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Is there a way of working with the interpolation lines between keyframes as if they were splines?
I’ve rigged a character and am trying to get it to move with some certain naturally but I’m finding it difficult because of how the keyframes work in C4D.
Let’s take the arm, for instance: it swings as the character walks. So I’ve got a starting keyframe with the arm set a little behind the body and an ending keyframe with it a little in front, but I don’t want the arm to travel in a straight line, as it’s now doing, I want that line to “sag” in the middle, creating an arching movement with the arm.
Now, I’m rather new to C4D, but I come from a strong AE background and, especially, a 2D animation background there. I have a lot of experience with rigging characters and animating them in AE, and the process of making them move “naturally” feels rather more practical and, shall I say, easier in AE.
In AE the keyframes create interpolation lines that work exactly like splines. So one can move around points right in the viewport, like in C4D, but one can also manipulate the bezier controls in order to create whichever form one wants with those “splines”. In the case I mentioned of the arm, it’s as easy as pulling down these controls until the center of the movement line becomes the bottom part of an arc. One is controlling all 3 axes at once in order to create the needed effect. And all of this is done visually in the viewport, so that there’s no need to go about blindly doing it on the timeline through trial and error.
So I’m wondering if there’s a way to similarly do this in AE. That is, to control the keyframes visually in the viewport, rather that in the timeline. I’ve tried recreating the same thing by moving the controllers in the timeline but can’t reach the same result. Because in order to create a similar effect using the individual axis’ controls one has to tweak one and then the other, and try and get the similar effect… in the end, the movement still seems rather more robotic, less natural.
Am I doing something incredibly wrong? Is there a much easier way of resolving this? Am I not finding the correct tools?
I would very much appreciate your input, especially if it’s to say: no, you’re wrong, there’s this tool or this window that’ll make your life so much easier!
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3 Replies
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If you just add a key frame in between the two keyframes then just drag it to the spot you want, it will create a bezier path that you can adjust (including the handles)
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Hi, Steve, thanks for your answer!
But won’t that also mean that the speed ramps down as it gets to that intermediate keyframe? -
only in one dimension. SO if you go to the graph editor you can make sure that the (i’m assuming) X f curve is diagonal (constant change) and the Y curve has an ease on it.
In C4D the curves are separate but in AE you have to tell them to be individual.
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