Fast way of adding a keyframe for bone without moving it?

[lehtiniemi]

Any tip on how to add a keyframe for a bone (or any other object for that matter) without moving it?

The fastest way I know is to click it, but this involves the risk of moving and animating it by accident if my mouse/wacom hand isn't stable enough. Any way to do the same thing and be certain of not animating at the same time?

Currently I end up switching to selection tool and hitting CMD-F to add freeze frame, but this is so many clicks and shortcuts. Clicking with 100% certainity of not moving would be ideal.

Anyone have some nice trick?

[boygordon]

You can double click in the timeline to add a key wherever you like. Of course you need the bone already selected to do this, if that helps?

[lehtiniemi]

You can double click in the timeline to add a key wherever you like. Of course you need the bone already selected to do this, if that helps?

Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately, this means I already have left the bone translation tool so double clicking and hitting CMD-F is the same trouble.

Is there a way to select a bone while in bone translation tool without moving it? This way I could use CMD-F or double click to add keyframes to different bones, without having to jump between tools. At the same time, without having to worry about moving them.

[sillyanimate]

i normally just go in animation tab and click add keyframe...

[lehtiniemi]

i normally just go in animation tab and click add keyframe...

Thanks for the reply! Adding the keyframe is fast with these methods, but the problem is selecting the bone before adding the keyframe. Selecting with the "Translate bone"-tool there's a chance of moving the character by accident. But if I switch to "Select bone" in order to select the bone by moving, this causes much extra clicks.

But actually I found the solution, it was my stupidity. I missed the fact that "Freeze pose"-command freezes all the bone positions, not only the selected ones (there's a command for that as well, though). So basically I can have the "Translate bone" activate, hit CMD-F and this freezes the whole pose without the need for bone selection inbetween. Problem solved!

Thank you everyone for help!

[Víctor Paredes]

But actually I found the solution, it was my stupidity. I missed the fact that "Freeze pose"-command freezes all the bone positions, not only the selected ones (there's a command for that as well, though). So basically I can have the "Translate bone" activate, hit CMD-F and this freezes the whole pose without the need for bone selection inbetween. Problem solved!

Actually, Freeze Pose can work in two ways:

1- If there are no previous keys, it freezes the rotation for all bones and the translation for bones with no parent only* (that helps to animate characters with target bones in the feet, for instance).
2- If some of the bones already have keyframes on translation/scale channels, Freeze Pose will also add keyframes for them.

Personally, I like to add keyframes for rotation, scale and translation for all the bones in frame 1. That way I'm sure the Freeze Pose command will always freeze all the bones, even if I actually didn't animate some of them.

*In case 1, Freeze Pose doesn't add translation keyframes for Smart Bones with no parent, since you probably only want to rotate, not translate them.

[lehtiniemi]

But actually I found the solution, it was my stupidity. I missed the fact that "Freeze pose"-command freezes all the bone positions, not only the selected ones (there's a command for that as well, though). So basically I can have the "Translate bone" activate, hit CMD-F and this freezes the whole pose without the need for bone selection inbetween. Problem solved!

Actually, Freeze Pose can work in two ways:

1- If there are no previous keys, it freezes the rotation for all bones and the translation for bones with no parent only* (that helps to animate characters with target bones in the feet, for instance).
2- If some of the bones already have keyframes on translation/scale channels, Freeze Pose will also add keyframes for them.

Personally, I like to add keyframes for rotation, scale and translation for all the bones in frame 1. That way I'm sure the Freeze Pose command will always freeze all the bones, even if I actually didn't animate some of them.

*In case 1, Freeze Pose doesn't add translation keyframes for Smart Bones with no parent, since you probably only want to rotate, not translate them.

Ah, great! Thanks for the tips!