Deleting a keyframe column

kwannie

In DS 4.12 and above is there any way to delete a keyframe along the timeline and have the entire column of keys deleted. In other words if I select the key at the very top of the time line say on frame 25 is it possible to delete the entire column of properties for frame 25 and only frame 25. It was easy to do this in DS 4.10, you simply click the next key icon until you got to the key frame you wanted and then just delete. Any suggestions? Thanks

benniewoodell

It should work if you're in the keymate part of the timeline to just click the keyframe you want gone on the line that has the character's name and click the minus key button to the left of object on the bottom. I just tested it and it worked for me. Do you have your timeline set up to have keymate showing? 

kwannie

OK, so if I look to the left while having only one character in the scene and nothing else, I see the name of my character at the top of the hierarchy down where the timeline is. If I were to click on properties just below my characters name, I could select the entire row  for the properties line resulting in every key in that row being deleted if I were to click the minus key.  As you can see in the picture where the yellow inverted triangle is, the column of keys are not selectable as a group.The minus key will not be aviable unless I click on an individul key in that column, and I want the entire column gone. If I wanted to cut and paste the entire column that is not available either. Not sure what I'm missing here.

Richard Haseltine

You can't, as far as I know, do it with a single click but you can marquee select the keys and delete all at once.

kwannie

Just made a discovery!! If you collapse the hierarchy for the charcter at the left of the screen, you can delete all the key frames of that character at one time.

kwannie

Thank you for the input Bennie and Richard, I found that using the marqee only works for me on the keys that are where the sinewave is. If I try anywhere else it just advances or retreats me along the timeline to where I make the first click of the mouse.

Paradigm

Select the figure you want, then in the scene tab right click and do select --> select children and that will select everything under your primary target.

From there, simply navigate to the key you want in the timeline, click the textured menu button for the timeline and click the delete keys for selected nodes option. This will delete all keys for that figure at that frame. If you select all figures before selecting the children it will delete all keys for that frame, period.

It's a far cry from perfect, but once you've done it a few times its pretty automatic. 

side note: this is very useful for dforce clothing. Pose your figure at frame 10 or whatever, do the select all children thing and then click create keys for selected nodes instead of delete. From there, go back to frame one and remove all lumpy morphs (curves, muscles, etc) and make them as boardy as possible. Simulate over the first 10-15 frames and the morphs will slowly fill back out and the clothing will drape a LOT more realistically.

kwannie

Thanks Paradigm,

   That did the trick it looks like. Is there a way to ge the copy and paste of the keys for the entire column or at least all of the children of a figure?

Paradigm

kwannie said:

Thanks Paradigm,

   That did the trick it looks like. Is there a way to ge the copy and paste of the keys for the entire column or at least all of the children of a figure?

Yes there is! Just figured it out last week lol.

Do the same thing with select all children etc and on the frame you want go to Edit --> Object --> Memorize --> Memorize Selected Object(s) (pose or shape will just memorize those, but most of the time I memorize the whole thing).

Once you do that, go to the frame you want to paste it to and do Edit --> Object --> Restore --> Restore Selected Object(s) 

Another way is to save the scene as a pose preset at that frame but that's a lot of work for something that should be a clipboard action. 

kwannie

I mean.....................This is just awsome. I actually learned today how to get so much use out of the timeline. Thank you so much!

Paradigm

You're more than welcome, I don't want others to have to suffer through my trials and tribulations.

pretendforreal_707d4f4a31

Thank you for these tips!
 

Daz could be so powerful if these things that are basic and intuitive in other animation software were easier to figure out. Selecting and copying and pasting key frames should be a simple hot key function vs a weird menu work around.

Be great if someone did a comprehensive tutorial series on all of the work arounds needed to make the timeline function like other animation software.