How'd I do? Do you feel like you understand this weird topic a bit better now? I sure hope so. I also hope you check out the Maya for Animators Workshop! ;)
I didn't know it was that. What I misunderstood it for was making a character do this as seen in the video then resetting the arm's bend would make your character's arm twist in an impossible angle. ua-cam.com/video/UybDCB18izI/v-deo.html
Good stuff, one thing is you might want to hold off an intro a couple more seconds because youtube tends to have a bit of a lag before starting a video, it's not just me I promise it's a universal thing 🙂 no information lost it just gives a second for us to focus on your content
As a fresh grad animator and aspiring rigger, this actually explain SO much of why we do things in a certain during the rigging side of things. Goes to show how helpful a good rig is since its literally supposed to be a catalyst for the animator's creative abilities
Was a coder in late 90s and worked on a game engine. This problem came up pretty early. We ended up using matrices that could be interpreted as quaternions or spherical coordinates depending on how we worked the math. Let us side-step a lot of common problems.
The game industry pretty much exclusively uses quaternions, since so much of what's animated in games is systems-driven instead of hand crafted. But what is hand crafted is - by virtue of using Maya and 3DSMax - almost always done with gimbal coordinates. In fact, Maya itself uses quaternions as an under the hood calculation for rotation under certain conditions, and therefore allows you to use quaternions as your rotation method if you want that headache (it is not a fun way to animate lol)
This is the exact issue I’ve been facing working on my semester film and apparently has been plaguing me my whole time in Maya! Thanks for this, excellent video!
Man can I just thank you for your videos I went to Art School to study animation and I feel like your videos have filled in so many of the gaps of so many things I have struggled with. Still struggling a bit with the Graph editor and getting things to have the exact timing and spacing I want, but thank you.
I faced this problem many times in my career, and normally I'd plan ahead for any rotations that would lead to gimbal lock, and either go back and manually switch the axis on the handle(sometimes parenting it to a locator with flipped axes), or animate frame by frame to brute force the rotation, which wasn't fun. So thank you for this explanation. It will save me a lot of headaches from now on. I wish I knew about it sooner!
This was so helpful! I'm taking animation classes right now and this topic was quickly brushed over and I never understood it properly. This explanation made way more sense!
It's so frustrating. Why even add the ability to manipulate the trackball in the center of the Rotate tool if it causes problems down the road? Coming from Blender, the trackball option is THE best way to manipulate the character rig, it's as intuitive as manipulating a stop-motion puppet, so I really don't want to accept the notion that using the trackball manipulator is the wrong way to animate in Maya. I'm not angry at Sir here, he's doing a great job in showing us how to fix it... I just think it's like showing a stunt driver a Lamborghini and then making them drive a Fiat. Ugh. I've also animated in PrEmo before and don't remember this being an issue, but I could definitely be wrong - does DW fix this issue with quaternions?
Yeah DreamWorks had some kind of smart orb with a 4th axis of motion that acted as a mathematical scapegoat, canceling out the gimbal rotation so that you can trackball without fear of gimbal issues. I’m not sure if it was quaternion based or what, but it was 100% some kind of sorcery!
HOW is this the first time i've ever heard of this? I've dealt with this issue so many times before, especially viewing in the graph editor where I have to select a different rotation than what visually makes sense. Thankyou so much for this information, it's a serious game changer! Where did you first learn this?
Having those constraints tied to the W E R keys with the LMB is another great Maya command. Now if we can only have someone like you for the other aers of Maya like Modeling, FX etc ...
This is without a doubt the best explanation and showcase of the Gimbal Lock I've ever seen! Thanks a lot for the always amazing content 😄 Your videos always help a lot
Thank you so much! I have had the trouble of knowing enough about it to be careful and frustrated, not well enough to problem solve. I'm sharing this one everywhere!
Honestly the Simplist fix would be to have the ability to tell the graph editor to work in object local mode. The user shouldn't have to deal with something so stupid but can cause loss of hours of work if it gets bad enough
Wow I had this issue for a commercial a few years ago and I had to let every frame like you said and it ended up making the project not profitable. Wildly informative, thank you
What hotkey or combination are you pressing to change from world to object orientation as well as gimbal rotation confined to the axes? Edit: W + left click or E + left click @ 6:08, guess I needed to watch a bit further!
i am a beginner student in 3D animation and i find your videos really helpful , i have one request if u have made any detailed video on posing or facial expression plz suggest or make it on my request so that i will get clear about it or if u have made any videos on rig controllers plz suggest bcoz as a beginner its difficult to move controllers and making a perfect pose
Im currently going to school for Graphic Design with emphasis in animation but won't start learning even the beginner parts of animation until my junior year. I been doing a lot of research about AM and it seems like the best bang for your buck. Do you recommend doing a strictly animation school rather than getting an degree with an emphasis in animation?
If you want to be an animator, yes. The best thing is good education and lots of experience. Waiting 2/3 years before starting animation is likely not a great investment if that’s your goal
would you make a video about understanding quaternions from the perspective of an animator? like how I can edit quaternion-based curves in the graph editor
wow, ok well this probably explains the problems i was having when trying to add adjustments to a motion capture project and went wrong😅 definitely keeping this in mind when starting AM in June, thanks for your amazing wisdom!. Oh, and Out of curiosity when it comes to the animbot, is it best not to rely on using it to fix a gimbo, for like the day you work for a studio? As such, I take it studios have rules regarding maya plugins or they use their own plugins or something.
Why is it that this doesn't happen with 3dsMAX? I've been animating on MAX for some years now (because of the client I work with) and I can't remember a time this gimbal Issue has been a problem for me. I must say Almost every rig I work with are rigged with CAT
It's for all skill levels :) I start from the beginning so yes, beginners can get the full experience even as it gets more advanced. It also has full recordings in case you get lost you can always revisit the materials
Blender has the exact same thing happening under the hood - at the top of Blender's viewport, World Space = Global, Object Space = Local, and Gimbal Mode is there too. This is how all 3D software rotation works, unless it's using a different type of math to calculate things without animation curves
@Sir Wade Neistadt Blender uses quaternion rotation by default to solve the gimbal lock problem. It means you have to deal with the mystical W axis in the graph editor, but it does ease the pain of gimbal lock issues.
i am a beginner student in 3D animation and i find your videos really helpful , i have one request if u have made any detailed video on posing or facial expression plz suggest or make it on my request so that i will get clear about it or if u have made any videos on rig controllers plz suggest bcoz as a beginner its difficult to move controllers and making a perfect pose
How'd I do? Do you feel like you understand this weird topic a bit better now? I sure hope so. I also hope you check out the Maya for Animators Workshop! ;)
I didn't know it was that. What I misunderstood it for was making a character do this as seen in the video then resetting the arm's bend would make your character's arm twist in an impossible angle. ua-cam.com/video/UybDCB18izI/v-deo.html
Good stuff, one thing is you might want to hold off an intro a couple more seconds because youtube tends to have a bit of a lag before starting a video, it's not just me I promise it's a universal thing 🙂 no information lost it just gives a second for us to focus on your content
the best tutorial on this topic. I can undrestand it better now. thank you.
As a fresh grad animator and aspiring rigger, this actually explain SO much of why we do things in a certain during the rigging side of things.
Goes to show how helpful a good rig is since its literally supposed to be a catalyst for the animator's creative abilities
I would buy the workshop, if it was made in Blender. Beginners usually don't pay 2300$ per year
Was a coder in late 90s and worked on a game engine. This problem came up pretty early. We ended up using matrices that could be interpreted as quaternions or spherical coordinates depending on how we worked the math. Let us side-step a lot of common problems.
The game industry pretty much exclusively uses quaternions, since so much of what's animated in games is systems-driven instead of hand crafted. But what is hand crafted is - by virtue of using Maya and 3DSMax - almost always done with gimbal coordinates. In fact, Maya itself uses quaternions as an under the hood calculation for rotation under certain conditions, and therefore allows you to use quaternions as your rotation method if you want that headache (it is not a fun way to animate lol)
This is the exact issue I’ve been facing working on my semester film and apparently has been plaguing me my whole time in Maya!
Thanks for this, excellent video!
Man can I just thank you for your videos I went to Art School to study animation and I feel like your videos have filled in so many of the gaps of so many things I have struggled with. Still struggling a bit with the Graph editor and getting things to have the exact timing and spacing I want, but thank you.
I faced this problem many times in my career, and normally I'd plan ahead for any rotations that would lead to gimbal lock, and either go back and manually switch the axis on the handle(sometimes parenting it to a locator with flipped axes), or animate frame by frame to brute force the rotation, which wasn't fun. So thank you for this explanation. It will save me a lot of headaches from now on. I wish I knew about it sooner!
that's wild, i literally just added "research gimbal lock" to my task list yesterday. thanks for the video!
also today i learned euler filter is pronounced like that............................
This was so helpful! I'm taking animation classes right now and this topic was quickly brushed over and I never understood it properly. This explanation made way more sense!
It's so frustrating. Why even add the ability to manipulate the trackball in the center of the Rotate tool if it causes problems down the road? Coming from Blender, the trackball option is THE best way to manipulate the character rig, it's as intuitive as manipulating a stop-motion puppet, so I really don't want to accept the notion that using the trackball manipulator is the wrong way to animate in Maya. I'm not angry at Sir here, he's doing a great job in showing us how to fix it... I just think it's like showing a stunt driver a Lamborghini and then making them drive a Fiat. Ugh.
I've also animated in PrEmo before and don't remember this being an issue, but I could definitely be wrong - does DW fix this issue with quaternions?
Yeah DreamWorks had some kind of smart orb with a 4th axis of motion that acted as a mathematical scapegoat, canceling out the gimbal rotation so that you can trackball without fear of gimbal issues. I’m not sure if it was quaternion based or what, but it was 100% some kind of sorcery!
@@SirWade Of course they did haha all of PrEmo is sorcery!
HOW is this the first time i've ever heard of this? I've dealt with this issue so many times before, especially viewing in the graph editor where I have to select a different rotation than what visually makes sense. Thankyou so much for this information, it's a serious game changer! Where did you first learn this?
the selection attribute space switcher of animbot is so good! wish I knew it earlier, I use it all the time now, it fixing all my curves.
Having those constraints tied to the W E R keys with the LMB is another great Maya command. Now if we can only have someone like you for the other aers of Maya like Modeling, FX etc ...
This is without a doubt the best explanation and showcase of the Gimbal Lock I've ever seen!
Thanks a lot for the always amazing content 😄 Your videos always help a lot
I have faced this problem several times))) now everything is clear)))))))))))))
Thank you so much! I have had the trouble of knowing enough about it to be careful and frustrated, not well enough to problem solve.
I'm sharing this one everywhere!
brilliant video as always! and now it's worth mentioning that there is a new tool as part of maya 2024.. Modify----> reorder rotation :)
Honestly the Simplist fix would be to have the ability to tell the graph editor to work in object local mode.
The user shouldn't have to deal with something so stupid but can cause loss of hours of work if it gets bad enough
Best explanation ever of the infamous gimbal lock! Thank you 😊
This was super helpful. What I still don't understand is why we even have gimbal mode if it causes so many issues.
Gimbal mode is *the* mode - it’s just the complexity of how 3D math works!
Wow I had this issue for a commercial a few years ago and I had to let every frame like you said and it ended up making the project not profitable. Wildly informative, thank you
Wonder if you ever watched Blender Bob? I think hearing a conversation between you two would be epic. And so many laughs. Peace out Sir Wade.
I have been talking about gimbal lock for years. Thank you for explaining this clearly! Keep up the great work!
Hey awesome video, I'm a generalist tutor at a school and this helps me a ton 😊
Super useful and smart explanations sir!
Finally after so many years I understood it. I always wonder I can just rotate the other axis and unlock it. where is the lock. Lol. Thanks a lot! :)
Your video just blew my mind thank you !
very helpful video! i'm a beginner animator and never knew what this was, so glad to have such an thorough video on it!
What hotkey or combination are you pressing to change from world to object orientation as well as gimbal rotation confined to the axes?
Edit: W + left click or E + left click @ 6:08, guess I needed to watch a bit further!
The reason i got into rigging from animation was to try and solve gimbal lock if i could. gave up. and been frustrated ever since.
Thank god I found this so well explained! Does your head in when your just trying to free-form pose characters.
I quite often have a problem with weird rotations, now I will do animation more consciously
This is helpful. Thank you!
Gimbal locks has always been my nightmare. OOT but you look amazing lately! I hope you"re doing well
17:49 doesn't always work but yes mostly works.
Brooo this always confused me so much! Thank you
Outstanding 🏆🏆🏆! Thank You 🙂!
Now I see why my intervals were weird.
Thanks.
i am a beginner student in 3D animation and i find your videos really helpful , i have one request if u have made any detailed video on posing or facial expression plz suggest or make it on my request so that i will get clear about it or if u have made any videos on rig controllers plz suggest bcoz as a beginner its difficult to move controllers and making a perfect pose
Im currently going to school for Graphic Design with emphasis in animation but won't start learning even the beginner parts of animation until my junior year. I been doing a lot of research about AM and it seems like the best bang for your buck. Do you recommend doing a strictly animation school rather than getting an degree with an emphasis in animation?
If you want to be an animator, yes. The best thing is good education and lots of experience. Waiting 2/3 years before starting animation is likely not a great investment if that’s your goal
Now I can rig in peace
it was very enlightening, thank you very much!
this is why we have quaternions.
if the interpolation used quaternions under the hood, you wouldn't have these interpolated errors.
would you make a video about understanding quaternions from the perspective of an animator? like how I can edit quaternion-based curves in the graph editor
Thanks!
Giving like blindly and proceed to watching :D
THANK YOU
Matt always gets it right 😂💪🏽
wow, ok well this probably explains the problems i was having when trying to add adjustments to a motion capture project and went wrong😅 definitely keeping this in mind when starting AM in June, thanks for your amazing wisdom!. Oh, and Out of curiosity when it comes to the animbot, is it best not to rely on using it to fix a gimbo, for like the day you work for a studio? As such, I take it studios have rules regarding maya plugins or they use their own plugins or something.
WOW 😍😍
nice one
how is your grap editor looks dark?
Why are you here two weeks late! I’ve been ripping my hair off!
euler filter has worked for me 9 times out of 10.
good review for noob tech anim !
Please use quaternions - someone from the space industry
Why is it that this doesn't happen with 3dsMAX? I've been animating on MAX for some years now (because of the client I work with) and I can't remember a time this gimbal Issue has been a problem for me. I must say Almost every rig I work with are rigged with CAT
sir please, make video on acting shot in details. plz.
will be of great help to us.
17:25 answer
Okay I try a last question then I'll look around here in France. Is your Workshop desinged for beginners?
It's for all skill levels :) I start from the beginning so yes, beginners can get the full experience even as it gets more advanced. It also has full recordings in case you get lost you can always revisit the materials
@@SirWade my bad just saw you have a discord could had reached out there. See you then :D
Gimbal lock is a very serious issue...if you are a pilot or astronaught.
cool
The Cake is always a LIE!
Do you take students from France? How to talk to you about details?
Waky waky
Me: *laughs in Quaternions*
Yoh!
As I understand it, blender has "quaternion" as an option over euler... Maya doesn't have it? It doesnt work the same? I have so many questions 😂😂😂
Hey! Did you figure out this question? I am looking for some information but there isn't. How the animation is supposed to be done?
I'm glad Blender doesn't have that issue. Seem's like a pian to deal with.
Blender has the exact same thing happening under the hood - at the top of Blender's viewport, World Space = Global, Object Space = Local, and Gimbal Mode is there too. This is how all 3D software rotation works, unless it's using a different type of math to calculate things without animation curves
@@SirWade Ahh, thanks for letting me know. ;)
@Sir Wade Neistadt Blender uses quaternion rotation by default to solve the gimbal lock problem. It means you have to deal with the mystical W axis in the graph editor, but it does ease the pain of gimbal lock issues.
Oh it sure does, gimbal lock was a big issue for my final project cuz i worked in quaternion mode not knowing about euler rotation orders
just use aim constraint for rotation, just aim and upVector, animate only translate without all that gambleShit
really a headache
i am a beginner student in 3D animation and i find your videos really helpful , i have one request if u have made any detailed video on posing or facial expression plz suggest or make it on my request so that i will get clear about it or if u have made any videos on rig controllers plz suggest bcoz as a beginner its difficult to move controllers and making a perfect pose