2009

Reduce Keys
Track View > Curve Editor or Dope Sheet > Highlight the keys to reduce in
the Key window. > Keys menu > Reduce Keys
Track View > Curve Editor > Highlight the keys to reduce in the Key window.
> Keys: Track View toolbar > Reduce Keys
Use Reduce Keys to decrease key density. Animating with inverse kinematics,
or creating any complex animation, can result in many keys, which can make
editing the animation difficult. In the case of applied inverse kinematics, the
software generates a key on nearly every frame. Often, the same animation
can be produced with fewer keys. Having fewer keys in a track makes it easier
to change your animation.
Reduce Keys analyzes the pattern of keys in a block of time and creates a new
pattern of fewer keys that produces nearly the same animation. You specify
how closely the new animation matches the original.
NOTE The Reduce Keys button, depicted above, appears on the Keys toolbar only
in Curve Editor, but you can add it to a Dope Sheet toolbar with
Customize User
Interface
on page 7697.
Procedures
To reduce keys:
1 Select an animated object in the viewport.
2 Right-click the object and choose Curve Editor or Dope Sheet from the
quad menu.
3 In the Hierarchy list, highlight the tracks whose keys you want to reduce.
Reduce Keys works only on highlighted tracks.
4 Optionally, in the Key window, specify a time range within which to
reduce keys. Highlight a key at either end of the range to reduce, or drag
a selection rectangle around the keys you want to reduce. Alternatively,
in Dope Sheet mode, highlight specific tracks and then use
Select Time
on page 3630 to designate a block of time within which to reduce keys. If
no keys are highlighted in a highlighted track, Reduce Keys works on all
keys in that track.
You can use any of the above methods to specify different ranges for
different highlighted tracks.
3640 | Chapter 15 Animation