Cineversity

Hi. I’m guessing this is easy but haven’t figured it out and couldn’t find it in the manual.
When several objects have animation layers, how can I move all of its keys in the dope sheet or the timeline?
Whenever I try to do so it only moves the keys from 1 layer.
Thanks

Hi rafaelvamp,

With “move” do you mean along each layer in time, or to “move” from one layer to another (from a group to another)?

All the best

Dr. Sassi - 25 August 2017 06:25 PM

Hi rafaelvamp,

With “move” do you mean along each layer in time, or to “move” from one layer to another (from a group to another)?

All the best

Hi Dr. Sassi. I mean being able to move keys in time, for example selecting a group of keys and moving them 10 frames forward. But I want to be able to move keys for all animation layers at once. It’s a bunch of objects (character controllers) so having to move each layer separately is quite a hassle.
Thanks

Thanks for clearing that,

Please go to
https://help.maxon.net/us/#10607
There is a screenshot that shows a yellow bar over all (on top of the) selected keys. Click in this yellow bar (not on the ends of it, which will scale it), in the middle: drag it to the place you want.

Another way would be to use the Region Tool
https://help.maxon.net/us/#10612
(scroll down the page to see it)

Let me know if that works for you.

All the best

Dr. Sassi - 25 August 2017 06:43 PM

Thanks for clearing that,

Please go to
https://help.maxon.net/us/#10607
There is a screenshot that shows a yellow bar over all (on top of the) selected keys. Click in this yellow bar (not on the ends of it, which will scale it), in the middle: drag it to the place you want.

Another way would be to use the Region Tool
https://help.maxon.net/us/#10612
(scroll down the page to see it)

Let me know if that works for you.

All the best

Hi Dr. Sassi. Yes, i normally use that method, but it works only for a SINGLE animation layer… I haven’t found a way to move keys for SEVERAL animation layers at the same time. That’s what I want to do. (please see attachment)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dnlm4byfmo81ocd/animation_layers.png?dl=0

Thanks for the image, rafaelvamp,

If I understand your target correctly, the layer influence %-values expressed in the little F-Curves under the clips should be moved as group.

I have not found an option to do so. My only tip would be, to use the “Move Keys with Motion Clip” option then move the Clips at once, the Keys should follow, if covered by clips. Then disable the “Move Keys with Motion Clip” and move only the clips back. Sounds not comfortable, but that is all I can think of right now.

I will explore this a little bit more.

All the best

Dr. Sassi - 25 August 2017 08:10 PM

Thanks for the image, rafaelvamp,

If I understand your target correctly, the layer influence %-values expressed in the little F-Curves under the clips should be moved as group.

I have not found an option to do so. My only tip would be, to use the “Move Keys with Motion Clip” option then move the Clips at once, the Keys should follow, if covered by clips. Then disable the “Move Keys with Motion Clip” and move only the clips back. Sounds not comfortable, but that is all I can think of right now.

I will explore this a little bit more.

All the best

Well, yes and no. It’d be nice to move the layer’s influence percentage keys with the rest as well, but that isn’t my main problem.
My main concern is that for each object that is using an animation layer, there are recorded keys (PSR) in each layer. So, you have a first set of PSR keys in the default layer and then a seocnd set of PSR keys stored in Layer 0. How can I select and move both sets of keys at the same time?

I’m not really certain if I can follow your ideas here. Your image showed the Motion-Tag and underlined the Layer entry. OK, not the layer, it is the PSR.

The Clips in each layers are not copies. In the Moment you open the clip in a new Timeline, you open the source. Where ever the clip was used in this set up, it will change things as well.
If you need to change something, the clip, if used not only once, need to be copied. However, open it (or several) in the Timeline will not show the changes made in duration nor in speed.

To change the “events” in a clip, without changing the source, you click in the Clip, or many of them and go to the advanced mode. But the Spline interface will not make a difference among them, each from start to end will be adjusted.

To get a set up managed in the way I understand your idea so far, select all the clips in question, “right mouse click” and chose Convert Motion Clip to Motion Source. This new clip has now only one entry for each channel i.e., PSR. This can be opened in the Dope or F-Curve and be adjusted. In F-Curve mode this will even allow for the “Reduced Modification Mode”. This will not change the previous source clips. The animation for those can be switched off (Film Stripe Icon) and a new layer with the combined information can be applied.

Again, I can’t really say that I got a clear idea of what your want to do so far. Anyway, I hope some one the content above might help or fit. Without a scene file, I guess we will not make any progress other than this.

Perhaps that is something for the suggestion form:
https://www.maxon.net/en-us/support/suggestions/

My best wishes

Dr. Sassi - 25 August 2017 09:44 PM

I’m not really certain if I can follow your ideas here. Your image showed the Motion-Tag and underlined the Layer entry. OK, not the layer, it is the PSR.

The Clips in each layers are not copies. In the Moment you open the clip in a new Timeline, you open the source. Where ever the clip was used in this set up, it will change things as well.
If you need to change something, the clip, if used not only once, need to be copied. However, open it (or several) in the Timeline will not show the changes made in duration nor in speed.

To change the “events” in a clip, without changing the source, you click in the Clip, or many of them and go to the advanced mode. But the Spline interface will not make a difference among them, each from start to end will be adjusted.

To get a set up managed in the way I understand your idea so far, select all the clips in question, “right mouse click” and chose Convert Motion Clip to Motion Source. This new clip has now only one entry for each channel i.e., PSR. This can be opened in the Dope or F-Curve and be adjusted. In F-Curve mode this will even allow for the “Reduced Modification Mode”. This will not change the previous source clips. The animation for those can be switched off (Film Stripe Icon) and a new layer with the combined information can be applied.

Again, I can’t really say that I got a clear idea of what your want to do so far. Anyway, I hope some one the content above might help or fit. Without a scene file, I guess we will not make any progress other than this.

Perhaps that is something for the suggestion form:
https://www.maxon.net/en-us/support/suggestions/

My best wishes

I see where the confusion is. You’re thinking of motion system as in a motion clips workflow, but I’m talking about the other workflow, the animation layers one:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1zyhcgx6y5dfjp7/animlayer.png?dl=0

Hi rafaelvamp,

This is not a different workflow, this is just a different element in one workflow. Normally I ask for a scene file to avoid this confusion.

You talked about the Animation Layer, hence my answers. The Relative Layer is an overlaying method inside of it and the keyframes are in the Dope-Sheet / Timeline. All tips given above apply.

The Relative or Absolute layer are more a different quality of Keyframes you would do without this. Open a “Motion” timeline editor and an additional “Dope” timeline editor, so you can see both at the same time. Now set for your object with the relative layer a new keyframe based on any change. Instantly this entry is made in the Dope Sheet. It has a later evaluation as the “normal” keyframes become calculated and then the “Relative” on top of it.

This is all based on that the Motion System is used to carry the main load of the animation. The relative or absolute layer aren’t useful without it, especially be careful to call up an absolute layer, if the object has “normal” keyframes.

So, what ever you have achieved by setting keyframes with this method, will show up in the Dope-Sheet (or AKA Keyframe editor.

All the best