Reply To: Cyclic aware keying

[Wayne Dixon]

Hi Brandon,

I’m not following 100% with everything you are asking but perhaps I can explain what ‘cyclic aware keying’ does and when it can help (or hinder)

Cyclic Aware Keying

Let’s say you have a walk cycle from f01-f25. 

You have the cycle modifiers on the curves so you can scrub past f25 and the animation will still keep playing.

Then you want to adjust the down position. But you are on not on f04 you are on f52.

With Cyclic aware keying, it will notice that you are keyframing outside of your ‘cycle’ (that’s f01-25) and it WON’T ADD a new keyframe on f52, it will adjust the keyframe on f04 (the real spot where that occurs)

When can it become a problem.

When your keyframes don’t match your cycle length.

Maybe you haven’t keyed the start and then end of your animation on all the controls but you have on others.

If you key, it will detect your first and last keyframes and then guess where it thinks your cycle is, and add it in an unexpected spot.  

Cycles with offset.

You make an adjustment to a pose that has cycle with offset, and the result can also be unexpected.

If you are aware of what the tool does – then you know when it can help and when it can hinder.

On a normal in-place cycle, it can be helpful. (if you have the start and end keys there first)

On a translating cycle, it can hinder on those parts that translate, but still help on the others that don’t as not all parts cycle with offset. But keeping track of that takes cognitive power. So perhaps it’s easier just to avoid it on the translating cycles.

Hope that answers your question.