Editable Motion Trail

[abigbeast]

Hello, I about to start animating a character, and to ensure good arcs with his movement I was wondering if there was a way to create editable motion trails for each moving joint/ik. I've messed with snapshots and regular motions trails, but the construction history on both only edits the trail when you modify the animated object. I was hoping to control the motion of the joint/ik by using cv's on a nurbs curve if I could somehow create this editable motion trail/trajectory.

I know studio max would allow you to display trajectories of animated object and it would place moveable keys at every key frame of the object, but I've found nothing in Maya yet. Thanks in advance for the help!

-Justin

[drblacksnake]

don't regular nurbs curves used as motionPaths do the same max-thing?

[abigbeast]

Ok, sorry if I caused a little confusion. Yes if I use a Nurbs curve as a motion path and actually attach it to the curve I could edit the curve and through the history it would change the path of the object.

What I am trying to do is free-form animate an object (i.e. moving a ball from point a, to point b, to point c, and so on). Then with the free-form animated object, display an editable motion "trail" or trajectory that I could manipulate in order to ensure good arcs in the object's overall motion.

Got it?

-Justin