Is there a faster way to convert a layer of tweens to keys? right now I seem to have to go through each frame of individual tweens by hand and add a keyframe.
I would like to be able to just select a layer of tweens and have it automatically converted to keys. it would be great if I could tell it to
covert to two’s instead of 1’s.
does anyone know a method for doing this?
To set things on twos, there’s a really easy way to do this. In the timeline, expand your layer to show the functions beneath it by hitting the + on the layer. If you have a separate path, you’re going to need to open up the function editors on each offset x, offset y, offset z, or if you have a 3D path you will need to do this only on the velocity. Double-click on the layer you want to put on twos, and it will bring up the function editor. There is a button that looks like a staircase, the fourth button from the left. Click on this and up will pop a dialog box. Enter the first frame in Start, the last frame in Stop, and then 2 in step. Now your animation will be on twos.
If you still need to add keyframes to the whole thing, the way that you would do this is in the x-sheet. Select the drawing layer that you want to add the keys to. In the x-sheet expand the right-hand side of the x-sheet by clicking on the little triangle to the right. Now select all the frames in the function columns that you want to key, then right-click and "Set Selection as Keyframes."
Hope that does the trick.
~Lilly
Toon Boom Animation
Lilly-
thank you for your time with this. The stair step idea with the velocity editor could come in handy.
Turning a selection to keyframes with the X-sheet solves one problem and gets me going in the right direction. Here’s the process I need to do and would like a faster automatic way to do this. With flash I have a script that does all this for me.
My Setup: Several Layers using “motion key frames"
Let’s say it’s a fully animated character.
step 1: in X-sheet select all layers and “set selection to keyframes”
[all the layers/motion keys now have keyframes on every frame]
step 2: select all layers and set to “Stop Motion Key Frames”
[all layers/motion keys are converted to stop motion keys]
step 3: select layers and delete every other stop motion key frame
result:
A series of layers using “Motion Key Frames” on 1’s has been converted to
"Stop Motion Key Frames” on 2’s
Currently Step 3 is the real pain for me. Is there a way to delete every other key frame automatically? Right now I have to go through by hand and do it. I would love a script that did all 3 of the above steps in
one pass.
I know other animators will really appreciate knowing this information.
thanks!
14g
Hi,
I guess the first thing I’m wondering is, is there a reason why you actually need the animation to be stop-motion and not tweened? I.e. you can have a tweened animation on 2s, by double-clicking the velocity to get to the function layer and using the step function to get the function to be on 2s. Is there a reason that this is not sufficient for your purposes, and that you need to actually have keyframes on each frame?
Theoretically a script could be written to accomplish the deletion of the keyframes - however I still fail to understand why you need the keyframes in the first place. 
~Lilly
Toon Boom Support
Hey Lilly-
yep! here’s the reason
I can quickly get the basic animation for a character using Motion tweens and then bake it all down to stopmotion keys on 2s so that I can adjust each key by hand to give it a more human feeling.
I understand your workflow, now.
Perhaps it would be easier simply to set the motion curve to be twos with the function editor, then to go through and add keys as you do adjustments, instead of adding the keys first then going back and deleting thiem.
~Lilly
Toon Boom Support
14greg is not alone… There are plenty of Flash animators out there that prefer to work on 2s. It’s great for fixing arcs, but it also gives the animation more weight. Lastly it will also make things a lot easier in complex scenes with overlaps and turnarounds where you’ll have to shift body parts between layers.
I’d like to put up a feature request for an easy tween-to-twos button (incl. keyboard shortcut)! Thank you.
Simon
Hi! It’s already been submitted as a feature request. Thanks!
~Lilly