Need Help With Keyframing

[Laconic]

Hi!

 

I've been working on "The Door's Stuck" animation chapter. I've devised the script so that Shaggy tugs on the door slowly once or twice, then tugs three times in quick succession. All of that gets me to frame

00:06:00 or so.

 

At 00:06:00, I'd like Shaggy to turn his head to the camera as if to say "What the Heck?" So, at 00:06:00, I did a "Make KeyFrame" and at 00:06:10 I set a key frame and turned his head toward the camera.

 

My PROBLEM is that now his head starts turning to the camera from the first frame (00:00:00) instead of at 00:06:10, where I'd like him to start turning.

 

Please help me figure out how to isolate moves between a set of frames, so that I can just have Shaggy's head turn between 00:06:00 and 00:06:10?

 

Thanks!

[Dhar]

1- Make sure you are in frame 00:06:00

 

2- Make sure Shaggy's head bone is selected.

 

3- You have a choice either to click on "Make Keyframe" button, OR, slightly nudge the head bone and then back to its original position (this'll create a keyframe for the bone).

 

4- Go to frame 00:06:10 and move the head bone.

 

Now if you've already done all that, then my guess is that the first time you ever move Shaggy's head is at frame 00:06:00, which means that the timeline spline got a bend to to it when you moved on frame 00:06:10. In this case, go to your timeline (click in View and choose Timeline in the drop down menu), make sure the head bone is selected, go to frame 00:06:00, right-click on the Control Point in the timeline, choose Zero Slope. This will straighten the bone's timeline from 00:00:00 all the way to frame 00:06:00.

 

If you have any questions, ask away

[Laconic]

HI!

 

Thanks, I'll try that & get back, if there are problems.

 

T

[ArgleBargle]

Hi!

 

I've been working on "The Door's Stuck" animation chapter. I've devised the script so that Shaggy tugs on the door slowly once or twice, then tugs three times in quick succession. All of that gets me to frame

00:06:00 or so.

 

At 00:06:00, I'd like Shaggy to turn his head to the camera as if to say "What the Heck?" So, at 00:06:00, I did a "Make KeyFrame" and at 00:06:10 I set a key frame and turned his head toward the camera.

 

My PROBLEM is that now his head starts turning to the camera from the first frame (00:00:00) instead of at 00:06:10, where I'd like him to start turning.

 

Please help me figure out how to isolate moves between a set of frames, so that I can just have Shaggy's head turn between 00:06:00 and 00:06:10?

 

Thanks!

 

I prefer to learn from others' mistakes rather than create my own, so I'll pass on my mistake in this regard.

 

My mistake was pressing the keyframe button when no channel existed in the action for the item in question. For example, you have done nothing with the head bone so far, then you select it, then you set a keyframe by clicking the relevant button. This is a bit twisted, but since you've done nothing with the head-bone so far, then no key frame is recorded for it. A few frames later, you move the head bone and you then get a keyframe and A:M is obliged to set one at frame 0 for the head. Hence you rotate from frame 0.

 

What you have to do is create a channel in the action for the item in question. Simple method for what you described above: got to 06:00 and press the up and down arrow keys after selecting the bone. Now you have a channel. Advance to 06:10 and turn the head. Now you get what you want.

 

I'm sure someone will give alternate (and hopefully better) advice. And this advice seems a bit irritating initially. To me, after I dealt with it, it made sense. You can't have A:M going around keying every single bone/spline in an action when you hit the keyframe button. That would cause more problems than it might solve. If you want a bone to do something, don't start with the keyframe button; start with moving (then un-moving) the item in question as a base point. You can then position as you see fit in later frames.

[Slipin Lizard]

This is where I went wrong too when first trying to animate in AM. Everyone is giving the right advice here, but this might make it a little clearer. As best as I can tell, if you want to animate something in Choreography and you haven't animated it thus so far, clicking the "make a keyframe" button won't create a keyframe (the exception to the rule seems to be tranlating the root bone, or entire object, as a translate channel is created for this when you drop the object into choreography).

 

Your approach was totally correct, and you're trying to make what is called a "hold" keyframe, essentially telling the computer that from 0:00 to 6:00 you want Shaggy's head to hold its position, then move between frames 6:00 to 6:10. However, because, as both people who have responded indicated, you didn't "create a channel" for Shaggy's head so far, the computer just starts animating his head from the beggining. I think where you went wrong is that you thought by clicking the "make a keyframe" button a keyframe would be made at 6:00 that had the same value as frame 0:00. A great way to get a better handle on what is being animated is to use the graph editor in the timeline. Instead of wiggling things around to try and create a channel, you can just click to add a keyframe directly in the graph on the channel you want, when you want it. You can even adjust the value by simply moving the keyrame up and down in the graph editor. I actually find this method almost easier sometimes, as I don't have to worry about creating unwanted keyframes on other channels, and you see the keyframe created right in front of you so you know its there.

 

Sometimes it helps to work backwards when planning an animation. For instance, you could go to frame 6:10, move Shaggy's head into the postion you want it to be at that time, go back to frame 6:00, set the rotation values back to zero, go back to frame 0:00 and make sure his head rotation values are also at zero. If you get lost or muddled, I find it really helps to just save your project, then close it, open a new one and then play around with a simple cube or something, and figure exactly what you need to do, then go back to the excercise.

 

Hope this helps!

[Laconic]

Thanks!

 

This was very helpful...