The "Cyclemaker" window is composed of 2 complementary commands called "Cycle Step" and "Cycle Side", features dedicated to cycled animations such as walks or runs.
By working with both ones, the 1st command allowing to generate the 2nd half-step, then the 2nd command allowing to rework a side on the complete cycle and past it on the other side, you can produce fast & well a lot of animation cycles!
Cyclemaker and general mirroring requirements
It is important to remind that our mirroring features (including the cyclemaker features) works if:
- The skeleton is correctly named/labelled (about it we suggest to consult the Mirror Skin & Joints parts of the Skin Atelier page)
- The Bind Pose/Ref Pose of the skeleton was was obtained via our rig mirroring process
It means that if you bring your skeleton from another 3D package, it may be possible that you encounter some issues due to different axis orientation. In order to fix them, please delete a side of the skeleton and let Akeytsu mirror it.
IK/RF mirror reminder
Whatever you select (target, joint chain - both target and joint chain (full or part of it)- you will always mirror the full chain according to the spine and the target will return to its leaf position.
Stacker Loop mode required
Cycle Step: Generate the second half step keyframes based on the first half step ones. Meaning it duplicates all your keyframes, mirror them and put them at the end of your animation.
Controller selection does not matter for the "Generate 2nd Step" command
Cycle Side: Mirror the selected controllers to the other side, time shifted from one half step. This is generally useful when you want to replicate the changes you made on one side of your cycle onto the other side.