Cineversity

Third question today!  Can you tell I’m working on a project?

I swore that I used to be able to edit the motion path of an animated object directly in the 3D view but for the life of me I can’t get that to work.  I’ve turned off “auto tangents” for the keyframes in question, selected the keyframes in the timeline, and see the path in the 3D view - but can’t find the bezier handles for the path itself…  What am I missing?

Hi Ryan,

Do you have you “clamp” on? (Right sided from the Auto Tangents) This would be the first thing that comes to mind.

If you can share a little scene with this “question” only, I can check the other options. (Or uncheck all options in the Attribute manager, it should be visible by then…if it has handles in the F-curve editor)

Good luck with the project

Sassi

Ryan,
If I understand correctly, you need to have your object in question highlighted in your Object Manager, then use your Move tool. You can adjust your points (see the highlighted one in attached image).

Cheers,
Mike

Ooh, I think I understand my problem now.  I had two keyframes and was adjusting the F-Curves in the timeline to get it to animate in the way I wanted (i.e. not a straight line from point A to point B).  I was expecting to be able to modify the B-spline curves on the given keyframe points directly in the editor.  What you’re showing here is modifying the keyframe points themselves - as you have three keys, not two.  And you’re moving the key location, not adjusting the curve directly.  So what I’m asking for might not be possible at all?

Hi Ryan,

The keyframes have the information and from there the interpolation of the path is created. Right, there is no option to take a point just somewhere on the curve and adjust from there. Yes, that would be doable if a new Keyframe would be set.

If that would be possible, several problems would have the need to be addressed. First of all, to keep it smooth, the changes wouldn’t stop at the two keyframes, they would influence parts after the keys as well (or you get an abrupt change there. Secondly, if you like to keep any change the curve would be complicated, or you lose the previous adjustments. If the information would be stored in the two keyframes only and not in extra information, the calculation to set the direction and length might cause some trouble, as that might be not a simple equation to solve (it is a spatial path after all). I guess there is more to it, but I do not even think that it makes sense to request that.

The “art” of setting keyframes is similar to the elegance of creating a path in Illustrator. the less points a path needs to be created the more elegant and sufficient it is. Keyframes have a huge power if there are only the minimum amount of them. (Worst case, each frame has one) To find the best point for them allows as well to set the values in the best way. Which makes me think if the need for adjusting them “in-between”  indicates perhaps something else. But that is of course no judgement.

Thanks for clearing that, as it will help me to understand perhaps a similar question in a broader way—in the future. I di not even considered your idea to use the calculated part of the path to be part of the direct adjustment options.

All the best

Sassi