this does not belong on this board but where? what is that "mantis" place?
so sure of having read about people's thoughts on how a:m could develop in the future but where is there a wishing well here?

my two cents;
3D is naturally the bezier/spline territory but - is there a future where the keyframes could visually indicate which interpolation is assigned to them? or maybe there are not that many people working with different interpolations?

there isn't much space in the curves window (if that's the proper term) for shapes; so how about shades of grey? the background could be white then, and you'd have black for hold, dark grey for linear, the usual red for the default, and light grey for the spline and possibly a black framed (white) square for the zero?

Feature requests can be made like bug reports at hash.com/reports. But there are quite a few in line ahead.



The problem I see with that is that typically you look at more than one curve ("channel") and they may have overlapping, not simultaneous, keyframes and may have different interpolations happening at the same time. And since "spline" can make many different shapes just tagging the keyframe wouldn't describe it fully.

you can undock the PWS and Timeline windows and make them full screen. You can make those fullscreen and toggle them on and off with the keyboard when you need to see/hide them.

I put my PWS window on my second monitor and leave it there full screen. That's my #1 suggestion for anyone animating in A:M or any other app, get as much screen space for that curve window as possible. I agree seeing the channel splines is essential and making that window fullscreen is the best way to go.

hee hee. you just can't stop that yoda thing can you:

overlapping for a newbie means two keyframes at the same "time" (the place for overlap on the timeline), which makes them simultaneous.
we're in quantum twilight here: do the keyframes only appear to have position when in actuality only having speed?
and if i'd choose an indicator for their speed i'd loose their position and wouldn't know where to click anyway so why bother?
(yes i'm kidding - hope you're into science so you got that. seriously: practically expecting you to call 'typo'. or rock my world. just pick one!)


didn't think of that. true. still, wouldn't it be helpful to know what was going on where? clicking the keys already proved troublesome at times or should i say overlaps. seriously. making a decision means you're very likely to want to tweak that decision. not likely i'm alone in this.. ok now i really am serious. and voting for indicators. (sent an e-mail to the queue btw.)


also true, but wouldn't that imply the need for even more tools? the naming convention and position in the list plus the existence of that list suggests this already has priority over a few things. or that we may never know the speed of the list. sorry. sorry. i blame you, you threw that David Rogers thing at me, now look! ('twas so bad had to come back and clean up some silly)(thanks btw)

The only way to really know what and where is happening with the curves is to look at them.

Click to view attachment


The red and blue curves are both "spline" but just knowing they are spline wont' tell the whole story of how they are interpolating. They have to be seen.

The green line starts and ends after the red and blue lines start and end but overlaps them too. Just that circumstance alone means color coding the background is not feasible.

Looking at those curves is part of the fundamental workflow of CG animation. I still recommend getting to know that window, learn to switch in and out of the curve view, learn to zoom and scroll in it and full screen it to make the most of it. Those are all obe-button operations.

I don't know how to emphasize this enough... full screen that window. You won't get much done with it in just a tiny pane, no matter what information it presents.

scratching my head.. it's beginning to look like we're walking parallel here, is it possible we're talking about different things?

just let me roll my sleeves and explain the nature of the actual working problem, instead of just talking about keyframes. (and no science!)
taking a step back, which might seem unnecessary, but can't help suspecting there lies the real root of the misunderstanding. you might wanna go get coffee, this'll take a while.

while budding green and oblivious to a:m, i'm an animator and the tools for making motion look a certain way are the first i care about. (materials, lights, focal lengths and their rendering is the scary part.) the channel window is familiar to me, and it's the one i work in. i'm very disappointed in having to change windows for just moving a selection of keys every time, and that will be my next e-mail to the powers that be! the other window is naturally helpful in seeing all the keys, if you need to match placement, but it's like once every twenty times..

so, entering 3D, with this particular script, the first rule and a very personal perspective is to not make it look like 3D animated till almost at the end of the film. the look will be a cut out animation made in studio, with a camera.
an animator builds that visual component with motion. here, in this case, the motion is not allowed to be the fluid CG smoothness.
this is achieved simply by discarding the default operations, and choosing "linear" as interpolation method. number eight.
when i opened the interpolation dialogue, i was alarmed to see no checkmark appear to show my choice.
thinking, "uh-oh... this is not in widespread use.." i expected trouble, and trouble came swiftly.

major problem: when i'm in the zone, i'm just this big flaming passion happening. stopping to do searches for changing default interpolation in project settings feels like killing a live being, killing the flame for good.
so every new keyframe was in bezier equation, and evey ten frames i had to stop to select a bunch of keys and press eight for linear.
when using linear, the other interpolation you often want is hold, number seven. it's a speedy way to animate, and blends right in when in linear environment.
and there's no way to tell which keys are eights and which are sevens.
so when choosing the last ten-ish keys to eight them, i frequently overwrote my sevens. over and over again.
just please don't tell me to remember the numbers of the frames, anyone! or write them down, or something like that. not gonna happen. this is one place i'm expecting a program to adjust to me, not the other way around. i want the keyframe square, default color red, to change its color when i choose another interpolation.

the reason i spoke about the background is, well quite simply, "don't come with a problem come with a solution". i thought about ways to improve this function, and it seemed that if the dark grey background would be white (just like in the other timeline), you'd get two grey shades for use in keyframe colors straight away. right? then add black and you've one color missing. figured a black frame with white in the middle would show, even in that tiny format.

the window size was a problem, and a big one, i told you in another thread. but that was not the issue here. two monitors sounds like the perfect solution, i'll start choosing lottery numbers...

man that's a lot of text. but that's the whole kaboodle with whiskers and all.
anyone got this far.. i'm curious as to people's workflow - this is a good representation of my MO, how does it work for others?

Sounds like you need to change the default interpolation.
*In the PWS, select the <Bones> container for the model shortcut (in the chor). This will select every bone in the model shortcut that has an existing animation channel.
In the Channel (Curves) window, click once in the window and hit [Ctrl-A] to select everything.
Double-Click inside the selection box. A dialog box will appear.
Make sure the form field for "Interpolation Method" is set to "Default". This will set every selected keyframe to the "Default" interpolation method.
Now - Right-Click inside the selection box and choose **Curve > Interpolation Method > whatever**, where "whatever" is whichever method you want to be the default. (the icons don't line up with the words in this particular context menu, so go by the words, not the icons).
The change may not appear right away - if you are concerned about it, try tapping the space bar to refresh the window. Or double-click once again inside the selection box and choose "Default" for Interpolation Method - when you hit OK to close the dialog, the Channel window will update.
You can also change the Default Interpolation for any channel on any bone by clicking on the "Interpolation Method" icon to the right of every bone channel in the PWS under a chor. This is also a good way to tell what the default interpolation for the channel is.


If you are looking in the Channel window, it should be obvious at a glance which keys are "Hold" and which are "Linear". The only time I can think of when the difference would not be obvious is when you have a "Hold" key right next to (one frame away from) a "Linear" key ... which you probably shouldn't be doing. You should just use all "Linear" keys in that case.
If the difference between the keys having different interpolation methods is not obvious as soon as you view them in the Channel (Curves) window, it just means you need a bit more time to get familiar with how the different types appear and behave. After a while, you will have no trouble telling them apart.


You can get a dual-monitor video card that will work fine with AM for under $100 and you can buy a cheap second monitor just for the PWS for around $150. Isn't your sanity worth $250? You would pay your shrink that in *one hour*.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. I'm using WinXP and in the Keyframe window I can select a group of keys and drag them up and down the timeline.
I can also do that in the Channel window with the left/right arrow keys
or by holding down the [1] key on the keyboard (not the number pad) and dragging left/right inside the selection box,
or by double-clicking inside the selection box and entering an "Offset" amount in the "Time" form field in the dialog window that appears.

and then there was music. the tech description that followed is my guiding star during the next six months.
thank you so much!
is this in the techref? are there subjects like this in the official a:m tutorials? i've done the vase, the flower, the airplane, took thom for a walk and made the flag flutter, and then got bored. the A-2-3, B-2-3, C-2-3 learning is not for everyone. when things begin to feel meaningless, i'm out. i checked the wookie also and could tell with a glance, when i'll start using "hair", the wookie will get me started and then reality will take over.

replying to your second post here in the middle; i tried the left-right arrows when animating and nothing happened.
that's the intuitive thing when dragging didn't help. (or a PS habit) repeat, and nothing happened.
read your post, opened a:m and sure enough, keys they hop in unison every which way when using arrows. individally also. there's no stopping them! i got so mad i even disconnected my tablet and then tried again, almost hoping that would stop the arrows working, because it was just another problem i didn't need on monday 50 times per hour for 12 hours.



tested a bit. here's the keys for a thigh when the window is about 6,5" high - and when it's the size i work on, only about 1,5"!
Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

it makes a huge difference in orienting. i looked at the other timelines as well, with the exception of one, they look even flatter. feels like the second monitor is a reliable answer. or more comprehensive one or how to put it.
and i still wish the keys could show where the sevens are.


yup. that's what the lottery numbers are for
it's either work or film here. i chose wrong for a decade, but that's in the past. now i'm going to go update my computer info in the profile so stuff like that can be eliminated as culprits. and the arrow mystery will keep teeth grinding all night.

thank you again!

RMB in any blank area of the the title bar of the ProjectWorkSpace (PWS) or in any blank area of the PWS and uncheck "Allow Docking".

That will detach the window from the main A:M screen. Then you can drag its corners to make it full screen or any size you want.

Then use ALT -1 to toggle in on and off when you need to see it.


You can do the same for the "Timeline". ALT-2 is the hotkey for the Timeline window

What sort of video card do you have?

hi! thanks,


this:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForc...-G.11360.0.html

and i found this:
http://driverscollection.com/?file_cid=409...0039f2deedad28d
is this what i want? sure looks like?

Unless there's some display problem, i don't think you need to change your drivers

i'll keep the bookmark so's not to jinx it.. thanks again!