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81. Let's talk smartskin. Back in the day, if your cp and spline geometry did weird things when you moved bones in certain ways, you had to start adding little tiny bones and trying to constrain them to move only when needed, lots of teeny tweaking and stuff. Bleh. A common solution was fan bones, which act as an intermediary between 2 bones (the Lumbar bone on this rig is kind of a fan between Pelvis Up and Thoratic). Fan bones are a really powerful tool. A:M gives you another really powerful tool:Smartskin. Basically if you move the bone and the geometry goes all wonky, you can tell A:M how to better move the cp's. Here's an easy way to set up smartskin. Open a new action. Choose a bone and move it to as far as you think you'll ever move it in one direction. Go to the next frame, move it to another extreme. Keep going, 1 movement per frame per bone. You only need to deal with 1 side of the body. Now, (you'll probably have to unhide some bones) select the bone you believe is responsible for the problem. (Here it's the right femur when it's forward.) Right click and choose New Smartskin. You may not notice but you just got put into Muscle mode (the button looks like an arm flexing) you shouldn't see bones but should see Cp's. Drag the offending cp's where you think they should be. Go along the frames and fix all for that bone. If you screw up you can delete the smartskin on that frame by clicking on the delete key button (it looks like a key with a red X through it).	You need to make sure you are out of the leg smartskin before you move onto another one, I just close the action window and reopen it. If you want to add more smartskin you can right click on the bone and choose Smartskin1 (which is the one you've already done), or new smartskin. Once you've smartskinned a whole side in the modeling window you can RIGHT CLICK and choose "Mirror all Smartskin" (A:M will mirror smartskin from "whatever Right" to "whatever Left" which is why we named things Right and Left instead of R and L.) If the mirror didn't work try going to Tools- >Options->Modeling and adjusting the Mirror Mode tolerance. Hopefully you have a smartskinned character now, honestly I've only just started using smart skin myself so I may be missing a lot of it's power.
82. Go back to the User Properties under the model name's little triangle. RIGHT CLICK on the words "User Properties" and choose New Property->Folder. Go the new folder (rename it) and RIGHT CLICK make a new folder (this one will be inside the last one. Go to this new folder and RIGHT CLICK choose New Property->Percentage. RIGHT CLICK On the new percentage slider and choose New Relationship. We do it this way because it lets us make our pose slider view all neat by arranging things, otherwise we have one super long list we can't find anything we want in.
83. So we have this new percentage pose to build, let's build a facial pose. Generally I build facial poses on half the face at once, which allows me to have non symmetrical expressions (i.e. lopsided grin). So I hide a lot of the model, and lock it so only the part I plan on working with is available. Then just model away whatever expression your going for. Don't forget to model in multiple views, the key to good facial poses is to keep in mind that your trying to convey the impression of flesh and muscle sliding over a round skull. Also don't forget how tied everything is, moving the mouth affects the cheek affecting the eye shape. Make the pose extreme, it's nice to have the ability to go that far, even if you never use the pose at 100%.
84. Once it's built. Generally select all the cp's you moved, go to Edit->Copy Keyframe. Go to User Properties and put a New Percentage into this folder. Then put a New Relationship into that Percentage. You should be in a new pose window. Unlock any cp's if they're locked. Go to Edit ->Paste Mirrored. Hopefully you've just gotten the mirror of your last pose pasted in. If it didn't work try messing with the Mirror Mode Tolerance property under Tools- >Options->Modeling. If your model is really tiny that sometimes stops mirroring from working.
85. If you need to grow your model, in the model window choose as high up the hierarchy as you can. (For me that's the Core Null) hit S to scale it, the hold CTRL and scale, by holding CTRL the geometry should scale along with the bones. You may have to readjust bones afterward. Okay that's it, you're ready to animate.
	86. Now we animate. First some vocab. In computer animation a keyframe is anytime you tell the computer specifically where to position a bone at a certain frame. The computer then figures out where the bone will be in all the inbetween frames. A pose is the position that the whole body is in at any given frame, dynamic poses read better. An extreme (to me) is the pose at the most extreme part of a motion, also the pose that is essential to telling the emotional story. A breakdown is a pose inbetween extremes that forces the computer to move in an arc, like life, instead of a straight line like it wants. So the first step to animating is to get a pencil and paper and sketch out your extremes. If you can only draw stick figures that's fine. Exaggerate and play, it's easier to push things with a pencil then in the computer.
	87. So I am animating a martial art's cycle (from Capoeira) called "Armada, Armada". Unfortunately our little character (let's call them Sam) is a little dumpy to be doing this, but the ideas are important here, not the final piece, so I've pinched Sam's waist in to make the turns look better. So I open a new action (double click the Actions folder in the PWS). Sam starts in regular T pose, first things first, make Sam more comfortable. Then hit the "Make Keyframe" button (looks like a key). Then I advance one frame and put Sam in an approximation of my first drawing. Hit "Make Key Frame", move onto the next frame, etc. At the end I have made keyframes on the first 9 frames of my action. The last frame is a copy paste of the first because I want this action to loop. All we have done here is concentrate on strong poses, haven't even worried about timing yet. Animate from multiple views, the only one that matters is the camera's but we don't know where that is yet, so best to make the character work from every angle.
	88. If you look at the toe I didn't move it until Frame 3, now if you look back at frames 2,1, and 0 you see the toe drifting upward getting ready to be bent on 3. Hitting the "Make Key Frame" button is supposed to stop this. This happens because the computer didn't record anything for the toe for frames 1 and 2, so when there was something in 3 it figured out the inbetween placement from the last time the toe was placed (in this case the default 0 frame.) This is why sometimes things drift around, if you want a bone to hold still for a long time you need to tell make a frame telling the computer "starting on this frame start figuring out movement again."
	89. Timing: now I grab the red dots in the timeline next to the Bones folder (make the bones folder closed, not expanded) and spread them out to approximate what I think the timing will be. (You can combine this step and the pose building step.) Right now everything happens at once, there is no overlap. We're just concerned with getting it to be close to the correct speed in different parts. When dealing with time I tend to think in parts of a second (as in 8 frames is a third of a second, 6 frames is a 4th of a second, (the amounts of frames of course depends on your FPS (frames per second))). I render out a shaded mode version to be able to watch it. If you click on the bones folder and then hit the channels button, you can select everything and set it to linear or hold interpolation method. This often helps to better evaluate the timing.
	90.The timings good enough so now it's time for breakdowns. When building my extremes and breakdowns I use the "Make Keyframe" button so there will be a key on every bone, this way I can shift the poses around on the timeline easily. Breakdowns I usually put in between the two extremes, push the pose to make the limbs arc, then slide the pose closer to one of the extremes making a fast into that extreme and a slow from the other extreme. Sometimes there needs to be a new breakdown between the one I just made and the further extreme.
	91.Time to get messy. (Actually I would have started to get messy last step, but I'm trying to keep things clear so you can follow.) So far there is no overlap in this animation, each pose is contained in a single frame to make it easy to move. Since I'm fairly happy with the overall timing, it's time to work on the individual timing for different body parts. So first I open the bones folder and just start sliding the keys for the bones around trying to start some overlap and follow through. One of the ideas to remember when animating is to "animate down the hierarchy" which means that you animate the parent bone before the child so that when you animate the child, it has already inherited some motion from the parent. So thinking of that rule backwards, you can guesstimate offsetting the upper body from the core, offset the upper arms and neck from the upper body, and offset the head and lower arms from the neck and upper arms. Also while I'm shifting things around I also think about preventing twins in timing.
	92. Here I just scrub through the animation and go in and fix the arcs and follow through of everything. This is the cleaning up part of the randomly offsetting part. Since I have forced key frame on every bone there are often bones that have a keyframe that don't need one. (i.e. the 2nd half of the movement during the duck, the feet don't move, but they have keyframes all the same) I try and delete these extra keys just to make things simpler to look at. One way you can spot extra frames is by clicking on the bone name and then opening the channels mode. Look at the shape of the lines, if there are keys in the middle of a slope that aren't actually defining that slope, you can try and delete them, it may make the motion smoother. Also now is when I put in finger motion, there are so many little bones in fingers that I just go for gross hand movements until now. You may find that you wind up with keyframes on every frame, that's okay, if you think about it, hand drawn animator's have keyframes on everyframe (if they are on ones at least), anyway whatever it takes to make the animation look good, and not letting the computer make it look dull.
	93. The last step. I quick shaded render, set it to loop, then walk to the end of my room and watch it. I make notes on everything I see that needs fixing. Once I've written down everything then I come back and go through and fix everything. I find this is faster than fiddling with the first problem I see, re-rendering, fiddling some more, rendering some more, etc. Don't be afraid to delete a whole chunk of animation. There's another animation expression "you can't polish a turd into a gold nugget" so don't waste time on fundamentally flawed foundations. And that's animating in a nutshell, everything on top of this is practice and more polishing/tweaking time.
	94.Double Click on the Choreography Folder. Drag the model name from the PWS onto the new choreography screen, twice. Using multiple views scale and reposition the characters so they are facing each other. Drag and drop the action on to each of them.
	95. On the first model, under it's name in the Choreography (in the PWS) I opened the shortcut to the action and changed the repeat to 5. On the 2nd model, I determined at what point the action needs to begin to match up with the first models. Then under Model2 in the chor I opened the action, and set the crop range to start at 20, then I changed the Chor range to start at 0 and end at 22 or else the action would spread out the first 22 frames across the original 42 alotted. Now I drag the action from the action folder onto the 2nd model again, then in the choreography folder I grab the red bar in the timeline that represents this second copy of the action, and position it so it starts right after the first copy ends (actually A:M has already done this for me.) I set this second copy to also repeat 5 times. I scrub through to make sure it's working. (I scrub by dragging in the timeline instead of using the scrub bar, because A:M remembers you using the scrub bar and counts back across it when you try and use the Undo command.)
96.Now for some window dressing. First I click the leftist icon next to the model's name (show more than drivers) removing the red X and letting me see the groups. Then I click the A that's a button on one of the menu bars (A for "Animate" mode.) When it's depressed A:M will record any changes you make, when it's not depressed A:M will make any changes you make effective as of the last key (often the default key at 0). This makes it handy to reposition characters, or move lights, or change colors without the lights swinging all around during the action and the colors blooming differently. Remember to turn it back on though. Anyway I open the group folder under one model and change their color so that they aren't dressed the same.
97. When you open a new chor A:M throws a ground, lights, and a camera in. (Somehow there's a way to change these defaults if you want.) Anyway, let's make that all white background that people like. Go up to the models folder, open up the camera's properties and change the background to white. Open up the Ground's properties, under surface change the "Diffuse Falloff" to 0%. (Watch out you don't accidentally animate the camera changing color, make sure your A button is set correctly.
98. Open the KeyLight's properties. Change intensity to 100%. Open the Keylights "Options" triangle. Change "Cast Shadows" to on. Delete the Rim light.
99. Okay, let's position the lights in the chor. If you have trouble picking them you can select their name in the PWS and then move them. Numpad 1 jumps to camera view, Numpad 3 jumps to light view, but that's never helped me much. Q is the hotkey for quick render, if you hit Q and click drag with the RIGHT mouse button, A:M will just render within your selection, a handy way to test quickly. Position your Keylight to throw good light and put decent shadows down, then position your fill light to help light up the other side so that the shadows on the figures don't blend into the shadows on the ground. Use as few lights as you can to get the effect you need, the more lights you have the longer it takes to render. One trick to help laying lights is to make them all inactive (a choice under their names in the chor) and set each one up individually, then turn them all on.
100. Click on the render to file button (little blue square with an arrow to a disk.) Filename is what it will be called and where it will wind up. Resolution is how big. Range is what frames you want rendered. Under "Options" you probably want "Quality" to be "Final". Click okay and your done. If you are rendering something really long it's smart to render to Targa's because if the computer crashes then you don't have to re render the whole thing. But of course then you need a way to link up all the tga's. Congratulations. Now go make some movies. And save often.

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