Lesson 21 - Setting keys on animated attributes while preserving F-curve



Our Animation.



Lets focus on one curve.



Here we selected Rotate X, Lets say we want to add key for whatever reason, to move up or down.



Go to channel box and on the rotate X, right click and say 'Key Selected', Notice we got the key but it has its own tangentcy because of the default In and Out Tangent (Default in Animation Preference Option).

What we want here is the key but should not disturb our F-curve.

So lets UNDO the movement.



Lets see what happens when we apply 'Hold Current Keys' tool.

NOTE: It does'nt matter what attribute you have selected in the Graph outliner because its going to set a key on all Animated attributes of your selected objects.



Select the Main control in the Graph Outliner and go to Animate > Hold Current Keys.



Notice we have keys on our F-Curves on all Animated Attributes.
Notice tangency flows with out F-curve. We don't get any Discontinuity in the F-curve.

Let try something else..



Lets focus on Rotate X, and select the key and go to Curve > Weighted Tangents and Keys > Free Tangent Weight and Keys > Break Tangents.



Once we got everything, now select the right side of the handle and Hold 'Shift' + 'Middle mouse' and drag, and now go to channel box and set the key in the same way what we did before just to check what happens.



If we goahead and add key from the channel box by selecting Rotate X and right click 'Key Selected'.

Notice some abrupt type of pattern we get from doing so, whats happening here is our free tangent weight is interfering the key we just set by default.

And we don't want this to happen.

so lets UNDO and try 'Hold Current Keys'.



Go to Animate > Hold Current Keys, Notice its not only preserve our F-Curve but notice that we are still able to have that key there to be able to freely move around.

Lesson 20 - Adding moving holds in animation using weighted tangency



Here is frame 1 to 30 a smooth animation, Lets say we want to give some slow out movement in the start.



Select the Translate X and go to frame 10 and set a key in the channel box, Notice the bend on the F-curve. Now if we see the animation we got some change, but lets say we have to tweak even better. And heres where the 'Weighted Tangent' comes in.



We have to select the curve before we apply 'weighted tangent'.

You can add it by default to the In and Out Tangent curves in the Animation Preference.



Whatever attribute we selected on the Graph Editor Outliner and Apply 'Weighted tangent', it gets apply to the whole curve.


Select the Attribute and Go to Curves > Weighted Tangents.



Watch what happen once you select the keyframe. Out tangent handle is increased in size, this tell us that 'weighted tangents' is applied. You can move the handle its works in the same way as the regular tangent handles.



Now that we have selected the keys, we need to move the tangent freely to do the adjustment, for that go to Keys > Free Tangent Weight. Notice the handle in the end, it has opened. That tells us now we have 'Free tangent weight'.



Notice we are able to move the F-curve freely without adding any extra keys. This feature is very useful for Hold in the animation.



Hold shift + middle mouse to drag, we can constrain our movement 'horizontally'.



Because of the constrain in our tangent handle, if you move one side even the other side takes effect, to break that use 'Break Tangents' (Keys > Break Tangents).

Watch the Color change..



Select the left side (which you don't want to take effect) and hold the shift + Middle mouse button and drag. and notice what happens to the F-curve.

You don't want too many free tangents on your tangent handle.



Select the key and go to Keys > Lock Tangent Weight. Watch the end of the tangent handle, its locked .



If you want to weighted tangent all together go to Curves > Non-Weighted Tangents, Notice the handle it goes right backs to its default position.

Lesson 19 - Breaking tangent handles




Animation: How to give the impact of the ball, the animation of the board need to have a good impact as its struck by the ball.




The Starting key, where we want to break the tangent, the place the ball hits the board.



Go to Keys > Break Tangents, Notice what happens the tangent handle changes color. The 'Left side' is Blue and the 'Right side' is Red.



Select the left side of the Tangent handle and move up and down, notice we are able to independently adjust our tangent without disturbing the other side.

Here, we are going to adjust the other side of the tangential to fix the board animation.



Lets move our tangent handle upward to get the impact in the animation (Hold the middle mouse button and drag).

And this one of the benefits for using 'Breaking Tangent Handle'.



Lets unify the tangent handle in the same position, by selecting the keys (handles) go to Keys > Unify Tangents.



Now we select either side of the tangent handle notice they both is constrained, and now we can still control the flow of our F curve.



Lets say we have to keep the tangent in the original looking shape.!!

By selecting the keys Click the icon above 'Flat Tangents', and notice it goes right back to once it was.

Lesson 18 - Modifying tangent handles for fine-tuning animation

Select the image and go to Graph Editor.




Lets focus on one attribute(Translate Y) (a), and notice a flat line on the graph(b) we don't really want the animation to go on one line instead we want some kind of arc. so here we can use the tangent handle to get a nice arc movement.




select your keys to bring the tangent handle.

NOTE: you can not move your Tangent handles if the 'stepped' interpolation is selected, it works for other options in the 'Tangents' menu.





Select one half of the tangent handle, Select the 'Move tool' and 'middle mouse' button and drag up, select the other side and do the same.

Now you can see the Difference in the Animation.

Lesson 16 - Adjusting how our function Curves (F-curves) interpolate



The animation.



The Graph Editor.



Go to Tangents in Graph Editor and we will discuss

Spline, Linear, Clapped, Stepped, Flat, Fixed.

• Spline: It will give you a smother Interpolation through out our whole entire 'F' Curve.

You can Use Spline to animating more Organic Biped and Quadrupeds types of characters.

• Linear: Its good for working Mechanical type animation, you can get more mechanical type of movement, and it also great for animating eye movement.

• Clamped: If you see Clamped almost looks like Spline, What clamp does is it basically gives us the spline result. But the keys are nearer to each other it gives the more of a linear type of result for tanents.
  

Clamp is the Default in and out tangent's of Maya, you can start of your animation with it, but you can adjust it later.

• Stepped: It gives more of a Step type of interpolation, the animation will be more Blocky.

Its gives the Pose to Pose method in animation.

• Flat: It gives Pauses wherever there are inbetweens keys, Its very useful in working on Ease In and Ease out and moving hold.

• Fixed: It Allows us to Keep the Tangent handle Fixed into its position.

Lets say we focus on 'Rotate X' and increase the frame to 150 and notice our value has changed, but our tangent handle is NOT. Because of our selection (FIXED) that we have made so thats essentially what it does, it locks the tangent handle.

• In Tangents/Out Tangents: First part of the tangent handle is 'Linear', and the second part of the tangent hand 'Spline'.