Resetting models

We have all had our models get into weird positions, especially stuff that is rigged hella dodgy. It sure would be nice to easily reset positions… Well you can..

If you have a situation where the model has deformed you can reset it to default.

First spawn in a copy of the model you are using and rig it (you don’t necessarily need to rig it, just makes it safer)
Keyframe in the graph editor the point where you want your model to return to default from, this makes it easier to smooth out the change later.
Go to the motion editor, and in your copied model select the bones you want to reset (for example rig_head / rig_neck).
Right click on the green playhead area and select “Copy Samples”
Now select your original model. Still in the motion editor ensure the playhead is at the point you want to reset it (the green starts at the point you want to set it from). Otherwise you will overwrite your whole motion and generally we just want to reset from a point.
Right click in the green and select “Paste samples”. When the green turns orange, press enter to commit the change
Your model will now have a reset to default bone position from that point in the playhead.
Go to your created keyframe in the graph editor and with the bones you pasted in your original model selected, spline the motion between the reset keyframe and the previous one to smooth the transition.

This will work for any bone you want to reset, but be aware that if it is hideously deformed returning it to the default position may require a more gradual change / additional tweaking to fix.

This is also really useful when resetting things like collar bones. You can just reset them to the default for a position change. I tend to keep a hidden copy of every model I am using open just for this ability.

Interstitial movement with ease

Sitting here working on my next piece and this occurred to me. Just something that has helped me out a lot and isn’t necessarily super intuitive:

Often you want a tiny movement (hands and fingers for example). We also often over exaggerate what we think movement should be by accident.Rather than try and create that tiny movement:

First create a bigger motion at the absolute maximum range at a new keyframe e.g. if you want fingers to open a bit, open them all the way, if its hand or leg movement make it super exaggerated.
Then you can scrub through the motion to find the exact point for the movement you want, if you are just after a tiny motion for example it may only be a few frames forward.
Keyframe that frame and copy it to your desired location.

Now you have the actual motion you want, and if desired you can easily test different degrees of movement.