Basic question: Working with keyframes
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 11:28 pm
Hi all--
I picked up this software months ago, but I've only recently had the time to really dive into it. I really like it so far, but it's my first experience with animation software of any kind, so I'm learning as I go. So, sorry if this is a very basic question.
I'm doing a lot of animation by moving points around in vector layers, to change a character's expression on their face for example. The problem is, I think I'm doing it in an unnecessarily labor-intensive way.
If I want the expression to change between frames 70 and 80, for example, I'll first go to 70 and slightly wiggle all the points in the face (sometimes dozens of them) to make a keyframe for each one. Then I'll go to 80 and move the points into the new expression. If I neglect to wiggle each point at 70 to lock it in, the neglected points will drift slowly to the new position from frame 1, which can be a huge problem especially if the character itself is moving. This method can quickly get out of hand if I'm changing other things too, like colors (if the character blushes), or line thicknesses, etc. I'm spending a lot of my time wiggling!
So my question is this: Is there an easy way to create a keyframe for all the aspects of a layer (position of all the points, colors, line thicknesses, rotation, scaling, etc) at a given frame? Surely my "wiggle method" is not the best way to do this!
Thanks in advance!
I picked up this software months ago, but I've only recently had the time to really dive into it. I really like it so far, but it's my first experience with animation software of any kind, so I'm learning as I go. So, sorry if this is a very basic question.
I'm doing a lot of animation by moving points around in vector layers, to change a character's expression on their face for example. The problem is, I think I'm doing it in an unnecessarily labor-intensive way.
If I want the expression to change between frames 70 and 80, for example, I'll first go to 70 and slightly wiggle all the points in the face (sometimes dozens of them) to make a keyframe for each one. Then I'll go to 80 and move the points into the new expression. If I neglect to wiggle each point at 70 to lock it in, the neglected points will drift slowly to the new position from frame 1, which can be a huge problem especially if the character itself is moving. This method can quickly get out of hand if I'm changing other things too, like colors (if the character blushes), or line thicknesses, etc. I'm spending a lot of my time wiggling!
So my question is this: Is there an easy way to create a keyframe for all the aspects of a layer (position of all the points, colors, line thicknesses, rotation, scaling, etc) at a given frame? Surely my "wiggle method" is not the best way to do this!
Thanks in advance!
