Reply To: Copying Keyframes, managing a gazillion curves, and Hotkeys

Hi @nathitappan,

Great questions – let’s see if I can answer them for you.

Copy keyframes from one Armature to another?
Yes it’s possible to do this.  You can copy keyframes, poses , or even curves on specific channels and paste them to the same channel (or different channel) on a different object.
I hope you will get a better understanding of how the data works later in the course (the Master Your Animation Data Lesson), but essentially the trick is understanding how and what you are copying, and where and how you are going to paste it.

First of all, the data is based on the names.  So if you copy something into the buffer (CMD  + C), then there needs to be somewhere for it to paste to when you press CMD + V.
Let’s image you are wanting to copy keyframes. The best/easiest way to do this select the bone you want to copy from, then in the timeline select the keys you want to copy.  Then make sure you mouse is still over the timeline when you press CMD + C (hot tip,  leave the play head on the first frame you copy.
Then select the control you want to paste it to, put the playhead where you want that first keyframe to go, then with your mouse over the timeline press CMD V.
This will paste it on that control.
Now why might this not work for you?  Because the data works based on the names, Blender is trying to match the LocXYZ, RotXYZ, and ScaleXYZ (and any other properties it copied in those keyframes)  and paste them to the exact same names on the target.  However, if there is no animation data on the target, it cannot paste it and any unmatched data will be ignored.   So it’s important to have somewhere for the data to land when you paste it (that means you need animation on those channels for it to land – if that makes sense).

You can do a similar thing in the Graph editor, but you can select the whole curve (highlight it on the left hand side), and then paste it to a new target by highlighting the channel you want it to land.

Or you can just copy some specific keyframes in the same way.

Hope that helps it make sense to you.

How do you manage lots of data and curves etc?
It is possible to only set keyframes on the channels you need using keying sets. When dealing with armatures my preferred method is to use the “Available” keying set with auto-keying enabled.  “Available” will only add keyframes to the channels that already have animation data on them and ignore everything else.  So you just need to give it a jump start by setting some keys on the channels you are going to use, and then off you go (set and forget).
There’s many ways of doing this but my preferred method is to just kick start it by hovering my mouse over any channel(s) I need and pressing i.
This will keyframe it and make it visible to the ‘available’ keying set.

In regards to finding out what keys are free for hotkeys etc
There are a few add-ons that will do this and possibly a free script that you can run (Google or DuckDuckGo this).  But I don’t think there is any easy way for checking your hotkeys.
If you don’t have a numpad, a lot of the same buttons work with the top row numbers, and you can also enable “emulate numpad”.

Hope this helps.