Can't add a control point on a motion path

Hello fellow animators,

I’ve been having an issue where I am unable to add or modify control points when animating something on a path. I wanted to create a curved path for my object to follow, and was reading the the tutorial regarding the creation of a falling star as guidance. Let me illustrate what is happening (or in this case, not happening) when I get stuck:

I create a drawing and convert it to a symbol. I extend that symbols exposures to the end of the scene, then I set a key on frame 1. with the animate tool and translate tool toggled on, I go to the last frame of the animation and drag my symbol to the other side of the stage, creating a simple tween with the object moving from left to right.

I select my object, hit the shortcut keys shift+f11 which brings up my motion path. I should now be able to click anywhere on that path while pushing the P key to add a control point, correct? When I hit P while resting my cursor on the path, nothing happens. When I hold P and click on the motion path, nothing happens. Very frustrating. :frowning:

I am running animate 2 on a pc, and I use a Wacom Cintiq 12WX for input.




Since I have this thread open, I may as well touch on another issue I’ve had lately. While in the top camera view, I am unable to move my elements, or the camera position by dragging. I have the translate and animate buttons enabled, I have my element selected (or camera peg, for camera moves) but when I click to move the object or camera, it deselects it and starts drawing a marquee box. Unless I use my arrow keys, I am unable to manipulate the position of anything in the top camera view.

I just discovered the fix to the above motion path issue, though even as I’m typing this I have no idea how I fell upon the solution.

I was frantically clicking on every option, resetting everything to default, etc… hoping to discover what could be the problem, when I came upon this. When I right clicked on the object in question, the option to view the layer properties came up in the menu (shift+E)

Under the setting “Position” there are two radio buttons - 3d path, and separate.

For some reason or another, the program was defaulting to “separate” I have no idea what the difference is between these two settings, but I toggled it to “3d path” anyhow.

When I returned to the stage, my keys had disappeared from my timeline, so I quickly redid them. When I chose to view the motion path and hit P on it, I was surprised to see it actually did something! I was now able to create control points, drag and reposition them on the motion path to create curves, etc… Woot!


In regards to the second issue with the top view camera, I also discovered that while I’m unable to move objects around with the left mouse button, I am able to adjust their position using the middle mouse button. Was this always the case?

Seperate is the standard way to animate. 3D path also has a velocity variable which is needed for moving the control points I think.

Glad you found it :slight_smile:

I don’t have any answers to your other issue.

Indeed, it needs to be a 3D path in order to take control points.

For the top view, you need to mouse over the layer that’s highlighted in pink until you get a cross-hair arrow (the move arrow), then you can left-click and drag. Otherwise, if you drag, it will make a selection. If you middle-click, it will move the selected layer automatically.

I find it can also be a little easier to use the Advanced Animation tools when in the top view, because when I hit the move tool for example, then I see the move arrows and I can just drag on those.

Hope this helps!

~Lilly
Toon Boom Support