Any shortcut to add keyframes to all the bone layer?

[Tobisama]

For example I got a character, at frame 12 I move his left arm (with manipulate bones tool z), then I go to frame 24, and I move the right arm, If I playback my animation the movement of the right arm would start at frame 1, and not at frame 24 as I was thinking.

At the beginning I thought that every time I move a bone, it "recorded" the movement of all the bones at that time, then in a tutorial I learn that a way to do it is right click in the bone angle channel and add keyframe.

This is the only way to do it?? or there are other tricks to do it??

I mean anime studio should have some kind of switch to activate an option for record keyframes for all the bones every time that a bone is moved.

[slowtiger]

You just have to train yourself to first create a keyframe in the frame where you want the movement to start. Just click into the project window with the tool of your choice.

If I want to make sure to have set keys for every bone at a certain frame, I just select all bones (tool "B", cmd-A) and click into the project window with the bone rotation tool (or any other bone tool I want to set keys for).

[Tobisama]

Thanks Slowtiger, The trick of select all bones and click in the project window works fine with the rotation tool, but not with the manipulate bones tool, I mean if i select all the bones then Z and click in project window the bones deselect.

So the rotation tool behaves in a different way than the manipulate bones tool?, this means the rotation tool is better animating or (this would be my last question) the rotation tool and the manipulation tool affects the same property? (the bone angle channel?) this means I can alternate between both tools? and that only changes one channel?

[muffysb]

Hi Tobisama,

The "Manipulate Bones" tool affects rotation, but it's primarily for testing your skeleton in frame 0. You can use it at frames greater than 0 if you want, but the Users Manual says:

If you only want to rotate a single bone, it's better to use the Rotate Bone tool. The Manipulate Bones tool will move a whole chain of bones, which is definitely not what you want if you plan to rotate a single bone.

So the usual workflow (as far as I know) is to test bone rotation in frame 0 with the Manipulate Bones tool (which doesn't permanently change bone rotation in frame 0...your bones snap back to default values when you select another tool), and use the Rotate Bone tool to permanently change bone rotation at frame 0 or higher.

Cheers,
Muffy.

[Tobisama]

Thanks for the answer.

[slowtiger]

muffysb: The manipulate bones tool "Z" is an alternative to using the rotate tool in single bones. Instead it makes good use of the inverse kinematik built into AS.

[muffysb]

Thanks Slowtiger, I'll give it a try!