ABSTRACT
CYCLES, or animation meant to loop or repeat, are a mainstay of the animation industry. From games to film, to TV, cycles will most certainly be a part of your career in animation to a varied extent. The ability to quickly create realistic and appealing cycles is the hallmark of the experienced animator. To do this you must be familiar with all of the tools that Maya 2012 has to offer. In production it is common for an entire animation team to share cycles, and so having cheats to avoid little technical problems can have a large impact on a project.
We're going to look at the technical aspects of creating a cycle with Pre-and Post-Infinity curves. Then we'll manipulate a walk cycle and create a flying cycle from scratch. With both of these cycles the plan is to use the simplest method to get the best results; with cycles, that cheat is called offsets.
