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bullet_evader · 07-04-2006, 04:49 PM

Just a small question from me. How do I copy-past an animation of 1 second, so it repeats for 20 seconds?

I thought it was somewhere in the scene editor, but can't find out where exactly I have to look.

Thanks in advance!

Warlock 279 · 09-04-2006, 08:58 PM

I'm not surre that what you're looking for is in the scene editor, at least not in versions prior to [8], tho I know in [8] some things are different. Anyway...

How you do it depends on what you want to accomplish. If you're looking for just a loop for an icon on a website or something...then just render it out and loop it, and you're good to go.

If you want it to loop in Lightwave, then you need to go to the grapheditor and do two things. First make sure that the first and last key frames for each channel that's modified for each object that's been animated are identical, if they're not you'll get a "pop," severity depending on how different they are. Then you want to click the drop downs where it says "pre-behaviour" [if your keys don't all start at 0] and "post-behaviour" and set them to "repeat" and that should give you an infinite cycle in either direction. You should be able to do this for all the channels at once, once you've made sure they're all starting and ending on the same value. One flaw with this method however is if you want to animate something at the start or the end of that seqeunce that varies from the cycle, you'll either have to bake off the keys or use another shot.

Also, 20 seconds is a really long time, in the short animation world anyway, is there really a need to have something run that long? Especially if its just a cycle. Loops tend to get "long" around 10 seconds at most.

bullet_evader · 09-04-2006, 09:19 PM

Thanks for the tips Warlock 279, but unfortunatly I can't find the pre-behaviour button you are talking about. I think because i work with lightwave 8.5 and things have changed a little.

The reason I want to loop the animation for 20 seconds is because I want to experiment with some things. Just to see how things are working and what is possible!

Warlock 279 · 10-04-2006, 05:25 AM

Well, took me a little wandering around the net to find a shot of the LW[8] graph editor, but I did find one, and it does have pre/post behaviour. So here's what you need to do, open up the graph editor, hot key "ctrl+F2." Then check the image, I threw a circle around where you want to look. Not my screen shot, "borrowed" it form a NewTek tut, but it is my circle, and I'm proud of it :p. Anyway, hope this sorts it out for ya.

Also, I figured you were testing stuff. But just in case it wasn't for experimentation purposes, I figured I'd warn against exhorborantly long cycles. I've seen, and made a few, and you know its bad when you bore yourself :p

Best of luck, and if your experiment turns out cool you ought share it with us.

NoStr0m0 · 10-04-2006, 12:53 PM

Or you could do this if you want more control on the number of cycles, or just because you feel like it :attn:
BTW, I think this method also works on other than translation, rotation, scale keyframes.

Cheers! :beer:

nemac4 · 10-04-2006, 03:50 PM

Originally posted by NoStr0m0
Or you could do this if you want more control on the number of cycles, or just because you feel like it :attn:
BTW, I think this method also works on other than translation, rotation, scale keyframes.

Cheers! :beer:

You could also apply this method through the DopeSheet under the Scene Editor and copy all of your keys at once.

bullet_evader · 10-04-2006, 04:43 PM

Originally posted by Warlock 279
Well, took me a little wandering around the net to find a shot of the LW[8] graph editor, but I did find one, and it does have pre/post behaviour. So here's what you need to do, open up the graph editor, hot key "ctrl+F2." Then check the image, I threw a circle around where you want to look. Not my screen shot, "borrowed" it form a NewTek tut, but it is my circle, and I'm proud of it :p. Anyway, hope this sorts it out for ya.

Also, I figured you were testing stuff. But just in case it wasn't for experimentation purposes, I figured I'd warn against exhorborantly long cycles. I've seen, and made a few, and you know its bad when you bore yourself :p

Best of luck, and if your experiment turns out cool you ought share it with us.

:mg: I really don't understand why I didn't see the pre-behaviour button before

This is not the first time that happend to me. I had that some time ago in a warehouse too. Someone asked me to pick something for him. So I looked for it, but couldn't find it. When he came to me to help me find the product, it was just standing before my nose! This happend a few times I was working their. Really strange, isn't it?

And of course, if the results are good, i will share it with you.
Actually I allready did 2 testanimations.
Click here for the first test.
And here for the second test.

If the links are not working copy and past the following urls
home.hetnet.nl/~minzetenwoude/animationtest.swf
home.hetnet.nl/~minzetenwoude/animationtest2.swf

Remember this is the first time I tryed to make an animation with bones ( well, honestly it's the second time, but the first time went so bad, I couldn't say it was an animation :') )

And nostromo, thank you for the tutorial, i will give it a look.

pixelinfected · 13-04-2006, 08:40 PM

you can use motion mixer, to capture motions and repeat some times or if you not need to change too many items you can do with graph editor.

open graph editor, select nodes of animation that you want to duplicate, go in add node mode on graph editor, then with right mouse button click and drag, that copy key frame to place where you leave button

Warlock 279 · 14-04-2006, 06:51 AM

Hey, those tests don't look too bad. I think the jump one could use a little more anticipation before he actually jumps, and the run could use some bob and a little more action in the hips. As far as the bones and deformations go, it looks like you're of to a pretty good start.

As for "hidden in plain site," I know the feeling. I'll have that sometimes. Was trying to find the "spinquads" button the other day, and must have read over every menu two or three times before I finally saw it, and it was right where I started looking oddly enough. It is funny how you miss stuff sometimes.

07-04-2006, 04:49 PM	#1
bullet_evader Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: the netherlands Posts: 798	Copy-Past keyframes! Just a small question from me. How do I copy-past an animation of 1 second, so it repeats for 20 seconds? I thought it was somewhere in the scene editor, but can't find out where exactly I have to look. Thanks in advance! __________________ Check out my homepage sometimes the few have to give their lives for the many!!!

09-04-2006, 09:19 PM	#3
bullet_evader Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: the netherlands Posts: 798	Thanks for the tips Warlock 279, but unfortunatly I can't find the pre-behaviour button you are talking about. I think because i work with lightwave 8.5 and things have changed a little. The reason I want to loop the animation for 20 seconds is because I want to experiment with some things. Just to see how things are working and what is possible! __________________ Check out my homepage sometimes the few have to give their lives for the many!!!

10-04-2006, 12:53 PM	#5
NoStr0m0 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Somewhere... in 3D space Posts: 153	Or you could do this if you want more control on the number of cycles, or just because you feel like it :attn: BTW, I think this method also works on other than translation, rotation, scale keyframes. Cheers! :beer: __________________ " ...'till the world burned!" Last edited by NoStr0m0; 10-04-2006 at 12:56 PM.

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09-04-2006, 08:58 PM	#2
Warlock 279 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Where the wild things are... Posts: 172	I'm not surre that what you're looking for is in the scene editor, at least not in versions prior to [8], tho I know in [8] some things are different. Anyway... How you do it depends on what you want to accomplish. If you're looking for just a loop for an icon on a website or something...then just render it out and loop it, and you're good to go. If you want it to loop in Lightwave, then you need to go to the grapheditor and do two things. First make sure that the first and last key frames for each channel that's modified for each object that's been animated are identical, if they're not you'll get a "pop," severity depending on how different they are. Then you want to click the drop downs where it says "pre-behaviour" [if your keys don't all start at 0] and "post-behaviour" and set them to "repeat" and that should give you an infinite cycle in either direction. You should be able to do this for all the channels at once, once you've made sure they're all starting and ending on the same value. One flaw with this method however is if you want to animate something at the start or the end of that seqeunce that varies from the cycle, you'll either have to bake off the keys or use another shot. Also, 20 seconds is a really long time, in the short animation world anyway, is there really a need to have something run that long? Especially if its just a cycle. Loops tend to get "long" around 10 seconds at most.

13-04-2006, 08:40 PM	#8
pixelinfected Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: italy Posts: 10	you can use motion mixer, to capture motions and repeat some times or if you not need to change too many items you can do with graph editor. open graph editor, select nodes of animation that you want to duplicate, go in add node mode on graph editor, then with right mouse button click and drag, that copy key frame to place where you leave button

14-04-2006, 06:51 AM	#9
Warlock 279 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Where the wild things are... Posts: 172	Hey, those tests don't look too bad. I think the jump one could use a little more anticipation before he actually jumps, and the run could use some bob and a little more action in the hips. As far as the bones and deformations go, it looks like you're of to a pretty good start. As for "hidden in plain site," I know the feeling. I'll have that sometimes. Was trying to find the "spinquads" button the other day, and must have read over every menu two or three times before I finally saw it, and it was right where I started looking oddly enough. It is funny how you miss stuff sometimes.