Reverse keys (beyond alt+drag)

[dosrobots]

I'm trying to do the reverse animation and using alt+drag to reverse the copied keys. However, the outcome has multiple issues (slowness, timing, switch layer, order etc.). See the screen capture:



I acknowledge the hold-keys can be partially the issue, but do you have suggestion how to improve the process and implement working reverse animation?

[Greenlaw]

Some thoughts...

Reversing playback by inverting the keys works well with regular Smooth and Linear keys, but the nature of Step keys is always going to be at issue because, even though the sequence of the keys can be reversed, the interpolation mode always affects the right-side of the key (unless it's a Smooth key). In other words, a Step key may potentially hold where it was previously playing.

Maybe you can try converting the interpolation of all keys to Smooth or Linear to see the motion after reversing, and then manually set the interpolation modes necessary for proper forward playback? I haven't actually tried it, but I imagine it's the most workable approach.

Another thing you can try: instead of using Step keys on the timeline, use Linear or Smooth keys to hold the motion (i.e., copy/paste the same key.) Using these types for holds should preserve the timing even after reversing their positions. (This is my preference; I rarely use Step to set holds in normal animation keyframing.)

You can simplify mirroring the placement of the keys by doing this: Select and reverse the Markers first, then stretch the selection to match over the length of the original keyframes. Then offset the Markers past the existing keys. Now you have a reversed Marker guide you can use to line up the copied keyframes too.

Or try this script: Reverse Keyframes. I just tried it, and one issue I see is that, if you have Copy Previous Key set as the default mode (like I typically do), all of the mirrored keyframes are created using the last key's interpolation mode. So, if you have mixed interpolations, you'll need to reset them. I'm guessing that if you change the default to Smooth or Linear, it will just use that. This tells me that the tool doesn't copy/paste the keys; instead, it creates brand-new keyframes on the timeline. Just something to be aware of.

Hope this helps.

[dosrobots]

Thanks for the insight Will experiment with the different approaches - or combination of those plus manual tweaking

[Greenlaw]

BTW, I wondered if the Rescale Keyframes... command could be used like the Reverse Keyframes tool mentioned above, but it made a mess when I tried to invert a frame range. I didn't spend any more time with this, but I'm guessing it's not meant to be used this way. (Maybe I'll look at it again later.)

[hayasidist]

BTW, I wondered if the Rescale Keyframes... command could be used like the Reverse Keyframes tool mentioned above, but it made a mess when I tried to invert a frame range. I didn't spend any more time with this, but I'm guessing it's not meant to be used this way. (Maybe I'll look at it again later.)

looks to me as though rescale needs the end frame to be greater than the start frame.

[Greenlaw]

Thanks for looking into this, Paul!

I still want to revisit this, but no time for it yet.