I'm confused! (Anime studio 6)

[Lost Marble]

I'm still keen to know whether you can access the curvature channel of a point with scripting. You can indirectly add a keyframe to the curvature channel with the point's set_curvature method, but there's no way to remove a keyframe, or set/get it's interpolation value. This is why all of the animation scripts Vern was talking about updating for V6 ignore the curvature channel.

Sorry, but no. You can't access the curvature channel directly.

[Lost Marble]

One question regarding the above however, would be is it possible to globally move a bunch of keyframes within the parent layer?

No, you can still only manipulate the keyframes of a single layer at a time.

[chucky]

No, you can still only manipulate the keyframes of a single layer at a time.

Really? Gulp.
I guess maybe additional scripts that can access more than one layer could take care of this, maybe move a group layer and the script keeps all those child layer keyframes in unison with the group?

Bedtime for me now.....yawny yawn yawn \o/

[Lost Marble]

I guess maybe additional scripts that can access more than one layer could take care of this, maybe move a group layer and the script keeps all those child layer keyframes in unison with the group?

I think there's still some misunderstanding here. (It's hard to communicate on a forum sometimes - we should have an Anime Studio conference sometime.)

Anyway, if you move an entire group, then yes, the child layer keyframes all move in unison within the group. I think the other question (from ink animations) was about moving select keyframes, not all the animation in a layer. So let's say you have a bone layer selected and you want to move some bone keyframes, and then in the third child layer you want to move the two gradient keyframes, and in the tenth child layer you want to move 42 curvature keyframes, and you want to select and move all those keys simultaneously (while leaving other keys in those layers alone). No, there's no way to do that.

[ink animations]

I guess maybe additional scripts that can access more than one layer could take care of this, maybe move a group layer and the script keeps all those child layer keyframes in unison with the group?

I think there's still some misunderstanding here. (It's hard to communicate on a forum sometimes - we should have an Anime Studio conference sometime.)

Anyway, if you move an entire group, then yes, the child layer keyframes all move in unison within the group. I think the other question (from ink animations) was about moving select keyframes, not all the animation in a layer. So let's say you have a bone layer selected and you want to move some bone keyframes, and then in the third child layer you want to move the two gradient keyframes, and in the tenth child layer you want to move 42 curvature keyframes, and you want to select and move all those keys simultaneously (while leaving other keys in those layers alone). No, there's no way to do that.

Yeah, thats what I was getting at, thanks for the reply LM.

Feature request for ASP 6.1 perhaps?

[heyvern]

Hey guys... don't rule out scripting yet. I haven't even STARTED. Who knows what might be possible. I can't even count the number of times I thought something was impossible until it wasn't.

Good grief... dang thing isn't even out yet and you are talking about the NEXT update...

-vern

[Manu]

Okay Vern. You're going to have to stop gushing about scripting now. Any gushing from now on has to be about the other new features. Tracking, morph-targets, workflow enhancements... take your pick.

[synthsin75]

Sorry Manu, but I have another script question. Are we going to get updated scripting documentation any time soon. I mean, all we have is from the Moho days, and it'd be nice to have it in a pdf.

Also, can layer scripts now access other (non-embedded) layers? And when "walking the project", can you get the layers in their current order at any frame, including layer ordering changes?

This last would greatly help me finish my "select layer by shape/edge/bone" tool.

[Víctor Paredes]

So, you can't move keyframes of several layers at once, but I think I read some pages ago you can select several layers, if I'm right, what can you do with several layer selected?
I mean, can you move all, change their opacity, blur, rotate them, etc?

Another related question, are there any improvement on actions (forgetting the morph blend)?. In several layers, is there any way to move all keyframes of an action at once?

[synthsin75]

Can we now delete action keyframes wholesale, at least?

[Rudiger]

I guess maybe additional scripts that can access more than one layer could take care of this, maybe move a group layer and the script keeps all those child layer keyframes in unison with the group?

I think there's still some misunderstanding here. (It's hard to communicate on a forum sometimes - we should have an Anime Studio conference sometime.)

Anyway, if you move an entire group, then yes, the child layer keyframes all move in unison within the group. I think the other question (from ink animations) was about moving select keyframes, not all the animation in a layer. So let's say you have a bone layer selected and you want to move some bone keyframes, and then in the third child layer you want to move the two gradient keyframes, and in the tenth child layer you want to move 42 curvature keyframes, and you want to select and move all those keys simultaneously (while leaving other keys in those layers alone). No, there's no way to do that.

Yeah, thats what I was getting at, thanks for the reply LM.

Feature request for ASP 6.1 perhaps?

I have already written a set of button-tool scripts for version 5.6 that let you globally shift keyframes in a much more interactive way than the "Rescale Keyframes" command. I was holding off on releasing them because they don't preserve the interpolation mode of your keyframes, but it looks like this will now be possible in v6! It also looks like there will be some other nifty new features like multiple layer selection and walking the document that I will be able to take advantage of.

I really need to make a video to best show how they work, but I'll do my best to describe how they work for now.

Imagine that a timeline channel is like a line of text, with the current frame marker being the cursor, each keyframe being a letter, and the frames between them being spaces. Pressing the '.' key is then like pressing the spacebar; it shifts all of the current and child layers' channel keyframes to the right of the cursor one frame to the right, while also moving the cursor at the same time. Similarly, pressing the ',' key is like pressing 'backspace'; it shifts all of the current and child layers' keyframes to the right of the cursor one frame to the left. If you hold down shift at the same time it operates on the whole document regardless of the current layer you are in, including the camera keyframes, and it also has the option of automatically shifting the end frame of your animation at the same time.

I have also written a supporting script that creates a sort of global timeline layer that contains all of the channel keyframes for its sibling layers collected onto a single channel. That way you can see where all of the keyframes are when you are spacing and backspacing animation channels.

[synthsin75]

Wow, Rudiger, that sounds awesome. I had tinkered with the idea of making a stand-in timeline in a vector layer myself. Can't wait to see it.

[heyvern]

I have already written a set of button-tool scripts for version 5.6 that let you globally shift keyframes in a much more interactive way than the "Rescale Keyframes" command. I was holding off on releasing them because they don't preserve the interpolation mode of your keyframes, but it looks like this will now be possible in v6!

Let me know if you need any guidance on converting your scripts for v6. It isn't that hard. Just remember that it's lua 5.1 now. You should be able to test those scripts with the demo.

-vern

[Rudiger]

Thanks Vern, I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions when the time comes. The pairs/ipairs construct for iterating over tables must have been optional in lua 5.0, as I've already been using it in all my scripts without any problems. I did have one question, though. Is there a way to get the version of Anime Studio from the script for making new and updated scripts backwards compatible with older versions? Otherwise, us scripters should probably come up with some sort of convention to make our scripts easily modifiable to be work with older versions.

[Barry Baker]

Hey Rudiger, your script sounds exactly what I am after. I can't wait until you get the interpolation sorted out. Brilliant!