Graphics

Does anyone know of a way to copy/paste animations from one group to another? I do not see any copy/paste in Scene Director and can not activate any of the copy/paste in the Key Graph Editor (greyed out no matter what I try). I am trying to avoid duplication of effort and create animations that are consistent, so copy/paste would really save time and avoid mistakes.

Hello Paul,

There's no "easy" way to do this. It's been a feature request for a very very long time in my case (since 2008) but also for many other operators.

However there is a way to do it using the KeyGraph Editor. But first you need to determine one thing first. Do you want to copy the animation in the same Animation Controller but just on another object or do you want to copy it into another Animation Controller? Both are possible but one requires a bit more work than the other.

So let me start with the most simple option, you want to copy the animation from one object to another but within the same Animation Controller.

Step1: Load the Animation Controller into the KeyGraph Editor by double clicking it in your Scene Director.

Step2: If not already open, open the KeyGraph Editor (CTRL+SHIFT+K)

Step3: In the left part of the KeyGraph Editor, in the lower part, tick the checkbox of the object that you have animated.

Step4: You will now see all of the properties of that object in the upper part of the KeyGraph Editor. Some of them will be bold to indicate that there changes or animations made on that property. For this example I will use the Alpha-property.

Step5: Select the property you would like to copy the animation of by clicking on the property itself. eg: click on "Alpha"

Step6: You'll see the animation on the right side of the KeyGraph Editor.

Step7: Right-click on the property and select "Copy Keyframes" (? I'm not entirely sure about the name)

Step8: In the lower part of the KeyGraph Editor tick the checkbox of the new object you want to copy the animation to.

Step9: You will see in the upper part of the KeyGraph Editor that there is a new list of properties that is now visible. They are the properties of the second object. There the desired property (eg: "Alpha") will not be bold.

Step10: Right-click on the property that want and select "Paste Keyframes" (? Again I'm not sure about the name, I'm writing this out of the top of my head)

Step11: Done! Now repeat this for every property that you want to duplicate.

If you want to copy it into another Animation Controller then you need to switch in between Step7 & 8 back to the Scene Director and double-click the new Animation Controller for it to load in the KeyGraph Editor and then continue with Step 8. But once you've paste the keyframes don't forget to switch back to the original Animation Controller to copy the other animations. So you're constantly switching back and forth.

I hope this makes it a bit more clear?

Good luck!

Kenneth

#XPression

Kenneth,

Thanks again for your help. The key was to select from the channels and not the keyframes themselves. I am now copying and pasting from one Animation Controller to the other. Your instructions were very clear and helpful. It's a little cumbersome, but manageable and it saves a lot of time and mistakes so I am ok with how it works for the time being. Shift Selecting and Copy/Paste or enter once for many attributes will save hours when that is implemented, so I will voice my 2 cents on that as well.

Thanks again,

Paul

#XPression