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[Ente]

Sorry for the confusing title but I don't know how to describe my problem better in the title... Anyway:

I want to make a short film with anim8or but sometimes I have a little problem: When I want a person to move, then to stand on one place and then to move again, it doesn't stand still. I tried to put a keyframe on the beginning of the 'standing time' and one on the end, but then it moves in a circle, but I want it to keep it's position...
Any idea how I could handle this? (I hope you understood my problem, if not say so and I will try to explain it otherwise)

mfg
Ente

[thecolclough]

the trick is to add multiple keyframes - in the diagram below, i want the object to move in the first second, stay still in the 2nd second (denoted by the red line), and then move on again in the 3rd.
eobject01 is set up with a keyframe at the beginning and end of the still period, but has the problem you've just described - it wobbles when it's supposed to be staying still.
eobject02 is set up exactly the same, except with two keyframes each at the beginning and end of the standing-still period (ringed in green), rather than just 1, and it stays still, like i want it to.

you might be able to work around the problem by changing key types to step or corner in the keyframe editor, but i've found that system doesn't always work, so i use the multi-keyframing approach.

hope that helps

- colclough

[ENSONIQ5]

I generally use the same technique Colclough (nicely demonstrated too!).  The motion curve in the graph editor can be manually edited (I believe) to prevent this unwanted motion as well, caused by smoothing of the keyframes (smooth keyframes is the default setting), but I find the multiple keyframe method quicker and simpler.

[thecolclough]

I generally use the same technique Colclough (nicely demonstrated too!).

thanks, ensoniq

as a side note (maybe steve could confirm?) i think this works because when anim8or calculates the position of an element during one motion segment, it's affected by only the two nearest keyframes on either side of the seg, not by all of the keyframes in the scene, so if you put in identical dual keyframes at each end, then the program sees the element as being sandwiched in between a total of four identical keyframes, and reads that as 'stand still'.

also, i've found the same approach also works for orientation, and for bone-keying, if that helps. 

- colclough

[Ente]

Ok, thank you for your detailed answer. I think I tried it quite similar but it didnt work... but I might have forgotten to double the keyframe at the end of the stand-still-period. I'll try it the next time I get this problem (I got around it the last time, but just by "cheating" a bit in the scene)

mfg
Ente

Edit:
Tried it out now, worked perfectly, thank you!

[thecolclough]

you're very welcome

[Steve]

Anim8or uses cubic splines so if two adjacent keys have the same value then the motion is independent on each side of them.  You can do the same with a corner (and with a step if you need the animation to jump to a new point).  You will probably need to adjust the slope of the curve leaving key when you initially make it a corner since Anim8or preserves the initial smooth animation.

[hihosilver]

This brings up a question I have for you steve, about perhaps implementing a new feature that doesn't seem to me like it should be too hard.
I was wondering if you could have a keyframe shortcut or button.  I know we have the keyframe mode button, but what if we could move the object where we wanted it first, then press a hotkey/shortcut to make a new keyframe in that position.  Then, instead of having to move an object to give it a keyframe, you could just press the hotkey or button and get a new keyframe.  This would make a predicament like this much simpler.  For example, you could move the object to position, and press the hotkey, go to the next frame and press the hotkey again.  Then you'd have two consecutive frames that were the same but both had keyframes!
Just an idea!
Thanks

[thecolclough]

i'd like to second hihosilver's suggestion

- colclough

[saijeehiguchi]

I like it too, i third it.  ^ ^

[hihosilver]

When thinking about how it could be done, to get more elaborate perhaps there could be a rotational keyframe key, a movement keyframe key and a bone keyframe key.  Then, if all you wanted was a keyframe for the movement, you could do that.  If you only wanted an orientation keyframe, you could do that, etc.

[PLanAhead]

I agree whit Hiho, I also think it would be nice if we could grab the directional axis markers. i.e. Instead of grabbing a bone and moving it with the mouse (hopefully) in the intended direction, one would grab the directional marker and move the bone either X,Y,Z. (automatically rotating on its axis) of course. Its a pretty common feature in other tools I have watched in design videos.

[ENSONIQ5]

That would be a great addition, hihosilver.  It might be possible to have just one quick-keyframe-add key however, which would add a keyframe to whatever was selected.  Having multiple buttons might get a bit confusing when adding keyframes to lights, for instance, which have so many animatable parameters.  If you wanted a keyframe in just the orientation channel, you could expand the element in the keyframe editor, select the "orientation" motion control channel, and hit the shortcut key.  You could select multiple channels using the ctrl key (or right mouse button to keep the Anim8or convention) and keyframes would be added to all those channels selected.  Of course, this would mean that every element would have to have, by default, motion controllers for every animatable parameter relative to that element.

PLanAhead - that would be a nice idea.  Although I understand the 3-button/3-axis approach to rotating bones in sequence mode, and it gives excellent control, it would be more industry standard, so to speak, more like traditional 2D graphics packages, to have 'handles' on the bones, by which the bones are rotated around the axis perpendicular to the monitor, no matter what view you are in.  Having the directional axis marker double as this handle is a great idea.

[hihosilver]

ENSONIQ5, I do agree with you there.  Of course, it couldn't be like a universal keyframe button necessarily because you can't animate things such as light color with it, but I do like the idea of just selecting the channel that's already there and just using the single button.  That would definitely call for less buttons and work extraordinarily.  So perhaps it doesn't need something for every single animatable parameter such as light color, but it could work for most instances.  For morphs it would probably just have to create a keyframe that copied whatever the morph was at at that moment.

Though I still hope for some kind of realtime changing morph slider so that you can view what the morph looks like  before you apply it (fingers crossed!)