[Bf-funboard] Seeing multiple IPO curves in IPO curve editor.

[Matt Ebb]

On 11/11/2007, at 2:25 PM, Jason van Gumster wrote:

> And how many curves are going to be displayed at the same time?  I
> think the IPO window is probably the wrong place to do this.  You
> should use this window primarily to adjust the specific motion of
> specific objects by editing the actual curves.  While you can move  
> keys
> around with the K-key, this really isn't the best place to be doing
> this; especially for large numbers of objects

I disagree, there are plenty of times where I've needed just this.  
It's not just about motion of objects, it's about  editing different  
*types* of curves, i.e. not just object ipo curves, but also  
constraints, materials, and path speed curves. If you're trying to  
sync the animation of multiple different types of things, it's  
currently a real hassle.

I've had to do the 'create 5 ipo windows and lock them all' trick for  
this, but it's a real big pain.

The way I've used it in shake, which seems quite sensible for  
something so generalised and flexible, is that next to each keyable  
number field there's a toggle icon "add to curve editor". Basically  
the curve editor is like a blank canvas that you can just add curves  
to, to edit at the same time. When you're finished with them, you can  
just turn them off. The advantage of this approach is that it's dead  
simple when you create custom data and custom variables to animate  
(which is done quite a lot, extremely useful with expressions). You  
just create your custom variable, then add it to the curve editor to  
animate, rather than having to worry about finding things in fixed  
lists.

Fusion does it somewhat similarly, in that once you set a key on any  
property (eg. right click on that number field and set a key), it  
will appear in the curve editor, however it's also organised in a  
hierarchical (per node, outliner-ish collapsible list, and each  
option has a check box that you can turn on or off to show or hide  
that curve.

The IPO editor in Blender could really use a lot of love - the big  
long hard-coded list of channels on the side is a pain to navigate up  
and down, and it's easy to miss things that are scrolled off screen.

But in any case, one idea could be to just add a 'custom' mode,  
besides the current object/material/etc options, that works similarly  
to shake - right click on a number field (or maybe even an existing  
curve in another ipo view), and add it to the curve editor.

cheers

Matt


------------------------------------------
Matt Ebb . matt at mke3.net . http://mke3.net



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