How do I copy an Action?

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Peteroid
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How do I copy an Action?

Post by Peteroid »

I want to make a new Action that is close to an Action I already have. So, I'd like to copy the one I have, rename it, edit it, and save it as a new Action. Is this possible?

Also... can I adjust the duration of an existing Action? Say an Action takes 24 frames.... can I lengthen it to 48 frames without creating a new one with the new duration?

And let's say I'm editing in the main timeline and discover a pattern, so want to copy a segment of the timeline and turn it into an Action. I've tied copying keyframes from the timeline into the Action... and so far I can't seem to do it...
[==Peter==]
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heyvern
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Post by heyvern »

To copy an action:

Create a new action.
Select the action you want to copy in the action window. Click "insert copy" button or right-click on the action and select "insert copy".

You now have a copy of that action in the new action. This also works well if you want to copy the "mainline" keys from the main time line into an action.

---------------

If you used the "insert reference" of an action in the time line and want to change the length of that action where it's used, open the action, use the "Rescale key frames..." menu under the "Animation" menu.

The new length will update in the main time line where that actions "reference" was used. This won't update if you used "insert copy" of an action.

-vern
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Peteroid
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Post by Peteroid »

heyvern wrote:To copy an action:

Create a new action.
Select the action you want to copy in the action window. Click "insert copy" button or right-click on the action and select "insert copy".

You now have a copy of that action in the new action. This also works well if you want to copy the "mainline" keys from the main time line into an action.

---------------

If you used the "insert reference" of an action in the time line and want to change the length of that action where it's used, open the action, use the "Rescale key frames..." menu under the "Animation" menu.

The new length will update in the main time line where that actions "reference" was used. This won't update if you used "insert copy" of an action.

-vern
Thanks Vern!

I didn't think about the 'copy action' into another action method. And it never occurred to me that the 'mainline' entry in the Actions could be 'copy action'ed as well (I thought it was just a way to get back to editing the timeline).

I wish there was a way to make a 'prototype' layer. What this would be is a layer that can't be used in and of itself in the timeline, but it can be used to create 'children' layers that can. Then, if a change is made to the 'prototype' layer, it is reflected in all its children layers.

This is why I would like such a feature (maybe it exists, I'm new).

Right now I am building a cartoon character. He is made up of multiple appendages, all of which are just transformed versions of each other. I also would like to have many of these characters on screen at a time.

Now, say I want to add a new Action, or edit an existing one, to one of these appendages. As it is, do I have to now add/edit this Action individually to each instance of an appendage? FYI, I created each appendage on the same character as a copy of a previous appendage, and I create multiple characters by copying them...
[==Peter==]
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