Animation in AS

Yin and Yang · Post by **Yin and Yang** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:44 am

Okay, this is probably a stupid question.
I have looked at so many tutorials, forums, and other stuff found on the internet but I just cant find the answer!(My head hurts...)
When animating something, the program makes a motion happen gradually and smoothly between the last point and the point you just created. But there is something I havn't been able to do. I have a cat, it turns it's head, lifts up it's paw(while having the eyes blink once while the paw is lifting), but what i want is At the moment the cat is licking it's paw, the tail starts to thrash once. My problem is that the tail continuously and slowly moves from the very begining until the last point. How do I change this and make the tail START to move when the cat licks it's paw?
Lots of bad spelling, sorry!

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 4:39 am

Key frame for the tail at that point. A "non moving" key frame. A key frame that is the same as the LAST key frame. You already described this process in the beginning of you question:

When animating something, the program makes a motion happen gradually and smoothly between the last point and the point you just created.

However, those two points or key frames can also be IDENTICAL. A key frame does not have to define a change in motion. It can be used to HOLD the position of a previous key frame.

-vern

Yin and Yang · Post by **Yin and Yang** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 1:42 am

Hmmm... I understand what your saying and I have tried that. It didn't work. Maybe I did something wrong? Have you done this succesfully?

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 2:14 am

Yin and Yang wrote:Hmmm... I understand what your saying and I have tried that. It didn't work. Maybe I did something wrong? Have you done this succesfully?

This is the basic rules of all key framed software animation. It isn't specific to Anime Studio. It is a basic principle. Yes, it works for me. Would need to see a file to know where your trouble is.

Motion occurs between key frames. If there is no change from one key to the next then no motion is "visible". The same thing is happening as "moving" key frames, the software "tweens" between two key frames regardless whether there is a change or not.

-vern

tonym · Post by **tonym** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 2:38 am

I was slow to figure this out myself, so I sympathize.

Try this:

Click on the whatever layer the cat tail is on, to select that layer.

See that dot (keyframe) on the timeline, on the frame where you moved the tail to its end-position? Let's pretend it's on frame 100. Don't do anything, just look at it.

Now, what frame did you want the tail to start moving? Let's pretend that you want the tail to start moving on frame 81. Start moving on 81, end on 100.

Okay, now look at frame zero. See the keyframe next to the 4-black-dots? Click on that keyframe once, to select it. It should be red now.

Now click on the word "copy" on the timeline (not "copy" from the pull-down menu at the top of the screen). Now advance the time-slider line to frame 80. Now click the "paste" button on the timeline. You have just copied the keyframe from frame 0 to frame 80. Now nothing will happen until frame 81.

Does this help?

Yin and Yang · Post by **Yin and Yang** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 2:01 pm

Thanx you two! That really helps! I went back and tryed it and I WAS doing something wrong! Haha, stupid me.

But ya'lls advice really helped me to understand it better!