consolidate layer channels

[Hoptoad]

Would somebody explain Consolidate Layer Channels? I read the manual, but it didn't explain why it exists, only how to do it.

It appears to put keyframes on a single line, so you can. . .what?

I've watched gobs of tutorials and I've never seen anybody use it, which makes me think it's an "advanced" feature, which makes me think it does something pretty awesome.

When do you use it?

[hayasidist]

It's useful (for me) when I want to move all the keys without having to select individual channels.

e.g.
Group
> vec 1 with point / curve / blah ... animations to make (e.g.) pose 1, pose 2, pose 3 etc
> vec 2 similarly
> vec 3 ...

Select Group. Consolidate.
get all of the child layers visible in timeline
grab whatever "poses" needed from the 3 sets of keys and shove them around
Then Group and un-consolidate.

Whole lot easier than having to grab all the channels in all the child layers ... and gives way more control than "rescale animation"

[JoelMayer]

Doesn't apply to certain things though like Switch layers and the like... which is kinda strange. To really move everything at once i still have to resort to the Key Tool script but i think here's an area that vanilla Moho could improve.

[Greenlaw]

I find it useful when I need to retime an entire scene in Moho. It's very rare for me to do that but editing only one row of keyframes for everything does make it easier. I switch it back off immediately after the retime.

I think the feature, along with Auto Freeze Keys, was meant to make keyframing easier for a beginner animator, but personally I would go nuts animating everything that way.

[Daxel]

I also use it for retiming. And to make space vertically for more layers on the timeline when I activate the timeline visibility of a lot of layers, something that I usually do using A. Evseeva AE Key Tools to show all animated layers on the timeline pressing a button: https://mohoscripts.com/script/ae_keytools
For the same reasons (making space/reducing clutter) I use this other script that deselects every item of every layer (so no red channels on any layer): https://mohoscripts.com/script/ae_deselect_all

Yeah this area of Moho is one of the weakest. Luckily we have great scripts, but it should be built in.

[Hoptoad]

Thanks for the replies. You guys have used Consolidate Layer Channels for several different things, which helped me understand what it does and why it's useful. I think I understand it now.

[hayasidist]

Doesn't apply to certain things though like Switch layers and the like... which is kinda strange. To really move everything at once i still have to resort to the Key Tool script but i think here's an area that vanilla Moho could improve.

Er .. I can get switch to consolidate?

and yes -- IMO there could be a whole lot more that could be done with what I'd call Timeline Management -- e.g. we have the ability to set the export range, but (similarly to layer comps) wouldn't it be nice to have the ability to define the equivalent by "time slices" -- plus make it easier to grab such chunks and move them / stretch them / add gaps / ... a whole lot easier than it now is (Ok -- pipe dream!)

I find it useful when I need to retime an entire scene in Moho. It's very rare for me to do that but editing only one row of keyframes for everything does make it easier. I switch it back off immediately after the retime.

Indeed... I make much more use of multiple small .moho files than when I started out with AS / Moho. It's been a while since I needed to do a retime!

[JoelMayer]

Maybe i did something wrong i just remember that i used the consolidate thing a couple of times to re-time stuff and it always wouldn‘t take everything… maybe i animated some vector layers and am mixing it up oooor i just did it wrong Will try again one of these days but for re-timing i basically stick to Key Tools these days… probably the most essential script for me bit also kinda clunky usability wise.

[Greenlaw]

Tip: When I'm retiming individual channels, I like to freeze the key poses and start/end frames for distinct moments in the animation. This helps keep the frames of the animation in sync, especially when I'm retiming the animation variably. Doing this helps the accuracy of retime after consolidating too.

[JoelMayer]

Doesn't apply to certain things though like Switch layers and the like... which is kinda strange. To really move everything at once i still have to resort to the Key Tool script but i think here's an area that vanilla Moho could improve.

Er .. I can get switch to consolidate?

Tried it again, when i consolidate layers and move stuff around, the switch layers don't move with the little dot. Never got that to work.