Linear Motion and Smooth...

[trailertrash]

I have a slide with several objects and several keyframes per object.

I have no problem moving them around using linear motion, but the minute I change it to smooth...it totally ignores the KF's in between first and last and goes directly to the last position!!!!

I change it back to linear and all is well. I have several slides in the same presentation which I completed yesterday and they are using smooth motion and run fine.

I've restared the computer and also saved and closed p2e several times and deleted and re loaded the offending slides to no avail.

Linear motion is the only one to do the job properly.

Is it me or is something amis with my programme? Any help would be much appreciated.

Andrew

[Lin Evans]

Hi Andrew,

Are you clicking on the down arrow beside smooth then clicking on "setup" and clicking each "separate here" point for each of Pan, Zoom and Rotate?

Best regards,

Lin

I have a slide with several objects and several keyframes per object.

I have no problem moving them around using linear motion, but the minute I change it to smooth...it totally ignores the KF's in between first and last and goes directly to the last position!!!!

I change it back to linear and all is well. I have several slides in the same presentation which I completed yesterday and they are using smooth motion and run fine.

I've restared the computer and also saved and closed p2e several times and deleted and re loaded the offending slides to no avail.

Linear motion is the only one to do the job properly.

Is it me or is something amis with my programme? Any help would be much appreciated.

Andrew

[fh1805]

Andrew,

To further elaborate on Lin's reply...

Linear motion is identical throughout, no matter how many keypoints your object has. Smooth motion applies between two adjacent keypoints. So, to programme Smooth motion correctly you have, as Lin indicated, to click on the Linear button and then click on "Setting up..." and then on the "Separate here" links to break your keyframes up into pairs. Then apply the Smooth option to the pair that you want it to apply to by clicking on the grey vertical bar with the little "down-arrowhead" in order to see the various options.

A little experimentation should help you get to grips with this aspect of animation.

regards,

Peter

[trailertrash]

Hi Lin and Peter, so I should create two keypoints say 1 and 2. Then on keypoint 2 I click on the setting up and select seperate here and select the smooth option. Have I understood that correctly guys?

I appreciate the help, this is driving me up the wall.

Andrew

[fh1805]

Andrew,

You will only need to do a "Separate here" if you have three or more keyframes. If all you have is two keyframes then simply changing from Linear to Smooth will do the business. With just two keyframes there is no need for "Setting up..." and "Separate Here" at all.

regards,

Peter

[trailertrash]

Understood Peter. I've been practising with this and its tough!

Thank you for the help.

Andrew

[trailertrash]

Peter, Quick question...

Is it better to use clone keypoint or add keypoint here? If clone keypoint is used does that also copy the motion from the previous keypoint and if Add keypoint here is used does that add a 'blank'

Andrew

[fh1805]

Andrew,

Quick answer - don't know! Try it. Then you become the expert and can tell us what happens!

regards,

Peter

[trailertrash]

Any advice I give is to be instantly ignored.

[thedom]

Is it better to use clone keypoint or add keypoint here? If clone keypoint is used does that also copy the motion from the previous keypoint and if Add keypoint here is used does that add a 'blank'

If you use "clone keypoint", it will add a keypoint with the same caracteristics as the one copied, whatever the number of keypoints already existing for this object.

If you have only one keypoint for an object or add a keypoint after the last keypoint of this object, the result for using "add keypoint" will the same as if you use "clone keypoint" :

The new keypoint will have the same parameters as the previous one : same pan/zoom/rotate/center/3d parameters.

If you have more than one keypoint for an object and want to create a new keypoint between two existing keypoints, if you use "add keypoint", it will add a keypoint with intermediate values depending on where you add it on the timeline.

By example, if you first keypoint ( A ) has zoom=0 and your second keypoint ( B ) has zoom=100, if you add a new keypoint between A and B at 1/4 distance from the distance between A and B, this keypoint will have zoom=25

[thedom]

Igor, is it possible to include this suggestion for next version?

I think it would really facilitate the ease of use of features like smooth movements for a lot of users and would be a time saver.

[fh1805]

Andrew,

Having watched your WW2 Poster sequence and noted the animations you were using, I think I might know why you are having difficulty.

The first animation I noted was when one of the posters was rotated about its Y axis and, at the same time, was panned horizontally to the right. I am guessing that you had all four keyframes on the poster object itself as follows:

K1 - Rotate Y start

K2 - Pan start

K3 - Pan end

K4 - Rotate end

You might even have had just two keyframes:

K1 - Start of rotate Y and of pan right

K2 - End of rotate Y and of pan right

Am I correct with one of these scenarios?

The secret of success in animation control is to use "Frames". I very rarely apply animation directly to the object itself. 99% of the time I set the object as the child of a frame and apply the animation to the frame. And if I want two or more different animations at the same time (as you did) I set up a nest of frames, for example, as follows:

Frame1 - Pan controller

Frame2 - 3D Rotate controller (set as a child of Frame1)

Object - set as a child of Frame2

Now I can programme the pan keyframes on Frame1 and define them as being "Smooth" and programme the Rotate Y keyframes to exactly the same pair of times (or different ones) without these being affected by anything I do to the pan keyframes.

I hope this makes sense. I suggest you set up a new project, just one slide and one extra object on that slide and have a play. It's quite easy to do.

regards,

Peter

[trailertrash]

Peter your correct in how you describe how I did that. I just never gave frames or anything else a thought. There is just so many ways to do things its mind blowing, and my mind blows easily these days.

I will follow your advice and try this using frames. It sounds so much easier.

Thank you again.

Andrew

[trailertrash]

Andrew,

Having watched your WW2 Poster sequence and noted the animations you were using, I think I might know why you are having difficulty.

The first animation I noted was when one of the posters was rotated about its Y axis and, at the same time, was panned horizontally to the right. I am guessing that you had all four keyframes on the poster object itself as follows:

K1 - Rotate Y start

K2 - Pan start

K3 - Pan end

K4 - Rotate end

You might even have had just two keyframes:

K1 - Start of rotate Y and of pan right

K2 - End of rotate Y and of pan right

Am I correct with one of these scenarios?

The secret of success in animation control is to use "Frames". I very rarely apply animation directly to the object itself. 99% of the time I set the object as the child of a frame and apply the animation to the frame. And if I want two or more different animations at the same time (as you did) I set up a nest of frames, for example, as follows:

Frame1 - Pan controller

Frame2 - 3D Rotate controller (set as a child of Frame1)

Object - set as a child of Frame2

Now I can programme the pan keyframes on Frame1 and define them as being "Smooth" and programme the Rotate Y keyframes to exactly the same pair of times (or different ones) without these being affected by anything I do to the pan keyframes.

I hope this makes sense. I suggest you set up a new project, just one slide and one extra object on that slide and have a play. It's quite easy to do.

regards,

Peter

Peter your the man. I just tried a movement with

frame 1

frame 2 [set as a child of frame 1]

object1 [set as a child of frame 2]

using the seperate here and drop down menu set to smooth I introduced 7 movements all of which ran as smooth as silk.

Sorted. Thats another thing I knew nothing about till yesterday.

Andrew

[8321]

The secret of success in animation control is to use "Frames". I very rarely apply animation directly to the object itself. 99% of the time I set the object as the child of a frame and apply the animation to the frame.

Peter, please explain why you almost always use frames? I can see the benefit if you have more than one embedded object that you want to control as 'one' but isn't it extra work if there is only one object in a frame with one 'animation'?

Thanks, Jeff

[fh1805]

Jeff,

I almost always use frames because, when I do use animation (which is rarely), I almost always have complex animation (because animation is the "raison d'etre" for that particular sequence). I never animate simply to "add interest". To my mind animation has to complement the image and enhance the story-telling. If it enhances the story-telling but isn't complementary to the image then it's a distraction. If it is complementary to the image but doesn't enhance the story-telling then it's a gimmick.

regards,

Peter

[8321]

Peter,

Points taken. Well explained. Possibly difficult to adhere to.

Thank you, Jeff