Stop animation "drift" movement

mike.smith2005

apparently, I can't think of the correct keywords to find an answer to this in search, so hopefully this is the correct forum to ask. 

I have two characters interacting in a short animation. The imported animations are just a bit off from each other, so I had to nudge one over to the other. But as soon as frame 2 comes, my second character starts "drifting" back to the original position. I can't figure out how to make the figure stay. I've tried various locks and pins and moving through the timeline adjusting every second, but the character still drifts on every frame I don't manually adjust. How to a lock a character (and sometimes a camera!) to a new spot without the engine thinking I'm trying to convey movement to a new position?

Richard Haseltine

So how many keys are theer on the properties you used to adjust the placement? Have you tried adjusting their interpolation method or settings?

wsterdan

If I understand correctly, that one character drifts while the other stands still, the last thing you want to do is go through the animation making adjustments all over the place.

If the goal is to simply keep the character in the starting place, you should be able to just – hopefully quickly – delete the keyframe(s) that move(s) the character. 

Here's an example where the female character at the back was accidentally moved to the right, then adjusted partway back to the left, badly. I want her to stay in place.

I select the character

Look in the timeline where her x-position appears and I can see the rogue keyframes.

I select drag (or shift-select) the errant keyframes and then

Delete the keyframes BY USING THE "-" BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF THE TIMELINE, not by hitting the Delete key, as that will delete the character from the scene.

Boom! Done! Character is now back in the proper starting position.

That's how to fix an unintended change, to keep the character locked you can lock the postion (x, y or z) in the Parameters. tab (you can see the little lock for the "x" position here):

I hope I understood your problem and my example helps.

-- Walt Sterdan

mike.smith2005

wsterdan said:

If I understand correctly, that one character drifts while the other stands still, the last thing you want to do is go through the animation making adjustments all over the place.

If the goal is to simply keep the character in the starting place, you should be able to just – hopefully quickly – delete the keyframe(s) that move(s) the character. 

Here's an example where the female character at the back was accidentally moved to the right, then adjusted partway back to the left, badly. I want her to stay in place.

...

I hope I understood your problem and my example helps.

-- Walt Sterdan

YES! Thank you!

The screenshots were incredibly helpful along with the explaination as I was able to see that I was trying to solve this between the aniMate2 timeline and the Parameters tab, and not the, uh..., Timeline timeline. I had locked the parameters tab but since the Timeline timeline still had keyframes, locking it just kept those movements locked in place. I'm old, so I have printed this out as well as bookmarked it, just in case! ;)

wsterdan

mike.smith2005 said:

wsterdan said:

If I understand correctly, that one character drifts while the other stands still, the last thing you want to do is go through the animation making adjustments all over the place.

If the goal is to simply keep the character in the starting place, you should be able to just – hopefully quickly – delete the keyframe(s) that move(s) the character. 

Here's an example where the female character at the back was accidentally moved to the right, then adjusted partway back to the left, badly. I want her to stay in place.

...

I hope I understood your problem and my example helps.

-- Walt Sterdan

YES! Thank you!

The screenshots were incredibly helpful along with the explaination as I was able to see that I was trying to solve this between the aniMate2 timeline and the Parameters tab, and not the, uh..., Timeline timeline. I had locked the parameters tab but since the Timeline timeline still had keyframes, locking it just kept those movements locked in place. I'm old, so I have printed this out as well as bookmarked it, just in case! ;)

Glad to hear it helped.

-- Walt Sterdan