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556 Chapter 12: Animation
Align to Cursor
In either Dope Sheet or Curve Editor, select keys to align
to current frame. > Keys menu > Align to Cursor
Use Align to Cursor to mo v e selected keys to the
current time. Select the keys to alig n using Move,
Slide, or Scale.
Align to Cursor is useful for taking a group of
scattered keys a nd moving them to the same time
location.
Align to Cursor is available in Dope Sheet and
Curve Editor modes.
Align Keys to Cursor ignores the state of Snap
Frames, and a lways uses the exact time set by the
time slider.
Procedure
To move al l selected keys to t he cur rent f ra me:
1.
Open either Curve Editor or Dope Sheet - Edit
Keys mode.
2. Dragthetimeslidertothetimewhereyouwant
the keys alig ned.
3. Highlight one or more keys
using Move Keys, Slide Keys, or Scale Keys.
4. FromtheKeysmenuchooseAlignToCursor.
The left most selected key in each tr ack is moved
to the current time. Multiple selected keys on
thesametrackmaintaintheirrelativedistance
from the leftmost key.
Add V isibility Tra ck
Right-click an object in the viewport. > Curve Editor/Dope
Sheet > Tracks menu > Visibility Track > Add
Graph Editors menu > Track View - Dope Sheet/Track
View - Curve Editor > Click the object whose visibility you
want to key. > Tracks menu > Visibility Track > Add
Add Visibility Track controls when you can see
an object. Visibility tracks can only be added to
objects. You can create a visibility track by either
animating the Vis ibility parameter in the O bjec t
Properties dialog or by selecting an object in the
Track View Hierarchy and clicking Tracks menu >
Visibility Tracks > Add. In b oth cases a visibility
track, using a Bezier float controller, is created in
Track View. The visibility track displays as a child
of the object in the Track View Hierarchy.
Note: In the Object Properties dialog, Rendering
Cont rol must be set to By Object in order to
keyframe the V isibility using the spinner.
Note: Right-clickoveranobjectintheviewports
and select Properties to display the Object
Properties dialog.
Wa rn in g : An object without mapping coordinates
that is invisible at frame 0 will not ask for UVW Map
coordinates at render time. The warning will display at
the frame that the objec t becomes visible. This can stop
a render midway, so mak e sure invisible objects at the
beginning of your animation have mapping coordinates
if necessary.
On a nd Of f Vis ibi li t y
When you first assign a visibility track to an
object, a Bezier float controller is automatically
assigned;thisallowsgradualvisibility.Youcan
make an object appear or disappear suddenly by
changing the interpolation of the visibility keys to
Step tangency.