9

Animation Controllers 307
Inter face
In/Out—TheInfieldistherateofchangeasthe
parameter approaches the key. The Out field is the
rate of change as the parameter leaves the key.
• Thesefieldsareonlyactiveforkeysusingthe
Custom tangent type.
• Thenumberinthefieldistherateofchange
expressed as parameter u nits per tick. By
changing the two values for X, Y, and Z you are
changing the length and angle of the tangent
handle.
Lock button—Changes one Custom tangent by
changing the other an equal but opposite amount.
For example, if you click the Lock button and the
In value is 0.85, then the Out value is -0.85.
Normalize T ime—Averages the position of the keys
in time and applies them to any consecutive blocks
of selected keys. Useful if you have an object that
speeds up and slows down repeatedly, and you
want to smooth out the motion.
Constant Velocity—When on, interpolates values
between the key and the next one so t hat the object
moves at a constant velocity across that curve
segment. Available only w ith certain controller
types, such as Bezier.
Fr ee Ha n d l e —Used for automatically updating the
length of the tangent handle. When this is turned
off, the length of the tangent is at a fixed percentage
from its neighboring key. As you move a key, the
handles adjust to stay the same percentage away
from the neighboring keys. When this is turned
on, the handle lengths are based on time lengths.
Animation Controllers
Track View > S elect a track in the Track V iew hierarchy.
> Track View menu bar > Controller menu > Assign >
Choose a controller in the dialog.
Animation menu > Constraints/Transform
Controllers/Position Controllers/Rotation
Controllers/Scale Controllers> Choose a controller.
Select an object. > Motion panel > Assign Controller
rollout > Select a track. > Assign Controller > Choose a
controller in the dialog.
Cont rollers, like constraints (page 2–392),handle
the a nimation t asks in a scene, including:
•Storinganimationkeyvalues
• Storing procedural animation settings
• Interpolating between animation key values
An object or parameter doesn’t receive a controller
until you animate it. As soon as you change an
animatable parameter with Auto Key on, or add a
key (page 2–560) in Track View - Dope Sheet (page
2–501), the software assigns a controller to the
parameter.Thesoftwarechoosesadefaulttypefor
the controller, depending on the animation. You
can change the default controller to another type.
The animation controllers are organized in the
following categories:
• Float cont rollers: for animating floating-point
values