Setting Keyframes for Isolated Animatable Properties

There are two groups of isolated animatable properties: GLOBAL and LOCAL. Each controls different animation parameters. LOCAL animation parameters are per object, where as GLOBAL are for all objects of that sort.

How to Use

Select Animation > Param control to display the Parameter Control window.

In the Parameter Control window, you can see all the animation parameters (attributes) for every type of item that can be animated. For example, X Translate is an animation parameter of a DAG node, Angle of View is an animation parameter of a camera, and Reflectivity is an animation parameter of a shader.

GLOBAL Parameters

If you click the arrow beside GLOBAL, a list of all items that can be animated is displayed. This includes DAG nodes, curve CVs, surface CVs, cameras, lights, and shaders. If you click the arrow beside an animatable item, a list of all the attributes that can be animated for that type of item is displayed.

Global Parameter Window

When you expand the DAG node Global parameter settings, this is what you find. Any box with a check represents an animatable parameter. Visibility doesn't have a check; therefore, this parameter cannot be animated with set keyframe at this time.

When you expand the Curve CV Global parameter settings, you will see that Position XYZ can be animated and Weight, for the moment, cannot.

Shading Parameters Global Settings

When you click the arrow beside the Shading parameters, sub-headings for shader and texture parameters are displayed. Clicking an arrow beside a sub-heading displays the parameter settings for that shader or texture.

For details on shader and texture parameters, see the Multi-lister in Rendering in Alias.

LOCAL Parameters

If you click the arrow beside LOCAL, you can see a list of all animatable items that are currently active. If you pick or unpick objects in the modeling windows, or select a new shader, texture, or light in the Multi-lister window, the items under LOCAL change to reflect this new set of active items.

Note:

The LOCAL window is useful for determining which objects are considered active when invoking an animation function (such as Animation > Set keyframe or Delete > Del channels -) to act on ACTIVE objects. All items that are listed under the LOCAL heading are considered ACTIVE for the purposes of these animation functions.

If you click the arrow beside an animatable item, you see all the attributes that can be animated for that type of item. Usually this list is the same as in the GLOBAL parameters for that type of item. However, in some cases, the LOCAL animation parameters are a subset of the GLOBAL animation parameters. For example, all lights have color, intensity, and shadow attributes. However, only ambient lights have the Ambient shade attribute.

Local Parameter Window

The LOCAL parameter window lists all items that are active.

Each animation parameter (GLOBAL or LOCAL) has a box next to it, which contains a check mark (4) if the parameter is turned ON. To toggle it OFF, click in the box.

Parameter Names For IK Handles

Although IK handles are DAG nodes, some types will display parameter names which are different from Translate, Rotate, and Scale, which are the standard for DAG nodes. The following diagram illustrates the difference between spline handles and a single-chain IK handle. (See Introduction to Inverse Kinematics for details on Rotation Order and Roll and Twist).

Parameters

For example, Animation > Set keyframe, Edit > Duplicate channels - and File > Export > Save anim all have the Parameters option in their option boxes.

Any animation functions that have Params in their option box operate based on the on or off condition of their animation parameter.

If the Parameters option in these functions is set to Global, then the function is only applied to the animation parameters that have a check mark next to them in the GLOBAL parameters section of the window. If the Parameters option in these functions is set to Local, then the function is only applied to the animation parameters that have a check mark next to them in the LOCAL parameters section of the window.

The difference between GLOBAL and LOCAL is that there is only one set of GLOBAL parameters that apply to all objects. LOCAL parameters, on the other hand, apply to each animatable item. Therefore, when you set the LOCAL parameters of each item individually and then invoke some animation functions with Parameters set to Local, different animation parameters of different items will be affected.

The state of each GLOBAL parameter is set to its default each time you start up Alias. However, LOCAL parameters for an item are saved when you store a file. So when you retrieve a model, its latest LOCAL parameter settings are also retrieved.

The check mark box next to each item's animatable parameter gives a visual cue about that item's parameter. In particular, if the item is animated in a LOCAL parameter (that is, a channel exists for the animation parameter of that item), then the box next to that parameter stands out by being slanted (just like the slanted boxes in the SBD window for animated items) and white.

To turn all the animation parameters for an item on or off click the check box beside that item's name (under both the GLOBAL and LOCAL parameter headings).

Using the Apply Button

Sometimes you may want to change the LOCAL parameter settings for many items of the same type all at once. For example, if you are animating the CVs of a curve or surface in the XY plane, you may want to turn off the LOCAL animation parameter for the Z position of all CVs.

Since an object could have hundreds of CVs, it would be very cumbersome to pick all the CVs, and turn off the Z position LOCAL animation parameter for each CV. Instead, you can pick all the CVs, click the Z Position GLOBAL parameter box off in the Curve CV or Surface CV parameter window (depending on whether the CVs are on a curve or a surface), and then click the apply button in the GLOBAL parameters section of the window. This applies the GLOBAL parameter settings for each type of item to the LOCAL parameter control of each item in the LOCAL parameters window.

Now if you open one of the CVs in the LOCAL parameters window, you see that its Z Position parameter has been turned off.

Next to the apply button there is a check box. If you click in this box, you can turn all the GLOBAL parameters on or off for every type of animatable item at once (4 indicates that they are on).

Example: Animating a Ball

This example shows you how to animate a bouncing ball. The ball squashes and stretches when it hits the ground and bounces off again.

1

Model a ball with two half spheres grouped together under one DAG node. The upper DAG node controls the translation and rotation animation as the ball travels through the air and bounces.

2

Pick the upper DAG node, and set its local parameters so that only the appropriate translation and rotation parameters are on. The lower half sphere scales when it hits the ground and takes off again.

3

Pick the DAG node above the lower half sphere, and set its LOCAL parameters so that only the appropriate scale parameters are on.

4

Now, animate the ball. Place it in its starting position, and pick the sphere DAG node.

5

Select Animation > Set keyframe - to open the Set Keyframe Options box.

Set the Parameters option to Local, and the Hierarchy option to Below, then click the Go button. Type a time for the first frame at the information line and press Enter.

6

Use Xform > Move and Xform > Rotate to animate the sphere DAG node, and Xform > Scale to animate the lower half sphere. At each key position, pick the upper DAG node, and select Animation > Set keyframe -.

Since the Parameters option is set to Local, and you have set the local parameters in the parameter control window appropriately, then animation channels are only created for the parameters that are on for the items' local parameters.

To verify that only these parameters are animated, pick one of the DAG nodes that are animated, and click the button for the item in the LOCAL PARAMETERS window. Notice that only the boxes next to the parameters that are check marked on are slanted and white (indicating that they are animated).

Animating a Shader

This example shows how to animate a shader.

1

Open the Multi-lister by selecting Windows > Multi-lister. Create a new shader, or select an existing shader to animate.

2

Click the box next to Shading Parameters in the GLOBAL parameters window to turn all the shader parameters on. Double-click on the shader to open the Shader Editor, and use the sliders and keyboard entry to adjust the shader attributes to what you want the shader to look like at the first keyframe.

3

Select Pick > Nothing to ensure that no modeling objects are picked, so that you only set keyframes for the shader. (Alternatively, you can toggle GLOBAL parameters other than Shading off.)

4

Select Animation > Set keyframe- and ensure that the Parameters option is set to Global, and the Objects option is set to Active. Click Go and type a time for the first keyframe at the information line.

5

Adjust the attributes in the Shader Editor window, then select Animation > Set keyframe again to set another keyframe.

Animating a Light

To animate a light's attributes (such as color or intensity), select the light in the Multi-lister and animate the light as you would animate a shader. To animate the position of a light, select the DAG nodes above the light in the SBD window, and animate the DAG nodes.

For more details on how to animate other kinds of objects, such as cluster percentages or joint constraints, see Animation > Set keyframe on page 52.

Where you can use Parameter Control

The following animation functions have an option to use parameter controls (your package may not have all of these functions):

• Animation > Action window (See The Action Window on page 138.)

• Surfaces > Swept surface > Anim sweep

• Animation > Playback options

• Animation > Set keyframe

• Anim > View frame

• Edit > Duplicate channels

• Edit > Duplicate object

• Delete > Del channels

• File > Export > Anim

• Animation > Time Warps > New time warp

• Animation > Time Warp > New scale warp

• Animation > Time Warps > New cycles warp