe the coin to make my flip higher please? Or is this a no no?

[@BrentGe0rge]

I'm not sure I fully understand the example scenario. If you're talking about modifying an existing animation of a backflip that you would like to have more height to the flip, then I would suggest you use animation layers to solve that problem instead of animating the Master Controller. These things are very nuanced and your approach will be influenced by the many specific needs of that scene/animation clip. Basically, other than animating the master controller to make animated "on the spot" locomotion cycles look like they are actually moving in the scene, I tend to avoid animating the Master Controller at all costs :) But there are other use cases for sure!

[@ukmonk]

@@BrentGe0rge thank you for replying. So tbh unless for making your character move (walk cycle) probably best leaving the master controller alone?

[@DestusG]

❤❤❤