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288 Chapter 12: Animation
Ass igning Controll ers in Tra ck View
You c an assign controllers to any animat able
parameter in the Curve Editor by selecting
controller items and then choosing Assign
Controller on the Controller menu.
You can also assign controllers to any animatable
parameter in the Track View — Curve Editor by
selecting the parameter in the Hierarchy List then
right-clicking and choose Assign Controller from
the quad menu.
Youcanalsoassignthesamecontrollertypeto
a selection of multiple parameters as long as all
the selected parameters can use the same type
of controller. For example, you could select the
Length, Width, and Heig ht parameters for multiple
Box objects and assign the same controller typ e to
all of them. This is because they all use controllers
that work on floating point data.
If a parameter has already been animated, then
assigning a new controller has one of the following
effects:
• The existing an imation va lues are recalculated
to produce a similar animation with the new
controller. For example, replacing TCB Position
with Bezier Position closely preserves the
animation.
• The existing animation values are discarded.
For example, replacing Smooth Rotation with
Noise Rotation discards the Smooth Rotation
animation values.
Assigning Controllers in the Motion
Panel
You can assign controllers on the Motion panel
by selecting an object and then, on the Assign
Controller rollout, choosing a controller and
clicking the Assign Controller button. You can
change the controllers of only one selected object.
Assigning Controllers Using the
Animation Menu
You can assign controllers u sing the Animation
menu. All the controllers and constraints are
available by going to the menu bar and cho osing
Animation, and then selecting the type of
Controller you want and picking the controller
from the submenu that displays.
When you assig n a controller in this method, a
list controller is automatical ly assigned, and the
controller you have selected appears as the first
entry in the list. This automatic list controller
assignment does not occur if you assign controllers
using the Motion panel or Track View. Weighted
list controllers allow you to blend between various
tracks by animating the weights.
CopyingandPastingControllers
Right-clickanyblankareaontheTrackView
toolbars, then choose Show Toolbars > Controllers:
Track View. This displays the Controller toolbar
with buttons for quick access to con troller tools.
Click Copy and Paste on the Track
View toolbar to copy and paste controllers. For a
general discussion of using Copy and Paste, see
Copying and Pasting Items (page 2–551) .
To copy and paste controllers in the Curve Editor,
select the cont roller track to copy, then right-click
andchooseCopyfromtheTrackViewquadmenu.
N a vigate the Hierarchy list to the target object,
select the track, right-click and choose Paste.
RulesforusingCopyandPasteareasfollows:
• You can copy only single controllers.
Comp ound controllers like List or PRS
Transform controllers are considered single
controllers for Copy and Paste operations.
• You can paste a copied controller into one o r
more controllers using the same data type.