Actions overlap at same frame question

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Stephen X
Posts: 93
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 6:13 pm
Location: Washington DC

Actions overlap at same frame question

Post by Stephen X »

Hey everyone.

I'm sure there are simple answers for this problem. I am trying to learn how I can use the advance tools for my work.

In the tutorial it shows how you can layer actions over one another. There is the section where they ask you to add all three bend, wave and squat actions. The wave action is not viewable once you apply all three. I'm assuming it is "under" the "bend" action, but I can't find it.

I tried moving the "bend" action to see if the "wave" action is underneath. Do these fuse together when you place one on top of the other at the same point on the timeline. This doesn't happen when the 2 actions are even 1 frame apart on the timeline. The overlap works fine. Is there something that I am missing? If I delete the "bend" action, both get deleted.

Any help would be awesome!!!

Thanks:)
Stephen
Genete
Posts: 3483
Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:27 pm
Location: España / Spain

Post by Genete »

It was a long time ago when I did the tutorials...

But I'm sure one thing: If an action do same things over same objects then the second action you apply will override the other actions for those objects (if the share same frames)

Try to do one simple thing.
Over a vector layer create an action that move some points to any place.
Then create a new action that move some of the same points and additional ones from the same vector layer. Let's say action1 moves points 1, 2, 3 and action2 moves points 2,3,4.

If you insert a reference of the action it inserts also a keyframe for the frame 0 before the action keyframe AND also insert the state for the frame 1 in the action, but inside the action reference (where you cannot get access). This is the confusing thing. If you want to avoid that you can insert a copy of the action (you lose the ability of grad the action over the time but you can delete the keyframe for the frame 1 in the action and also AS don't insert the keyframe for the frame 0).

The best thing is:
1) Make actions of only a keyframe (frame1) and you will avoid the problem of overlapping. See Darthfurby video tutorial in Tip and Techniques area.
2) If you need an action that must have a length of more than a keyframe, don't overlap it with other actions that share objects in the action. Always you can split a complex action with single keyframe poses. Later you can combine it into a more complex action or directly insert them in the timeline at the frequency you need in that time. For example the "wave" action you mentioned has a frame rate. What if you want to slowdown or increase the frame rate of the wave? If you have spitted it into single poses you can create your custom actions easily for any situation in the animation.

Hope it clarifies you a little the use of actions.
Best
Genete
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Stephen X
Posts: 93
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 6:13 pm
Location: Washington DC

Post by Stephen X »

Genette

Thanks so much. It did help. Hopefully this is something the developers will work on and simplify for future versions. I watched DarthFurby's tutorial this morning.

If it wasn't for users like you, heyvern and Darthfurby; I don't think people would understand the truly awesome PROFESSIONAL power this program has. You guys are the best.

Thanks so much!

Cheers
Steph:)
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