Keyframing symbol swaps problem

Hello,

I am new to Toon Boom, I have used Maya in the past. I have animate 2, not pro. Is there a way to key-frame all per frame, including symbol options?

Basically my work flow is as follows; I start with stop motion and just put in all the extremes one frame after another not working with timing yet. Then I add the breakdowns by adding frames in between my extremes (using the add exposure button). I think I am key framing everything before that new frame and after, so when I manipulate the puppet on that frame, nothing else should be affected, but that is not happening. Things in earlier frames are going wacky as well as after. This is mostly happening with the swapping of symbols. I swap for example frame 12 for symbol 8 over 1 and then everything around frame 12 that I key framed with symbol 1 for that body part becomes symbol 8. I can go and change frame by frame by hand but ooof, I must be doing something wrong.

How I think I am key framing everything is highlighting every layer in one frame column in the time line view at a time and hitting F6. The little black box appears on all the cells in the time line view per frame column.

So how do I key frame everything per frame, including symbol swaps? What am I doing wrong?

Thank you for any input. It is most appreciated.

Ash

Hmm, let me try and explain my problem another way. And you were right, I was thinking of symbols as I drawings which is part of my problem.

I put in some poses frames 1 and 2. Say for the left eye all the frames with the eye are open. I then, insert a frame, between 1-2, (I’ll call it 1.5 to be clear). In frame 1.5 I change the left eye to be closed, so I swapped the symbol number.

My problem is, frames 1 and 2 may change now to the closed eye but I didn’t want to change those two frames. How do I add a new exposure and change the symbols while not changing the symbols options on other frames?

Thank you.

Okay so I figured something out:

Original set-up:
Frame # 2 3 4 5 6
Symbol Option for one symbol 3 3 3 3 3

If I change just frame 4’s symbol via slider (frustrating for what i am trying to do, although i can see this being useful):
Frame # 2 3 4 5 6
Symbol Option for one symbol 8 8 8 8 8

If I change just frame 4’s symbol via typing in Data view (and this is what I was trying to do):
Frame # 2 3 4 5 6
Symbol Option for one symbol 3 3 8 3 3

So I guess my new question is, is there any easier way to make each frame stick with one symbol number so if I can use the slider thing in the library to change one frame and not all? I am glad what I want to do can be done with the data view.

Basically drawings and keyframes are separate in Animate. What I think you want to do is you want to keyframe things (you’re right, this is F6). But you also want to swap drawings. When you swap drawings you can use [ and ] to swap out that drawing. Swapping a drawing will not affect a keyframe.

I’m a little bit confused about what exactly your problem is with the swapping. You are adjusting keyframes - Are you in this case using the Transform tool, or the other animation tools? This is what the keyframes will affect.

Or if you want to adjust a drawing without adjusting the other drawings, then you need to duplicate the drawing. If you’re working with symbols, then you’ll need to go inside of the symbol to do this.

~Lilly

Okay so I just tried this out in Animate 2, and I didn’t have a problem using the slider from the timeline. I tried both switching the current frame by dragging my playhead, and I tried clicking on a cell to select that frame, and in both cases I was able to drag the library slider to a new drawing. When I did so, it changed the exposure from the current frame onwards to the next drawing.

I tried this both with drawings and with symbols, and in both cases it worked. I can’t see why it would be changing all of the frames instead of the current frame onwards.

What if you select the cell and use the [ and ] shortcuts - does that work?

It might be worth trying to email support@toonboom.com and seeing if they can help you to iron the problem out.

~Lilly