Key frames? Please help
BC Rice
Posts: 591
I feel like someone yelled at me before about not knowing what I was talking about with regards to the keyframe issue in Carrara. But I can’t seem to find their reasoning/solution anywhere.
My big problem when animating in Carrara is that I have to manually add…every…single…keyframe in the timeline after every…single…movement in order to not have the character move like some sloppy constantly shifting thing.
What I need to be able to do is exceptionally simple. I just need to be able to add a keyframe for the thigh, foot, shoulder, head, etc in one click, so that I can go action STOP, action STOP, action STOP. But the only way I’m able to do that right now is by literally going from pose to pose, and then after they arrive at the pose, moving the time line along, then adding *individual* keyframes (without even the ability to just “key frame all”) that duplicate the last keyframe.
It’s soooooooo impossibly dumb that I can’t imagine that there isn’t a better way to do this. Like, how can I add a key frame on EVERY line without having to manually click “add key frame” on each line individually? It’s so ridiculously inefficient. And I swear I remember someone telling me that what I said was a shortcoming actually wasn’t true—that there’s a way around this issue. But for the life of me I can’t recall what it is.
Help??
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Comments
I'm baffled and befuddled...
In Carrara, when you rotate any bone to make a pose, a keyframe is automatically created for that bone. Does that not occur with your Carrara? What it doesn't do is create keyframes for all the other bones that you didn't touch. Just the one you moved.
Please do not post the same topic multiple times or different forums.
Yeah, no -- I mean when you manually add a key frame.
So let's say you take Michael 4.
You go forward a few frames and then lift his arm.
A key frame is created.
2 seconds later, you want the arm to drop.
So you move down the timeline to two seconds later, manually insert a keyframe, and then you move forward a few frames and move michael's arm to where you want it moved.
You have to insert these "duplicate" key frames in order to not have his arm be slowly moving over the course of the two seconds.
The way I animate, I need to be able to keyframe the *entire* model a ridiculous amount of times, and I can't seem to find out how to quickly accomplish that.
AAhhh, okay, I think your problem is the age-old problem of "neglecting your tweeners".... :)
Tweeners define how your bones/whatever will act in-between keyframes. For example, if you want to have your character walk, he will plant his foot on the ground, and you want it to stay on one place until it is called on to move to the next position. If your tweeners are wrong, the foot will drift when it should be planted firmly.
Is that what you're referring to?
What might be happening is you have made non-linear tweeners as a default, instead of linear tweeners. What that means is, in-between keyframes, the software makes a smooth and gradual transition between keyframes, which you may not want. You can see this clearly if you go into the graph editor and look at the bone's rotation channel.
Try setting the tweener default to linear, and check the graph editor and see if that does it for you.
By the way, the tweener default setting is under File/Preferences/General Scene Settings....the last drop-down is Tweeners...set it to Linear
Although I'm starting to think this might not be the problem you're referring to....I'm still kinda befuddled...
This may be able to help. Apologies, but I can't seem to find the bone rotation channels channels. When I click on the tweener type (by clicking on the tween), it says it's linear. I then have all the several options to choose between different sorts of tweens (bezier, etc).
Also, I'm probably not looking to just have keyframes with no interpolation (or, animation) between the keyframes, as I like to use the linear tweening system for things like Mimic, etc.
What I need to be able to do is to insert *blank* (or, duplicate) key frames across all bones in a single click. Just like any normal animation program. Like, for instance, in Flash, I simply highlight all frames, hit F6, and a new keyframe is created across the entire hierarchy.
Right now, if I want to add a keyframe to M4 (without actually moving M4) in Carrara, I have to one-by-one click each individual bone with a new keyframe.
I'm near certain that there's a much more efficient way to do this. Some kind of a "select all" function wherein I can add a new "blank" key frame to every single element in my model without having to do it manually, one by one.
Yeah, I don't know of a way to make keyframes for the entire heirarchy. Though I recall maybe one of Fenric's plugins might do the opposite and delete all keyframes, but I never used it...and my memory is foggy.
Which raises the question....if it doesn't exist, then why do you need it? I'm still not clear on why you want to insert a keyframe for an entire heirarchy, when stuff that isn't keyframed doesn't move anyway between keyframes, does it?
Typically, having a jillion keyframes only makes life a lot more difficult, IMO. But again, maybe I'm not understanding....
Here's a visual, in case that might help for what I'm trying to figure out.
Thanks again.
Y'know, there may be a way that I'm just not aware of...only because I recall having times when I notice that everything is keyframed and I didn't want it to be... :)
But I'm not sure how that happened... :)
So maybe there's another way to the result I want?
I want to take M4's arm. Raise his arm between seconds 1 and 2, allowing Carrara to interpolate (or, animate) the tween. Once his hand reaches the top, I want it to stay there for 2 seconds. I then want to move his hand again, but I don't want Carrara to tween between where I last stopped his hand and when I start to move it again. The way I've always accomplished this is to put in keyframes across the entire hierarchy so as to make sure that every single bone is starting at the same fixed position, so when I begin to move M4 again, nothing is being tweened from some previous position.
Okay....a basic rule of animation is "stuff doesn't move unless you tell it to", either by moving it and making a keyframe, or telling the software to by specifying tweeners.
If you raise his hand between t=1 and t=2 seconds, then don't move it again, the only way it will move is if there is a tweener or tangent that tells the software to interpolate. And no other part of your scene should move unless you move it manually, or there is a tweener or tangent that tells the software to interpolate.
So I'm not sure why you're getting stuff moving....
I'd suggest going to the Sequencer, then in the dropdown that says "Sequencer" select Graph Editor. Then find the body part/bone that is moving when you don't want it to (say, left shoulder) and click the arrows until you find "Motion Method:Keyframe" then "Transform" then "Rotation", and look at the graphs for X, Y, and Z axis rotations. Between keyframes those should be flat. If not, then you have a non-linear tweener or non-linear tangent, or somehow you rotated it by mistake.
By the way, if you want the hand stable between, say t=2 seconds and t=3 seconds, it will stay stable under the conditions I just mentioned. However, if you then want to move it starting at t=3 seconds, then you do have to select that bone and click the key-shaped "create keyframe" icon. That should make the hand stable for the last second, and start from that position for the next move....
Obvious, but I thought I'd mention it...
Maybe if we use poses as an example that would be better.
So let's say you take M4. You choose pose X. You want him to hold that pose for 2 seconds. You then want him to make another pose and hold that pose for 2 seconds. How do you typically hold each pose between poses? What's your method?
Haha But that's exactly what I'm attempting to do -- except across the entire model, not just the hand. If you want your model to start moving again after a long pause, you have to manually create keyframes for every single bone. That's what I'm trying to do. :D
Drag-select all the keyframes for pose A, hold Alt and drag a copy of those keyframes to where you want the figure to start moving into pose B.
Haha But that's exactly what I'm attempting to do -- except across the entire model, not just the hand. If you want your model to start moving again after a long pause, you have to manually create keyframes for every single bone. That's what I'm trying to do. :D
AHHH !!! Now I get it !!!
No there's a very simple and elegant solution, which surprisingly only showed up in the recent 8.5.
It's under Animation menu, called Memorize and Restore Figure Pose. Works great.
Basically you memorize the figure pose, or selection tree pose, or whatever you want, at the time the "freeze" motion is to stop. Then at the end of the "freeze" time, you Restore Figure Pose, and that entire pose is moved to that new keyframe time.
Again, you need to make sure your tweeners and tangents are good, or you may decide to manually make "freeze" time a little looser and more "organic" or natural and have some tiny motion.
EDIT:
Here's an image of the graph editor for a hip bone after a V4 pose has been Memorized and Restored at t=3 and t=4, and I did a little tweaking to the tangents to make it totally freeze in that interval, but also ease in and out to make it more natural.
And now that you mention it, I finally realized why sometimes I have an entire heirarchy keyframed sometimes...apparently the Restore command does exactly what you want, it keyframes the entire heirarchy. For some reason I thought it just copied existing keyframes and pasted.
WOOHOO!!!!!
((((hugs))))
THANK YOU!!
Thanks for your help as well. I'm working in Pro 7, so none of the 8.5 goodies.
But luckily the Select-Alt-drag works for what I need.
Though that restore button sounds even better. haha
Though I'd be worried when doing lip sync what affect that would have. Using Select-Alt-drag gives me control over exactly which keyframes I want to duplicate.
MAN. I love the DAZ forums. They have never disappointed when I've hit a roadblock.
Cool, glad you got it answered.
But I'm curious, how do you expand the entire heirarchy so that you can drag select ALL the keyframes? Seems tedious...
A second monitor really helps, but you can also collapse the Assembly room window and expand the sequencer, then it is a matter of drag-select.
It is tedious, so that was probably the reason that function was added to C8.5 as well as graph editor improvements. BTW BC, Carrara 7 has a graph editor as well, so Joe's suggestion for that is still relevant.
It's a little tedious. But not nearly as was putting in each individual keyframe by hand. Haha.
And it's only necessary for a stop (or, a "key pose"). So it's like animation, STOP; animation, STOP; animation, STOP. The only thing I allow to move unfettered is the lip sync, eyes, hair and cloth. Everything else is key pose to key pose with a little overshoot.
I was reading through this thread mentally yelling "Alt-Drag"! But you got there in the end. And if you don't want tedious, you really shouldn't be animating at all! It takes a lot of time to fine tune an animation, even with all the shortcuts. I also tend to use the Bezier default for human motion, it gives more natural flow. Using Linear tends to give a more robotic type movement (which is fine if that's what you want). When using pose-to-pose animation, you generally don't want to hold each pose - and even when you have a held pose, it looks more natural to have a little movement there (look up "Moving Holds" for more info).
Right.... :)
Anyway, I'd think you'd be yelling "Memorize/Restore !!". Isn't that a lot easier if you have C8.5? Going thru and expanding the entire heirarchy and copy/pasting seems overly tedious if you can just do two mouse clicks from the drop down.
But hey, whatever's easier for you.
Right.... :)
Anyway, I'd think you'd be yelling "Memorize/Restore !!". Isn't that a lot easier if you have C8.5? Going thru and expanding the entire heirarchy and copy/pasting seems overly tedious if you can just do two mouse clicks from the drop down.
But hey, whatever's easier for you.
Yes, I totally agree, Memorize/Restore is a great shortcut if you want to duplicate the entire pose.
You could also use the NLA system. In addition to using it for animation clips, you can use it to store and re-use poses, so if you have something that you think you will re-use in another animation, you can save it using this. And you can select the body parts which will and will not be saved so you can save partial poses too.
And with a Fenric plugin, you can save Poser-compatible poses (PZ2 format) for re-use, including animated poses.
So many ways to achieve things in Carrara!
If I'm doing a walk cycle, I tend to change the tweeners for the feet to linear, and leave the rest bezier as bezier can introduce some drift.