Hi there,
,
Just to elaborate on a couple of things.
As ENSONIQ5 has said, making a pose in sequence mode and keying all bones is important, not just for the reasons givin, but also because if you dont, and just activate bones as you need them in scene mode, you'll find yourself having to be constantly scrolling up and down in the time track looking for bones that should be listed next to each other. ie: head bone x,y,z,, neck bone x,y,z, R shoulder x,y,z,, R forearm x,y,z, R wrist, xyz and so on.
It can also be really annoying when the y axis of a bone is listed at top of time track, yet the x and z of the same bone are way further down.
Making the 'all bones keyed pose', and placing into scene at the beginning, will put all your bones in a much tidier and more easily usable order in the time track.
(ENSONIQ5 uses a T pose, i use a 'Stand pose'. Same results)
After that though, its not necessary to key all bones in every subsequent sequence. I make a lot of sequences and key only the bones that are necessary. Ie; I make a walk cycle with legs only. Legs and feet are keyed, nothing else. His arms are still in default 'T' pose. NO KEYS. Then, i have a 'throw' sequence, and only the upper bones are keyed.
Now, i can add the 'walk legs only' sequence, and then the 'throw' sequence can be added into the same frames. So your character will now throw something while he's walking.
One place where this is really handy is when animating hands. By making 'pose sequences' of fingers in different positions, its then quick and easy to add 'a lot' of movement to your characters hands without needing to move the fingers manually every time. The 4 most basic would probably be 'R hand open, L hand open, R hand closed, L hand closed. (4 seperate sequences)
Just remember to key 'only the hand bones, and nothing else. (key selected bones).
Good luck guys.
