After you have created animation in a layer, you can edit the fcurves as you usually would, such as by using the fcurve editor, the dopesheet, and the keys in the timeline.
You can also copy and paste keys within a layer (that is, not from one layer to another), remove keys, and retime, offset, and scale (sequence) the animation in a layer using the commands from the Animation menu at the bottom of the interface.
For more information, see:
• Scaling and Offsetting (Retiming) Animation.
Editing Layer Keys in the Timeline
When you set keys in an animation layer, the keys appear as blue bars in the timeline. The keys are blue to remind you that you’re animating in a layer, and not the base layer where the keys are red.
You can, however, edit the layer keys in the timeline in the same way as you can for the base layer: you can move keys within the same layer, cut or copy and paste keys within the same layer, scale a region of frames with keys, and delete keys.
See Editing Keys in the Timeline for more information.
You can either display only the selected layer’s fcurves in the animation editor, or you can also display all fcurves for the selected object by opening the animation editor as usual. This shows all the layer’s fcurves in relation to the base layer’s fcurves. See Opening the Animation Editor for more information.
To display only the selected layer’s fcurves
Do either of the following:
• Right-click on an animation layer in the Animation Layers panel and choose Animation Editor.
or
• Right-click on a layer clip in the animation mixer and choose Animation Editor.
This displays only the layer’s fcurves. These fcurves represent the parameter’s actual values, not just the offset from the base layer.
Weighting the Layer Clip in the Mixer
The layer clip in the mixer is a little different from a regular action clip in the mixer because it is in global time. As a result, you can’t use a layer clip in the same way as you would an action clip in the animation mixer; for example, you can’t scale, move, trim, cycle, or timewarp a layer clip, or put multiple layer clips into a compound clip.
You can, however, use the mixer to blend the weights of multiple layer clips with each other, including the base layer.
To set the layer’s weight in the mixer
1. Open the model’s animation mixer.
2. Set the weight at the right end of each layer’s track, and possible animate its values.
For more information about weighting clips, see Mixing and Weighting Clips in the Nonlinear Animation guide.
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