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Menus Animation > Editors > Action window > Expression examples

Animation > Editors > Action window

Edit keyframes, expressions and animation curves.
See Scale animation timing with a time warp
See What is a time warp curve?
See What is a parameter curve action and a motion path action?
See Prevent collisions in your exploded view animation
See Edit the animation curve
See Move keyframes on an animation curve
See Animate objects along a motion path
See Edit the timing curve of a motion path
See Edit a motion path in the Action Window
See Edit a keyframe animation
See Playback the animation
See Rendering image matching views

Action window interface

Choose Animation > Editors > Action window to open the Action Window. The Action Window has three components:

The Action Lister is always displayed on the left side of the Action Window.

On the right side, you can display either the graph editor or the timeview. Use one of the icons in the Lister title bar to switch between these two views.

The Action Window also has its own set of pull-down menus. See Action Window menus on Action Window menus for information.

There is a prompt line below the menus. It displays error message information and prompts you for input that is required when you select certain menus. When the prompt line is dark pink and the cursor is not in the Action Window, you know that the window is not active. The cursor must be in the Action Window in order for keyboard input to be recognized. The prompt line also contains snap toggles (see Action window snap toggles) that help you constrain movement.

> Notes

Action window snap toggles

key toggle

The key toggle is to the right of the prompt line. When toggled on, the time slider bar is snapped to keyframes. When moving keyframes, they are snapped to times or values of other keyframes as follows:

time toggle

The time toggle is to the right of the key toggle. Use this toggle to constrain the movement when keyframes or the current time slider bar are moved.

When time is toggled on, the time slider bar and the time of keyframes snap to integer values. When toggled off, you can move selected keyframes or the slider time bar to any time.

value toggle

The value toggle is to the right of the time snap toggle. This toggle is used to constrain the movement when keyframes are moved.

When value is toggled on, the value of keyframes snap to integer values. When toggled off, you can move selected keyframes to any value.

time slider

The graph editor and timeview both have a time slider. This is the vertical bar that crosses the window with a box at the top that contains the current time. The time slider bar slides along a horizontal rail. You can change the current time by clicking anywhere in that rail and dragging left or right. When you drag to a new current time, notice that all animatable objects are updated with their channels evaluated at this new time.

You can also double-click in the time slider box to change the current time. (This is like choosing Animation > Show > View frame Animation > Show > View frame and selecting a new current time at which to view the world.)

When the box turns pink, with the existing time on a grey background, type the new current time. A single click in the time slider box updates the animated world. This is useful if you have changed any keyframe positions, as these changes are not automatically reflected in the animated world.

Action Lister

The Action Lister lists items with their channels and is always displayed on the left hand side of the Action window. The contents of the Lister depends on the settings of the List Mode menu. Objects and channels that have an animation associated with them are displayed in a dark color, while entries without an animation appear in a lighter color.

Parameters that have an expression attached to them also appear in a dark color, with a pair of brackets () next to the parameter name (if Disp Tools > Show curve names is enabled in the Action Window, the expression appears within the brackets).

Channels animated by a single action may also have the name of the action curve displayed next to the parameter name.

> Action Lister buttons and icons

Model-Pick button

Takes the objects currently selected in the Action Window Lister and makes them active in the modeling windows.

Parameter Filter button

Opens the filter control panel that lets you select which channels are displayed in the Action Lister.

Filter Control panel

To open and close the filter control panel, click the Param Filter button. While the filter control panel is open, you cannot do any other function in AliasStudio.

The filter control panel is for DAG node channels. For other types of objects, you can choose between the local and global settings in the Param Control window (see Animation > Editors > Param control Animation > Editors > Param control).

A DAG node has ten animatable parameters, but the most commonly used ones are the X, Y, and Z translate, rotate and scale parameters. The 3X3 grid in the parameter control filter allows you to quickly turn on and off the display of these nine parameters, controlling the amount of data in the Action Lister.

To turn a parameter on or off, click in its box. For example, clicking in the second column of the first row turns off the Y translate parameter; clicking in the box again turns it on. You can toggle all the translate, rotate or scale parameters at once by clicking in the Tra, Rot, or Sca buttons. Similarly, you can toggle all the X, Y, or Z parameters by clicking the X, Y, or Z buttons respectively.

Below the 3 XYZ toggles are five more buttons:

See Animation > Editors > Param control Animation > Editors > Param control for more details.

When you have finished toggling buttons on and off in the parameter filter panel, click the parameter filter button again to close the panel. The Action Lister updates to display the selected parameters.

graph editor button

The graph editor button activates the graph editor (which appears to the right of the Action Lister). The graph editor lets you view and change action curves for any channel.

timeview button

The timeview button activates the timeview (which appears to the right of the Action Lister, replacing the graph editor). The timeview lets you view overall animation timing for any channel, and create and edit expressions and attach them to animation parameters.

> Selecting in the Lister

For various operations in the Action Lister, you must select elements in the Lister before selecting a function.

If you have selected more than one item in the list, you can use the expand item and expand animation buttons to expand all selected items at once. For example, if you select three out of five animated items, and then click the expand animation button for one of the selected items, all three selected items have their animation parameters added to the list. (For an in-depth explanation of these buttons, see the next section.)

> Changing names in the Lister
See Animation > Editors > Param control Animation > Editors > Param control for a complete list of all animation parameters for all types of animatable items.

You can change the name of most items in the Action Lister by double-clicking the item that you want to change. The field turns light pink, indicating that you can type the new name. Press Esc to clear the field of the current name, then type the new name. If you make a mistake, use the Backspace key. Any action curve can be renamed, as well as most animatable items, such as DAG nodes and shaders.

You cannot rename CVs or polyset vertices, since they get their names from the name of the DAG node above them. You also cannot rename animation parameter names since these are names used throughout AliasStudio to identify the parameter.

object type icon

The icon to the left of each object's name shows the object type. For example, a DAG node above a surface has a surface icon, a DAG node above another DAG node has a DAG node icon, and a camera has a camera icon.

expand item button

If an object has any descendants, this button appears next to it. Select this button to add the object's descendants to the Lister. The new sub-objects are indented below the first object to show the object's hierarchy. For example, if a DAG node above a surface is in the Lister, it has an expand item button.

When this button is pressed, all the surface CVs are listed with their names indented below that of the surface DAG node.

When an object is expanded, click the same button to compress its items-that is, to remove its descendants from the Action Lister.

If you hold the Shift key while clicking the expand item button, the item expands to its children, each of the children expand to their children, and this continues until all items below the original item are expanded.

Using the Shift key to expand does not expand leaf geometry DAG nodes to their CVs. This restriction is made so that you can expand DAG node hierarchies quickly without having to list the potentially large number of CVs that belong to curves or surfaces.

expand animation button

If the item in the Lister is animatable, it has an expand animation button next to its name (between the expand item button and the item type icon). Click this button to display the item's animation parameters in the Lister. What appears in the Lister depends on the filter control panel settings.

When an item is expanded to show its animation parameters, press the expand animation button again to compress the items and remove the display of the item's animation parameters from the Lister.

If the animated object is an IK handle, its parameter names may come with special notes. For example, if the object is a single-chain IK handle, its X Rot may be shown as X Rot[PoleX], Y Rot as Y Rot[Plane], and Z Rot as Z Rot[PoleY]. When you change the rotation order for the single-chain handle, the notes are updated accordingly.

For other examples, the X Rot parameter becomes X Rot[Roll], and the X Tra becomes X Tra[Pos] if it is a spline root handle. The X Rot becomes X Rot[Twist] if it is a spline master handle.

pin object button

If an object is pinned, it remains visible in the Action Window Lister even if it becomes unpicked in the modeling window or its parent object in the Lister is compressed.

expand channel button

If an animation parameter is animated, it has a channel. If the channel has more than one action (for instance, it has at least one timing curve applied to its base action), then it has an expand channel button next to its name. Press this button to display the channel's action curves in the Lister.

The new actions are indented with respect to the channel. Actions are listed in the order in which they are applied, with the base action first.

When a channel is expanded, press its expand channel button to compress- that is, to remove the display of the actions of the channel from the Action Lister.

padlock

If a channel is padlocked, it remains visible in the Action Window Lister, even if the channel filters or parameter controls are changed such that the channel would otherwise be removed from the Lister.

Padlocked channels are still removed from the Lister when the object's channel list is compressed.

Action graph editor

View the graph editor with this icon.

Use the graph editor to create and modify actions. There are also a few operations that you can apply to channels.

The curves in the graph editor reflect what is in the Action Lister. For example, if an item has three parameters that are animated each by a single curve channel, then three actions are displayed in the graph editor.

If a channel has two or more actions on it (for example, a base action and timing curves, which were created using Set motion), the channel appears in the Lister with an expand channel button. When you click this button, the channel's animation curves are added to the Lister and to the graph editor. If the channel is not expanded, only the resulting animation curve on the channel is displayed in the graph editor.

The resulting curve (result curve) is the final evaluation of the channel with all of its actions. Result curves are always displayed as dashed lines because they are not editable. You can toggle their display on or off by choosing Tgl result curves from the Disp Tools menu in the Action Window.

You can pick channels and animation curves in the graph editor by selecting the name of the animation parameter in the Action Lister.

Action timeview

View the timeview with the following icon:

The timeview is an alternate way of viewing actions and channels. You see only the duration of actions without the animation curves that appear in the graph editor. The timeview is useful if you are satisfied with your animation's motion but want to adjust its timing. You can edit individual actions, single channels of an animatable item, or channels for the whole animatable item. You can also use this view to coordinate the movement of objects in your scene.

Action Window menus

The Action window members described in this chapter are as follows:

> ListMode menu

The List Mode menu lets you specify which objects are displayed in the Action Lister.

Picked

Lists all the modeling objects that are picked.

All

Lists all root level items in the universe.

Picking items

For items that appear in the SBD window, only the root level DAG nodes are listed. The hierarchical items below the DAG node can then be expanded using the expand item button.

Other types of items that are listed in this mode include the universe and all animatable perspective windows.

> Edit menu

The Edit menu lets you do operations on items selected in the Action Lister.

Keyframe Edit

Opens up the Keyframe Stats window which can be used to edit the frame, value, and tangents of individual keyframes.

Edit Expression

Opens an external ASCII editor to create or edit an expression for the currently selected animation parameter.

Cut

Deletes selected items.

To remove the animation from a parameter, for example, select the parameter in the Action Lister and select Cut to delete its channel. Only the animation is deleted; the parameter itself still remains in the Lister, but is now shown in a dim color to indicate its lack of animation.

You can also delete keyframes or individual actions using Cut. If you cut something by accident, use Undo to restore it.

If you cut only one channel or action curve, the animation is placed on the clipboard (replacing anything that may have been there already) so you can paste it later onto an unanimated parameter (see Paste and Paste Instance below).

Copy

Copies one channel or action curve to the clipboard (replacing anything that may have been there already) so that you can paste it later (see Paste and Paste Instance).

If a tangent is picked, both the tangent angle and tangent type are copied.

Paste

Pastes a channel or action curve onto an animation parameter that has no animation attached to it.

If tangent information has been copied to the clipboard, Paste can be used to alter the tangent angles and tangent types of any picked tangents.

The channel or action that is pasted onto the animation parameter is the one that is currently on the clipboard. Actions and channels are placed on the clipboard after a Copy or Cut operation.
Copy Segment

Copies a segment of an animation curve onto the clipboard.

Use Paste Segment to insert this segment onto another curve. To copy a segment, pick the keyframes from a curve. The segment is defined as the part of the curve between the first and last keyframes picked on the curve.

Paste Segment or Paste Segment With Offset

Inserts a curve segment from the clipboard into an existing curve.

Paste Segment With Offset offsets the values of the pasted segment that is, raises or lowers the segment) so that its first keyframe sits precisely on the selected curve at the specified time. Paste Segment (without offset) leave all of the values in the pasted segment untouched.

To use Paste segment or Paste segment with Offset

  1. Select the curve onto which you want to paste the segment.
  2. Click the curve and drag along the curve to the location at which the segment should be inserted.

    3. Alternately, you can use the keyboard to specify where the curve segment should be pasted. When you choose Paste Segment or Paste Segment With Offset, the system prompts: 

    	Click or drag on curve to define insert location (time, 
[repeat], [gap]): 
 
    
	Type the time at which the first keyframe of the segment should be placed. Optionally, type the number of copies of the segment to paste (this is the Repeat option). The repeat is 1 by default. If you enter a repeat of more than 1, you can optionally enter a gap in time to be inserted between the segments. The default is 0.

    
 
    
  
To paste a segment onto an unanimated parameter, you must use keyboard input.
Clear

Deletes selected items without placing them on the clipboard. (If you clear something by accident, use Undo to restore it.)

To remove animation from a parameter, for example, select the parameter in the Action Lister, then choose Clear to delete the channel.

Only the animation is deleted. The parameter itself still remains in the Lister, but is now shown in a dim color to reflect its lack of an animation.

Paste Instance

Like a paste operation, except that the newly animated parameter reuses the animation curve on the clipboard instead of making a copy.

To Use Paste Instance:

  1. Select a channel from one object and invoke Copy.
  2. Select an unanimated parameter from the same or a different object, and invoke Paste Instance.

    3. The newly animated parameter and the original channel share the same action curve(s). Now if you edit the action, the animation for both channels is affected.

Show Instance

Shows all the channels that are using a particular action curve.

Sometimes an action curve can be used by more than one channel. For example, if you create motion path animation (Choosing Animation > Tools > Set motion Animation > Tools > Set motion) or a new time warp (Choosing Animation > Create > New time warp Animation > Create > New time warp), then the animation curve(s) created are shared by more than one channel. To share an existing action with more than one channel, use Paste Instance.

To see all the channels that are using a particular action curve, select the action and choose Show Instance from the Edit menu.

A utility lister appears listing the name of the action. Below the action is listed, the names of the objects and their animation parameter which use the action.

You must close the utility lister by clicking OK before proceeding with any other operation in AliasStudio.

Undo

Undoes previous operations on keyframes, tangents, and an action itself (such as Transform, Tangent Type and Edit operations).

Undo keeps a history of transformations, so that if you repeat Undo, it will undo further back in the history.

Using Edit > Cut in the Action window limits the undo function. If you choose Edit > Cut and cut more than one action on the same channel in the Action window, Edit > Undo may not work.

Cut one action followed by the second action, or cut the channel as one item.

Redo

Recreates what was undone by Undo.

You can use Redo to reverse the last operation from Undo. You can redo as many operations as you undid with Undo.

Delete operations outside the Action Window (for example, Delete > Delete active Delete > Delete active or Delete > Animation > Delete channels Delete > Animation > Delete channels) delete the undo history in the Action Window.

Viewing and editing keyframe stats

Choose Keyframe Edit to open the Keyframe stats window, which lets you view and edit frame, value and tangent information for one or more keyframes, one keyframe at a time.

Once the Keyframe Stats window is opened, pick a keyframe in the Action window. Each time you pick a keyframe, the Keyframe Stats window shows the information for the picked keyframe.

The parameters in the Keyframe Stats window are described below.

Pos' X/Y

The current position of the keyframe. The first number is the frame time of the keyframe and the second number is the value of the keyframe. You can change the position of the keyframe by clicking a number and entering a new number.

You can not enter a time that is outside the segment in which the keyframe is contained.

Tan' In/Out

The angles of the in-tangents and out-tangents on the keyframe. The values must be between -90.0 and 90.0. If you change the value of either of these tangents, the tangent type for that tangent becomes fixed. This ensures that the new tangent value that you assigned to the keyframe retains that value.

Tangent Lock Button

Next to the tangent values is a tangent lock button. Clicking this button locks in the current angle between the in-tangents and out-tangents, so that if you modify one of them, the other is modified by a compensating amount.

For example, if the in-tangent is 10 degrees and the out-tangent is 30 degrees, then the angle between them is (90 - 30) + (90 - 10) = 140 degrees. It you turn on tangent lock and change the out-tangent value to -20 degrees (a decrease of 30), the in-tangent value changes to 60 degrees (an increase of 30), thereby maintaining the 140 degree angle between them.

The tangent lock button works only for changes in the Keyframe Stats window. To maintain a tangent relationship when changing tangents using Transform > Move Transform > Move, use the right mouse button.

Tan' Type

For more information on tangent types, see the description of the Tangent types.

Shows the current type of the in- and out-tangents. The tangent type controls how tangents are recomputed when a keyframe is moved or when keyframes are added or deleted next to the keyframe. Click down on the currently displayed tangent type to use a menu to select a different tangent type. (The current tangent type is highlighted in the menu.)

> Notes on selecting multiple keyframes

When you have the keyframe stats window open, you can also select multiple keyframes. If any of the position or tangent values are the same for all picked keyframes, the corresponding value is shown in black.

If the values are not all the same, the value in the keyframe stats window is gray. If you select this value and enter a new value, and then all picked keyframes assume this same value.

For example, if you pick two keyframes, one with a value of 5 and the other has a value of 10, then the keyframe stats show the value of one of the keyframes in gray, indicating that not all picked keyframes have the same value. If you select this grayed value and type in 7, now both keyframes are given a value of 7 (and it is displayed in black).

If multiple keyframes are picked and they all have the same tangent type, then this tangent type is displayed. If not all keyframes have the same tangent type, then the Tan' Type parameter says Unknown. You can select an Unknown tangent type and select another tangent type; then all keyframes assume this same tangent type.

(Tangent angles and tangent types can also be copied from one keyframe to another using Edit > Copy Edit > Copy and Edit > Paste Edit > Paste.)

CurveTools menu

Use the CurveTools menu to create and modify action curves.

Append keyframes

Adds keyframes to an existing action, or creates a new action for a parameter that is not currently animated.

To use Append keyframes:

  1. Select an unanimated parameter or a parameter curve action.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • click in the graph editor at the place you would like the new keyframe created, or
    • use the keyboard to specify the frame time and value of the new keyframe.

      • The tangent types of the new keyframe depend on the current tangent type mode. See Tangent types for more details.

Insert keyframes

Adds keyframes to an existing action.

To use Insert keyframes:

  1. Choose the action in the Action Lister, or pick the action in the graph editor (using Pick > Curve).
  2. Choose CurveTools > Insert keyframes and click and drag to the frame at which you would like to insert the keyframe.

    3. The keyframe is inserted using the same value as the action originally had at that frame. The tangents of the new keyframe are adjusted to preserve the original shape of the action.

    Insert keyframes adds keyframes to a curve only between its first and last keyframes. If you wish to extend an existing curve before its first keyframe or beyond its last one, then use Append keyframes.

Use result

Compresses all actions applied to a channel into one parameter curve that maintains the same shape as the original animation of the channel.

This function is very useful if a channel is animated with several time warps, and you want to edit the channel as a whole, instead of as individual actions.

To use Use result:

  1. Animate an item along a motion path or apply one or more time warps to a channel. (See Create a motion path animation for more information.)

    2. The channels with the motion path and time warps appear as dashed lines because they can't be edited. Compressing these non-editable channels makes them editable, since the channel then uses only a single parameter curve action.

  2. Select the non-editable channels that you want to compress.
  3. Choose CurveTools > Use result. You are prompted to enter a start, end, and by value at which to sample the channel.
    • The start and end values represent the range over which the new parameter curve is defined.
    • The by value is the frequency with which new keyframes are created.

      • (If you do not specify start, end, or by, defaults are used. The default start and end values are the range of the channel being compressed. The default by value is 1.)

      For example, if you enter 0, 10, and 2, then keyframes are created at times 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10.

      Using a large by value is faster, but may give an inaccurate curve, especially if the animation has many sudden and dramatic changes in value. If this occurs, choose Edit > Undo to restore the original curves and them try again with a smaller by value.

      Caution! If a channel has one or more time warps, the range of the channel is not well-defined. Specify explicitly the start and end values for the channel, rather than relying on the default values.

Simplify

Simplifies a curve by reducing the number of keyframes in it while still preserving the shape of the curve within a tolerance.

When you choose Simplify, the system prompts: 

	Select actions to simplify. Enter range & tolerance ([start], 
[end], [by], [0.050]): 
 

	If you simply press Enter, the selected actions are simplified with default tolerances and ranges.
The default values for start and end are the complete range of the actions selected. The default by value is 1, and the default tolerance value is 0.05.

Alternately:

Tgl keyframe lock

Toggles whether a keyframe is locked or unlocked.

If a keyframe is locked, it cannot change location or value when you Transform > Move Transform > Move. This is useful if you want to ensure that a specific keyframe happens at a specific time, and you want to avoid accidentally moving it. Locked keyframes are displayed as solid squares in both the graph editor and the timeview.

Pick menu

Use the Pick menu to pick items in the action editor. Pick for actions is like the standard AliasStudio Pick, but it works on actions, channels, and keyframes. You can pick an item by clicking on it.

To pick multiple items, click and drag. In the Action Lister, this picks several adjacent items. In the graph and time views, it drags out a pick box; everything inside the pick box is made active when you release the mouse button.

The graph editor Pick functions have the added capability of picking while you are in other functions. If you hold the Shift key, you are automatically in Pick mode no matter which menu item is current.

You can also pick curves by typing the curve name in the prompt line. You can use wildcard characters (such as *,?) to select curves with similar names. For example,

sphere.*Translate

picks all the sphere's Translate animation curves. Choose DispTools > Show curve names to display the names of the curves.

Nothing

Unpicks anything that is active in the Graph Editor, Action Lister, or Timeview.

Any

Picks whatever is contained inside the pick box. It picks channels or any component of an action: keyframes, tangents and actions.

Since keyframes, tangents, and actions cannot be picked at the same time, a pick priority defines what is picked if all three of these action components are inside the pick box: keyframes, then tangents, then the action itself.

Keyframes

Picks the keyframes of an action.

You can pick keyframes in a certain time range by typing the first and last time of the range at the keyboard. Be sure that your cursor is in the Action Window so that keyboard input goes to the Action Window. Keyframe display can be toggled on or off using DispTools > Show keyframes.

Curves

Picks actions or channels. If a curve is picked in the graph editor, it is also selected in the Action Lister.

Any tangents

Picks a keyframe's in-tangents and out-tangents.

In tangents

Picks only the in-tangents of keyframes. The in-tangent is the tangent entering the keyframe (from the left).

Out tangents

Picks only the out-tangents of keyframes. The out-tangent is the tangent where the curve leaves the keyframe.

Template

Picks templated curves. A curve can be templated using DispTools > Tgl template.

If the Pick type is set to Keyframes, selecting an action (or a single-action channel) in the lister toggles the pick state of every keyframe on that action, meaning that unpicked keyframes become picked and vice-versa.

Similarly, if the Pick type is set to Any Tangents, In Tangents, or Out Tangents, then the pick states of all the tangents on the curve, or just the in- or out-tangents, are toggled.

Using keyboard input to move between keyframes and tangents

By holding down the Ctrl key and using the arrow keys, you can "pick-walk" through keyframes and tangents.

Pick-walking lets you pick a keyframe or tangent and then, with the use of the keyboard arrows, go on to pick another while unpicking its predecessor.

> Notes on pick-walking

Transform menu

The Transform menu does operations on items selected in the Action Lister, timeview, or graph editor.

Move

Lets you move keyframes, tangents, or the whole curve.

To use Move, select any number of components using Pick and then choose Move. Drag the cursor in the graph editor window. The picked objects follow the cursor.

> When moving keyframes and curves:
> When moving tangents:

Normally, when you are moving tangents, horizontal motion of the mouse is ignored and the tangents move proportionally to the vertical motion of the mouse. So, if the mouse moves one quarter of the way up the Action Window, all the selected tangents move up by 45 degrees, which is one quarter of their total range of movement.

If you hold down the Ctrl key while moving tangents, instead of proportional movement you get direct movement, where the tangents point directly at the current position of the selection arrow:

> Using keyboard input to move objects

You can use keyboard input to specify where to move curves or keyframes, and to give tangent values. If you precede your keyboard input with A, the values entered are interpreted as the absolute position to move to. If you precede your keyboard input with R, the values entered are interpreted relative to their current values.

For example, typing A 10 5 moves a keyframe to the time 10, and value 5. If you then type R 2 1, the keyframe is placed at time 12 and value 6. You can enter either positive or negative numbers.

If a curve is picked, Move moves the whole curve with respect to the first keyframe on the curve.

If a tangent is picked, only one value needs to be entered at the keyboard. This value is an angle between -90 and 90 degrees. An angle of 0 degrees means the tangent is horizontal. You cannot assign a value of exactly -90 or 90 to a tangent because this would produce a vertical line in the curve; however, you can assign tangent values close to -90 or 90.

Scale time

Speeds up or slows down the animation in a certain range of an action without affecting the timing of the rest of the animation.

Scale time is only available via keyboard input, and not interactively.

To use Scale time

  1. Select the curve or keyframes from the curve which you would like to scale, and choose Move > Scale time.

    2. The system prompts: 

    	Enter (start, end, new start, [new end]):
  2. Enter the old range of the action that you would like to scale (start and end) followed by the range to which it should be mapped (new start and new end). You can optionally not enter the new end time, and it defaults to the end time.

    3. The specified range of animation between start and end is scaled to the new range. If there was no keyframe at either start or end, a keyframe is inserted before the range is scaled to define the segment to be scaled.

Scale value

Scales the value of picked keyframes.

Notes:

To use Scale value

  1. When you choose Scale value, the system prompts:
    2. 	Enter y-axis pivot value, scale factor:
  2. Enter the value around which you would like to scale (the pivot value) and the amount you would like to scale by.

    3. The new keyframe value is computed by subtracting the pivot value from the old keyframe value to determine the current scale, multiplying this scale by the scale factor, and then adding this resulting value to the pivot value to obtain the new keyframe value.

    For example, if the keyframe value is currently 80, and you specify a pivot value of 70 and a scale factor of 2, then the current scale is 80 - 70 = 10. This value is multiplied by the scale factor to obtain the new scale value of 20. Thus the resulting keyframe value is the pivot value 70 plus the new scale 20 to equal 90.

Randomize

Assigns random values to keyframes. Randomize is useful for animating movement with distinct but similar behavior, such as a school of fish swimming in the same general direction but with their own individual movements. You can randomize keyframes in their frame or value or both.

To use Randomize

  1. Pick the keyframes you want to randomize.
  2. Choose the Randomize function from the Transform menu. You are prompted to make a box defining the range inside of which the randomized keyframes should remain.
  3. Click down where you want the first corner of the box, and drag to define the size of the box. Alternately you can type in the frame and value for the two opposite corners of the box.
  4. Now click down inside of the box and move the mouse.

    5. As you move the mouse horizontally further away from where you clicked, the keyframes are randomized more in time. As you move the mouse vertically further away from where you clicked, the keyframes are randomized more in value.

    Use the middle mouse button to randomize the keyframes in time only. Use the right mouse button to randomize the keyframes in value only.

Views menu

Use the Views menu to change the view in the graph editor and timeview.

Look at

Changes the view in the graph editor so that all selected curves, keyframes, and tangents in the Action Lister are visible.

The time and location ranges displayed in the graph editor are bounded by the lowest and highest time and location values of all selected items.

To use Look at

  1. Select the items you want to look at.
  2. Choose Views > Look at. The view changes to show the full extent of the selected items. The other curves, keyframes, and tangents are still displayed, but they may not be visible or may be only partly visible if they do not lie fully within the bounds of the new view.
Dolly

Zooms in or out of a particular view.

Click in the graph editor or timeview at the point you want as the center of your new view. Drag the dolly box out, then release the mouse.

Track

Tracks the view horizontally and vertically.

Click in the graph editor or timeview, and drag your mouse around to change the view:

Undo View

Undoes previous operations on the view, such as track, dolly, or lookat. Undo View keeps a history of transformations, so that if you repeat Undo View, it undoes further back in the history.

Redo View

Re-creates what was undone by Undo. Use Redo View to reverse the last operation from Undo View. You can redo as many operations as you undid with Undo View.

DispTools menu

Use the DispTools menu to change the display of various items in the graph editor. All of its choices are toggles.

Tgl template

Puts a curve in a templated mode. The curve appears in gray, and has no keyframes or tangents on it. (This behavior is like the ObjectDisplay > Template ObjectDisplay > Template function in the main AliasStudio window.)

To template a curve, pick the curve (either in the Action Lister or using Pick > curve), and choose DispTools > Tgl template. If the curve was templated, pick the curve using Pick > Template Pick > Template, and choose DispTools > Tgl template to untemplate it. A templated curve cannot be picked in the graph editor, although it may still be picked in the Action Lister.

Tgl tangents

Turns the display of curve tangents on or off. By default, tangents are not displayed.

Tgl infinity

Turns the display of the curve beyond the action's defined time range on or off. See Defining actions (Action Tools) for the various out-of-range types.

Tgl keyframes

Turns the display of keyframes on parameter curve actions on or off. Keyframes are displayed with a small box if they are locked, and with a small X when they are not locked.

Tgl stats

Turns statistical information about keyframes and tangents on or off.

If Tgl stats is on and a keyframe is picked, the (X, Y) co-ordinates of the keyframe are displayed. If a tangent is picked, the angle of the tangent is displayed.

Tgl result curves

Turns the display of channels on or off.

Tgl curve names

If a channel is animated by a single action, then toggling Tgl curve names on displays the name of that action beside the channel name in the Action Lister. If the channel is animated by an expression, then the expression is displayed beside the channel name, instead.

ActionTools menu

Use the ActionTools menu to change the behavior of curves outside their defined range. You can also add comments to your actions.

> Defining actions

Actions are defined over a certain time range:

You can display how an action is evaluated out of range by choosing DispTools > Show infinity.

The ActionTools menu lets you specify how the curve should be evaluated when it is out of range of the first and last defined times. The Before types specify how the curve should be evaluated before the first defined time; the After types specify how the curve should be evaluated after the last defined time.

Constant Before/After

Constant Before means that the curve retains the same value as the value of the first keyframe (or at time 0 for motion path actions) for all time values before this first keyframe.

Constant After means the value of the last keyframe (or at time 100 for motion path actions) is used for all time values after the last keyframes. This is the default out-of-range type for parameter curve actions.

Cycle Before/After

Cycle Before means that the curve repeats itself before the first keyframe. This is like the curve being copied and pasted repeatedly before the first keyframe.

Cycle After means that the curve repeats itself after the last keyframe. This is like the curve being copied and pasted repeatedly after the last keyframe.

Cycle Before/After with Offset

Cycle Before with offset is the same as Cycle Before, except it continues backwards vertically from where the previous cycle left off. (It does not start from the same vertical position each time.)

Cycle After with offset is the same as Cycle After, except it continues vertically from where the previous cycle left off.

Oscillate Before/After

Oscillate Before and Oscillate After means that the curve repeats itself backwards, then forwards, then backwards, and so on. This is as if a copy of the curve was taken, and first glued to the curve in the reverse (or mirror) direction, then in the forward direction, then in the mirror direction, and so on.

Linear Before/After

Linear Before means that the curve continues in a straight line along the in-tangent of the first keyframe.

Linear After means that the curve continues in a straight line along the out-tangent of the last keyframe. Since motion path actions do not have editable tangents, linear means that the curve continues along the actual tangent of the curve.

Identity Before/After

Identity Before and Identity After means that the curve continues in a straight line at a slope of 45 degrees (or parallel to the line y = x starting at the first/last keyframe). This is the default out-of-range type for time warp actions created with Anim > Time tools.

Comment

Lets you add comments to your actions to remind you of information about that action. This is like Object edit > Edit comment Object edit > Edit comment, which lets you add comments to objects in the modeling world.

Pick one curve in the graph editor, and choose Edit Comment. A shell window running an editor is opened, and you can add new comments or edit previous ones for the action. When you quit the editor, the window closes and you can continue working.

TangentType menu

The TangentType menu is both a mode and a function, and it operates on currently picked keyframes.

Tangents control how a curve behaves as it leaves one keyframe and enters the next. The display of tangents can be toggled on or off using DispTools > Tgl tangents.

> Tangent types

Keyframe tangents have tangent types. All of the tangent types except for Fixed cause the tangents to be recomputed whenever the keyframe is moved, so that the characteristics of the tangent type are maintained. For example, if a keyframe's in-tangent is Linear seg in, then the in-tangent of the keyframe always points to the previous keyframe. If the keyframe is moved, the in-tangent is updated to continue to point at the previous keyframe. If a tangent type is Fixed, this means the tangent does not change angles when you move the keyframe. You must explicitly move a Fixed tangent to change its angle.

For finer control of a keyframe's tangent, pick the tangents using Pick > Any tangents, Pick > In tangents or Pick > Out tangents, and then choose Transform > Move to adjust the tangent. This causes the modified tangent's type to become Fixed.

Smooth

A smooth transition is made between the keyframe before and the keyframe after the selected keyframe. Its tangents are co-linear (that is, they are both at the same angle). This ensures that there is no jerkiness at the keyframe.

The angle of the tangents is a weighted average of the slopes between the two keyframes on either side of the new keyframe. Setting a keyframe to Smooth sets the tangent type of the in- and out-tangent of the keyframe to smooth.

Linear seg in

The action is in a straight line between the previous keyframe and the selected keyframe. The out-tangent of the previous keyframe and the in-tangent of the selected keyframe lie along this straight line.

Setting the tangent type of a keyframe to Linear seg in changes the in-tangent type of the picked keyframe to linear and the out-tangent type of the previous keyframe to linear.

Linear seg out

The action is in a straight line between the selected keyframe and its next keyframe. The out-tangent of the selected keyframe and the in-tangent of its next keyframe lie along this straight line.

Setting the tangent type of a keyframe to Linear seg out changes the out-tangent type of the picked keyframe to linear and the in-tangent type of the next keyframe to linear.

Slow seg in

The movement slows as it enters the keyframe. Setting the tangent type of a keyframe to Slow seg in changes its in-tangent type to slow and the out-tangent type of the previous keyframe to fast.

Slow seg out

The movement is slower at the beginning of the curve segment following the keyframe. Setting the tangent type of a keyframe to Slow seg out changes its out-tangent type to slow and the in-tangent type of the next keyframe to fast.

In/Out

The movement eases out of the new keyframe, and eases in to the next keyframe. Setting the tangent type of a keyframe to In/Out changes the out-tangent type of the picked keyframe and the in-tangent type of the next keyframe to in-out.

Fast seg in

The movement is faster going into the selected keyframe. For example, a car accelerating. Setting the tangent type of a keyframe to Fast seg in changes the in-tangent type of the picked keyframe to fast and the out-tangent type of the previous keyframe to slow.