The Secret Animation Workflow You Should Be Using

[@SirWade]

This one gets more advanced the further into the video, so hopefully you stuck around for all the gems :) What tutorial should I tackle next?? :D

[@jayblue1593]

Sir Wade Neistadt hello there I’m 14 and I started my own animation club. Our main goal is to get our film into theaters. Right now I’m watching a whole bunch of Maya and blender tutorials on how to animate. I was wondering I there is any other way I can learn the process of animation at my young age

[@YanyanLun]

hey thanks for the video. its very helpful. I want to ask is there any fast way or tools to help with previz? like if I'm doing anim layout. I need to set up different camera and play blast each of them it's super tiring. I will be super thankful if you could help! thnaks!

[@HiccupHaddockDragonMaster]

This was super helpful! One thing I'd love to see is how to make a stepped animation from the very beginning. Every time I try to do a stepped animation it ends up wonky and makes more work for me.

[@joeyanimations]

HEY SIR WADE. What is the rig you are using here?

[@24yrukdesigner]

@Sir Wade Neistadt When I'm referencing in a character, it creates 2 BaseAnimation layers. The upper layer is obviously the referenced layer and the bottom layer is the scene. The options to solo or mute that scene layer are no longer available when referencing in characters but the biggest problem is... it's not possible to animate on referenced animation layers??? and that's the whole point im referencing in characters... After referencing in a character I can set a key, but the key will be on both BaseAnimation layers... I think this may be a MAYA bug :( The only way around all these problems of animating on referenced characters in Maya, is to make a NEW 3rd layer above the 2 BaseAnimation layers and work on that upwards, because the baselayers don't behave normally when referenced, they will not merge, and if you try to merge anything to these layers, it wipes the animation also. Therefore there is now clean way to animate using referenced characters in Maya with Animation layers and animation layers are the foundation to my animation process.

[@charlotteshaw4695]

I just finished three years of university studying animation and vfx and not once was this ever even mentioned to us. So grateful for people like you helping so many out here needing to know such basic yet critical tips!

[@Cxeri93]

lol what university was that

[@TipToey]

Just graduated from college and yeah they didn't teach this

[@sarulaplays6861]

I learnt more doing a 9 month online course specializing in character animation than I did during a 3 year diploma in animation. Having done both I think university's are thouraly overrated

[@swisualssw6290]

Hi, can you say please which university? And do you recommend it?

[@StrawberryGS]

I've watched this like 3 times now. I need to take some notes on how to do this. 1:40 Anim layers - add a new one. 3:53 Lock the base animation layer 4:45 Grab the controls you need and add them to the new layer you made (AnimLayer1) Select the control, select the layer and "add selected objects" Then animate away. You can lock or hide layers.

[@paolaabril9250]

if I had learned this before i would avoid so many headaches hahah.. now is like maybe hard to get used to it, but will try with simple animations to get used to it, it is awesome!

[@SirWade]

It can be a lifesaver in certain situations :)

[@SkittyAnimates]

Really informative tutorial, Sir! I use animation layers for things like Lipsync, adding Walk/Run/Swim cycles, etc. but I've never considered using them to save previous anim passes. I'll be utilizing this from now on, thanks!

[@dead-channel6842]

Wait!! I do know your channel 😅

[@everettaldrich4394]

This is great! After seeing the hovering robot, I thought "This would be a great tool for character breathing." Glad to hear you mention that! As someone who's recently gotten into animating in Maya, I greatly appreciate these tips and tricks!

[@christianmh9549]

This is perfect, I JUST started using animation layers because I wanted to do a sequence of actions, RUN - SLIDE - RUN - JUMP, basically a character avoiding obstacles while running, so to make my life easier I needed a running cycle I could constantly use and interrupt with the specifics actions. I don't know if this is the way to do it in cases like this, so if i'm wrong feel free to correct me, I started to learn animation not long ago so of course there is a lot I don't understand yet.

[@SirWade]

That definitely sounds like an option you could use! If nothing else, a layer would be a great, safe place to store the animation data - even if you just copy-paste it into your timeline as-needed :)

[@FruitZeus]

As a blender user first, who's trying to learn Maya. This video felt very approachable and understandable! One of the first times that I felt like I understood an aspect of Maya! Thanks for making this!

[@kevin.m2955]

I lost my cat 2 weeks ago. We were together for 5 years. Yours reminded me of her. Seems animators really like cats. That is a very beautiful cat :)

[@Vanstrudel]

Can confirm, I am an animator and I have a cat

[@melik5398]

Sorry to hear about your cat, Kevin. They are wonderful friends. I hope time is helping to heal your heart.

[@dejism]

god im glad I subbed to. was literally pulling my hair trying to figure how to animate a cloak flapping in the wind, meanwhile having the cloth also react to the characters movement. Sounded like a huge headache. Then I browse through youtube and find this on my feed lol

[@jowfds8396]

Man, you're a great person and excellent animator, thank you so much for sharing these tips, I love it !!!!

[@JDarkoProductions]

Really interesting workflow! I'd be a bit worried to try this because in my experience the more objects you add onto a new layer the slower the scene and playback gets . . . So duplicating the whole animation of all controllers to multiple new layers might slow things down a bit, but it might be worth it to have the flexibility of iterations you've demonstrated :) thanks for sharing!

[@SirWade]

That's good to know! I guess merging layers at the end has more use than I'd thought :P

[@jetpackanimation]

Finally! I needed some knowledge about animation layers. Thank you mate!

[@SirWade]

You're welcome! :D

[@MasterYoda389]

ok you got me. It's like the 4th time I land on one of your videos and leave with my questions answered (and then some). You've earned this subscribe

[@Oddernod]

I want this in After Effects and C4D and everywhere else I animate - love the idea of keeping the stepped pass as a layer to go back to rather than saving it off in a different file.

[@Janovich]

Omg thanks man, worked with maya for so many years but never knew how powerful this was

[@Brietron]

Sir, this was SUPER helpful! I'm in the polish stage of my assignment with AnimSchool and I'm going to use some animation layers for the breathing and the hair movement! Brilliant! lol thank you SO MUCH!

[@XoIoRouge]

I'm in a degree program for Computer Science and Game Design, not in Computer Graphics, but CG a basic 101 lesson is required for my curriculum. Just animated my final project and submitted it to start stumbling on youtube videos of advanced animation techniques! 😂

[@JonJagsNee]

Hey buddy! Great channel :) We met at NAB briefly and you asked about C4D. I wish I could say that I had an answer for amazing rigs in C4D but i actually just picked up a Maya license for another personal halo project of mine :) Using Rokoko and animation layers! This video you made is super helpful. Subbed to your channel and can't wait to learn more Maya. Take care!

[@SirWade]

Thanks man! :D I have a recent video on a rokoko mocap workshop I did too if that helps! :)

[@lolly_esme]

what path do you need to take to do 3d?

[@mhiln3]

Heck. Yes. This is the video I've been waiting for. Thank you. I've researched animlayers before but I've never quite understood them and so I just didn't use them. I always felt like I was missing out on this whole other workflow. I get it now. This makes so much sense. Thank you!

[@SirHosisofLiver]

Dude I fucking love you! Half an hour ago I had no idea how I'm gonna pass this animation test for 2KCzech, but then I discovered your channel. Absolute legend.

[@venomous]

i have NEVER seen a video that explained how useful layer animation can be like this. 21 minutes go by so fast xD

[@mbasterix]

This was awesome , I experiment a lot on my animation, this will really help. What I love is that your videos are really fast, otherwise I have to fast forward most of them.....great stuff !!

[@mdmustakimbillah6161]

can you please tell me to to make entire animation stepped for blocking??? i tried stepped option but it only stepped one keyframe

[@DanieleNiero]

Pro tip: animation layers are full of bugs. Use them carefully

[@chucknorrisffs]

That's interesting. What kind of bugs, curious.

[@artblob]

ive encountered some severe display bugs. like, it shows that the animation looks normal, you save, reload the scene, and nownthe animation is all kinds of ****ed. this happens a lot when you have many layers, and also additive layers seem to act funky often

[@daniellune9981]

Amateur tip: Maya is full of bugs, use it carefully.

[@DanieleNiero]

@@chucknorrisffs sorry for the late reply, i didn't get notification. One bug that cause me a lot of trouble is that merging layers doesn't respect min and max value of attributes. Imagine you have an ik-fk attribute, that can only be set from 0.0 to 1.0, often after a merging that attribute is at 2.0! It has been reported to autodesk, so maybe they have fixed it. The problem is this: Maya is old, very, very old. It had a great idea in the node based system, and in the late 90 early 2000 it was indeed special. And that design scaled quite well until recently. But Maya has always been full of inconsistencies and convoluted mechanics, often plain and simply over engineered (transform is a prime example with all the api around). Maya is hard to handle, way more than what it should be. I wish XSI was never sold to autodesk and still around to demonstrate this clearly. The problem (with the industry) is that everybody take Maya for the pinnacle of 3D creation content software, but very few tried for real other packages... and sadly nowdays, there are no real alternatives (yeah sorry blender guys, no gonna happen, we are not gonna throw away 30 years of development for another software that is older than Maya, and one that is without a C level plugin system) . The same is with Houdini, although those guys are doing a way better job than Autodesk, but there is a reason why you don't model or animate in Houdini. And of course, everybody ignored the only draft of fresh air we got in 15 years, that was Fabric Engine. Sorry I'm ranting. I stop now.

[@chucknorrisffs]

​@@DanieleNiero Ah right. Usually i use layers just for the head accents in dialogue, not much else but it was good to know what these bugs were.Thanks for replying, I was actually curious! :)

[@geodesic98]

Maya's Time Editor is really powerful and in many ways outdoes the old animation layers. I love the interoperability one can have between animation layers, however when moving from one "stage" of animation to another, and you want to keep the last stage in it's original form, the Time Editor is the way to go.

[@jagotato]

This video is GOLD

[@Ironpants57]

Super helpful!! Most of this is cross compatible with other animation software that has this feature. Thank you for sharing your tips with this tool!

[@mohamadshamlu7129]

What if i have 2 or more characters in a scene. should I use the same layer I made for the first one for all of em?? or make one for each ? The Part Confuses Me more is that if I make layers for each and put them on Additive or Override does it affect on the rest or not !!

[@chloe9637]

Woow that was so amazing, I'm in animation school and I can't believe this wasn't taught to us from the beginning! Thank you so much!!

[@toddlawrimore3577]

Had to watch it a second time just now. Will be perfect for my current medical project. ...molecular variability while performing the same receptor stimulation multiple times. Thank you!

[@Cxeri93]

this is legit the most useful tool anyone has showed me

[@LucasSantos-cn4wb]

That intro was such an intense hook.

[@pr-qy2it]

0:14 says "i think you are gonna like..." Me already liked the video on the first second..

[@leesok4940]

thanks dude, U just saved my life at my first day at work.

[@TomCollie]

fuccckkk....just massively improved my work flow so it feels like im no longer head butting a brick wall. Thank you!!

[@suenoguajiro]

Bro, you are a fantastic teacher. This tutorial is super clear, complete and useful, thank you so much. Bravo!

[@meghapanchal9339]

BEST BEST BEST ! I wish i had known this earlier before I started my demoreel ! But its never too late ! Thankyou so much

[@GuacAmore]

Wow thanks man! Im so glad I found you before my next project. Gonna forward your channel to my teammates!

[@takbggg]

Thanks dude for sharing this knowledge, You absolutelly know how to teach, and how to animate, saludos desde Colombia.

[@bigboss9150]

Great intro to animation layers. Appreciate it, bro

[@garyerazo2795]

Man! is the first time I see Maya can do this! Thank you!

[@ssmudgee]

I can’t wait to use all this :), thank you!

[@vs-animation378]

Thank you so much! I never understand the Animation Layers, but you explained it very well. Now I have a better understanding and see the advantages of the Layers. :D

[@shimaparsa524]

I was looking for a video to go through animation layer, this is awesome! thank you!

[@nidhishah3135]

awesome tips on workflow...I was already using layers for animation, but this stuff takes the animation flow to a whole different level, and i really like how you make everything seem so easy. Thanks a lot for this.. Really looking forward to get more tips from you.

[@autumnalaniz4622]

Video suggestion: I know you did back to school tech and gear for 2019 can you do one for 2020 since it’s been almost a year in the fall. I’m going back to college out of the blue for 3D animation and I definitely need a computer or laptop. I need help though! Thank you🥰

[@Man0fSteel11]

This was great! Thanks for all the info!

[@yurylikhachev4628]

I have got that video in youtube suggestions. Liked and subscribed immediately.

[@mdmustakimbillah6161]

Hello, Sir. Hope you are well. I animated breath animation in my base layer and with the controll selected i tried to duplicate the base anim layer with animation. but the duplicated layer only renamed as base anim layer copy; but it didnt copy the animation key.. How can i solve this problem? please help me. thank you.

[@talkingSkunk]

thank you for this. You covered so thoroughly, and made it easy to understand.

[@luciomennillo]

Always learning lol Never knew about changing the colors of the keys. And locking them is also a great idea, thank you

[@AJsapala481]

Awesome video, thank you for sharing this workflow.

[@DigitalAdamTech]

Great video! Is there a way to take animation on an Animation Layer and create an Animation Clip of that layer to use on the Time Editor?

[@domdidit]

Brilliant tutorial especially on workflow and explanation of each tip. A huge resource of wisdom.

[@hugomeyer]

Really helpful Wade! Defs going to adopt this moving forward! Also; very cute kitty! :D

[@annanasova2]

Extremely useful video! Thank you so much! I am happy that I've found your channel!

[@mecroniquegaming2203]

insane vidéo thanks! never heard about this but that is sooo important .

[@jozf8163]

How about a video dealing with camera movement with a scene in motion - horse through the woods, car on the road, train running on the tracks, etc.??? Just a suggestion =)

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

That’s done with tracking constraints.

[@芳乱了芳华]

This method is really useful, so I will save a lot of unnecessary production and concentrate on trying new ideas

[@sleepinggiant3660]

Best tutorial on the net for this topic. 💯👍

[@dominicdavis3272]

Extremely helpful tips. Thankyou.

[@FinalGrade]

Already use Animation layers but that keyframe color change was definitely a useful tip. Thanks for another upload :)

[@АлексейГанжела-д3э]

Thanks! Your explanation is awesome!

[@woobykal68]

Man that cat is so chilled.

[@charlottecousins7733]

This video was so helpful, thank you so much!!

[@Jamnastics]

I died when the cat came in. so cute!

[@SirWade]

She's the BEST :) She loves to sit in my lap while I work!

[@ProfessionalReferences]

really a great tutorial thank you!

[@thomasmcgill6918]

Thank you so much!

[@mohammednabil7875]

learnt a lot from you , thanks

[@haleymuraki9605]

Beginner Question for future maya tutorial video: I’ve seen so many people use the root(s) differently... Hard to tell what the gold standard is... could you show us situations where we should animate the root? When we should not? Like in a zig zag run across the room, or a jump up onto a ledge, for example, what can we do? And what if the rig has multiple roots? Thanks for the great videos, it’s so helpful to hear maya explained so well!

[@tennisphotography]

thats a great help :) keep up the great work

[@tevfikTt9974]

your teaching is very clear.thank you.

[@julieswei1241]

Thanks so much! I’ll need this information for my next projects!!!

[@ラブニコちゃん]

Although I don't have Maya, your tips and information are still relevant and very helpful for when I use other animation programs. You've really helped me improve my skills and understanding for better a work flow and more lovely projects : )

[@hanaakai3843]

OH MY GOD THANKYOUUUUUU!!!! my anxiety has been lifted

[@SirWade]

Haha I'm glad you liked it!!

[@casandrajohnson]

This is so good!!! I really needed this

[@eddieandersson5570]

Awesome video Sir Wade👍

[@testimonytruth5245]

Well-done, nice tutorial.

[@IceFry66]

Now I'll be able to work faster lessss goooo!! Thanks sir!!

[@Daniel-qt5ib]

This looks really useful! I'm studying game design and had to model & rig my own character earlier in the year (your video on IK vs FK was very handy for that!), but I wish I'd known about anim layers then. Not sure how much rigging and animating I'm going to be doing in the future, I think I'm more likely gonna end up doing more coding than anything, but this is all really interesting!

[@matejivi]

Thank you this is great!

[@Liscobe]

Nice, I didn't thought about using the layers like that. This will be very useful :D

[@jinchoung]

AHA! that's what base animation layer is! thanks!

[@ukmonk]

great videos thank you! I know everyones workflow can be slightly different but when animating would it be good to use separate layers for each body part please? I.e once you have your base layer then torso on a seperate layer, then arms/legs etc or would you animate the whole body on its own layer then use other layers for tweaks etc?

[@morbid1.]

not many people use layers in max or maya but in mobu it is one of the most important "tools"

[@LEARNCGIwithYawyee]

Thanks , great tutorial

[@NickRossi]

You are an excellent teacher. Thank you!

[@Mostafa-pc3vd]

A video like this for blender would be insanely good since blender lacks videos like this

[@conkykong4395]

I am not sure if you touched this subject in your graph editor tutorial. But could you explain how to accomplish offsetting keys, during polish, through the graph editor. For example, to get good offset, how often would you change the actual timing, compared to changing the value of the curve?

[@majupiju2347]

Great anim layer tutorial! Thanks for sharing ;D

[@chapstickwarrior9277]

Fascinating stuff man. I don't even have Maya or a computer right now, but I wanna learn this kinda stuff.

[@MrJJAbrans]

Amazing video, Sir!!! Thx a lot!!

[@cgmaniac44]

Very helpful!!! TY!

[@wtora777]

Thank you this is the best I didn’t know I needed this

[@toapyandfriends]

Tysm for Animation layrrs

[@lolly_esme]

what path do you need to take to do 3d?

[@taibeaumont2175]

Great video! I was wondering if you can get a list of all the controls in each layer in case you missed one? Also for future videos I would love a tutorial on working with motion capture data.

[@AkiraDebiruman]

Hi! (if it's even possible) do any of you guys have idea about how to avoid maya to turn the whole channelbox into a blue palette when using animLayers? I would prefer the classic red/orange color like when you don't have any animLayers. Is this a settting that only I have or it this by default? If you have only basicanimation it turns back to red/orange. If you have animLayers, it turns to blue. It could be blue/lightblue and it would be fine, but this way with one flat color I cannot see where I have keys and where I don't while scrubbing... Suggestions very much appreciated. Thanks

[@jsolson1]

Are you using Maya LT? if so how has it been animating with it? Is there anything missing from the full version?

[@Tritoon710]

I always wanted a tutorial going through the Animation Layers in details... Thank you.