Keyframe many layers at once?

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BA
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Keyframe many layers at once?

Post by BA »

Maybe this is a script waiting to be written -

Is there any way to make a keyframe that 'punches through' a whole group of layers simultaneously?

Say I have a character whose parts exist on many sublayers, all within a group layer. I'm animating him pose-to-pose, and so I want to be able to create a keyframe at frame x for all the point motion, layer properties, and bone motion within the group. There must be a way of doing this without having to go into each layer individually and creating lots and lots of keyframes.

Otherwise certain layers may get missed, and then a certain bit of point animation may begin earlier than desired... know what I mean?

SO - is there currently a fast way to do this, or is it a scripting scenario?
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7feet
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Post by 7feet »

I'm working on a generic "run through all the layers" function, every type has it's things it does and does not like. I started with the idea of making a script that would "hide everything else" but the current layer. And then put it back. Almost there, but this scripting thing still makes my head hurt. And the scripting reference is, while I've found it awful useful, something only a programmer would love. Sorry LM. I'd be stumbling without it. But that ain't me.

But yeah, I've been running through how you would just freeze every key in a project ( or more properly, how to freeze all the subsequent layers ). It's a bit of a pain in the arse, but I'll get it in a few days.
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rylleman
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Post by rylleman »

Well, not exactly what you're after (I want that as well) but janimatic created a script called keySkeleton which keys a whole skeleton at once. It doesn't affect switchlayers, subskeletons or points, but I think you might get some help from it.
see http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtop ... y+skeleton.
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Post by janimatic »

hey!

i heard u said janimatic?
i was just thinking of an upgrade to my key skeleton script with the following additional options :

> key CHILDREN bones only (relative to selected bone)
> key every bones in every bone layers

But actually you are not talking about bones ... i think it should be a separate script then, keying every keyable channel in every layer at the current time...
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7feet
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Post by 7feet »

I'm still trying to figure a good way to flip through all those layer types.. All of em. I'm just not so good with the recursive bits, and thats what it needs, Oh poor me.
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rylleman
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Post by rylleman »

janimatic wrote: i was just thinking of an upgrade to my key skeleton script with the following additional options :
> key CHILDREN bones only (relative to selected bone)
> key every bones in every bone layers
That would be sweet!, I use your script all the time and I love it.
May I come with a suggestion for a script along the same lines?
-Set all skeleton keyframes to step (or maybe a dropdown menu where you can choose an interpolation type for all keyframes, including child skeletons). It's not really that hard to select all frames and do this myself but it would save some time to have a script for it.
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Post by janimatic »

Here we go,

you can download a key all tool script here :

http://animatic.no-ip.com/pub/dev/moho/js_key_all.lua
http://animatic.no-ip.com/pub/dev/moho/js_key_all.png

Just for a proof of concept, but i'll add the following soon :

key all point motions channels
key all line and shape colors channels
key all camera channels
key all skeleton channels

And check box to control which channel to key...

(warning : step mode is on by default for every channels)

On the other side i'll update key skeleton to act only on select bone layer with option to act only on selected bone's children ...

PS : this is a tool script not a menu script so please place the script and the png in scripts/tools ... and the script runs when you clic on the workspace
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Post by janimatic »

ok

please redownload this (new version) :
http://animatic.no-ip.com/pub/dev/moho/js_key_all.lua

updated :

> now recursive (going in all sublayers recursively)
> now act on every channels

TODO :
> GUI to filter channel types to key
> clean everything when you all are happy with it and make the code reusable

STRANGE!:
if you turn of verbosity (line 54 : JS_key_all.verbose = false )
recursion doesn't work anymore!!

maybe we need some delay to let moho act recursively ???
Anyway it seem to work with verbosity (but that slows things down
Toontoonz
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Post by Toontoonz »

Does this take the place of
js_keySkeleton.lua
that you wrote previously?

How does js_keySkeleton.lua differ from js_key_all.lua ?
Or are they two totally different things that I don´t understand yet?
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Post by janimatic »

different !

i don't have the time to answer right now i'll be right back :)
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Post by Toontoonz »

I probably should not even be adding my comments and questions here since I probably don´t understand the whys behind doing it.

But I did try this new script on my animation and was keyframing like crazy...then I tried to play it back and the animation no longer plays back smoothly but stops, starts, stops, stops, pauses, starts, etc with each column of keyframes in all 26 channels of each frame....
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Post by janimatic »

hey toonz,

but why do you run scripts if u don't need them..
i hope you did save your project before running it
The goal of the script is to keyframe every channels even sublayers...
Now it's easy to add a filter to let user choose which layer types and which channel types to key. It is what the user who started this thread requested !

like i said :
(warning : step mode is on by default for every channels)
this means that , by default, it acts like posing (start, stop, as u say... stop motion) By the way if u don't want that , just check off the little "step mode" check box at the top of the workspace

On the other side the key skeleton script will be updated to be more selective : working only on selected bone layer, i'll add a new option to key only children, and the keyboard already let user choose the channel types to keyframe
Toontoonz
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Post by Toontoonz »

but why do you run scripts if u don't need them..
I run them to learn.

If people can´t understand the purpose of using the scripts, then people will not use them.
Toontoonz
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Post by Toontoonz »

I hate to ask, but you write:
Now it's easy to add a filter to let user choose which layer types and which channel types to key.
What filters does Moho have that one can add?
teotoon
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Post by teotoon »

I think this is an extremely nifty tool which I have been waiting for ages. Particularly, those, who want to use Moho'a automatic keyframing function together with classical frame by frame animation approach, may find it very useful.

Thanks again and looking forward to seeing its improvment...

Suggestion: It would be great if the keyframed elements can be transferred into a switch layer.
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