Selecting a keyframe in an action

[Kaijubait]

Hey there, Hashers.

I purchased a copy of A:M way back in 2007, and am only now getting to the point of learning it. I know it’s 13 years out of date by now, but it works for me and I have no immediate desire to upgrade.

I am learning by going through the ANIMATION: MASTER, A COMPLETE GUIDE book by David Rogers. It’s as old as the version I’m using so everything seems to synch up well for the most part, but I have hit a snag in Chapter 4 (Action Basics) that I just can’t move past.

In the process of animating my model (a flower sack), it instructs me to copy frame 0 and paste it on frame 24…. OK, HOW? I don’t mean how do I do a copy and paste, that’s computer 101 and I’ve been doing that for decades, Ctrl-C Ctrl-V, I get it... I mean how do I select the frame? Where do I even see the frame? (This is an action and not a choreography, FWIW) I was able to create the frames well enough from the frame toolbar but see nowhere to select them and I certainly do not see any sort of markers for them.

I notice that the timeline is mentioned a couple pages later, so I brought that up and thought it was the answer (although I found it odd that I would be instructed to select things on the timeline before we opened it or talked about it), but it seems I was wrong, the timeline is only for accessing raw components. It may show where some components change on a keyframe but you can not copy and paste a keyframe from the timeline. I tried and it only copied and pasted some raw components, and not in the exact positions they were on the frame I copied them from.

So that is my question: how do I select keyframes to do anything with them, copy, paste, anything… I can’t go any further until I figure this out.

 

  - Mike

[robcat2075]

Hi Mike, Welcome back to A:M!

CTRL-C and CTRL-V do indeed copy and paste keyframes but there are options you need to be aware of to get the result you want.

Keyframing in A:M is very powerful so there is potentially lots to know but here are the basics.

(Note that at 1:48 I speak of individually selecting several bones. I am holding down the CTRL key while I do that)

PRJ shown in the video: ThomKneeBends002 in Action.prj

[robcat2075]

I just noticed one thing about your question... where to find the keyframes.

It is possible to do the cut and paste without the aid of the right pane of the PWS which has a time line in it. It is possible to do the selecting by clicking on the bones in the view window and possible to navigate forward and back through keyframes by using the Next and Previous keyframe buttons.

That may be how David Rogers book presents it.

But I think it is way easier to visualize what you are selecting by using the PWS.

[Kaijubait]

Thank you so much for your replys Robcat. The book DOES mention to select the key skeletal, key skeletal scaling and key skeletal rotations keys but, unless I just missed it, did not instruct to select the key model key. 

I was able to successfully do what I wanted, both through the timeline that comes out of the PWS as shown in your video and ctrl copy and pasting after navigating through the frame counter. The key model key might have made all the difference in the world.

I notice you are also in Dallas. Depending on what the future holds I might be interested in tutoring/instruction in the coming year if you offer that.

[robcat2075]

1 hour ago, Kaijubait said:

I notice you are also in Dallas. Depending on what the future holds I might be interested in tutoring/instruction in the coming year if you offer that.

Maybe after the plague of locusts has passed!

Until then, you can usually get an answer on the forum here.

And we do Live Answer Time every Saturday.