I know Chris McFall suggested that this setting should be checked, but I disagree with this preference. (by default it is off – the way I have it)
You will see that I like to “Key Whole Character (selected only)”, then delete any unused channels and switch to “Available”. There is method to this madness which hopefully you will learn with more experience.
But why do I think it is important to key all the channels rather that “only needed”?
Well image this…
Key 1: you key the loc and rot.
Key 2: you rotate the ball (no translation)
Key 3:you rotate the ball (no translation)
Key 4: you rotate and translate the ball.
If you enable “key only needed” the ball will slide from Key 1 all the way to Key 4 but you only wanted it to translate from that position between Key 3-4. So this setting can make a right mess of things as it works per channel.
Hopefully that makes sense. If it doesn’t now, it will later 😉
Happy animating.
