red ball beside materials?

[Mikeh64]

a red ball means that there is a keyframe at that point, an open red ball means that there are keyframes but not at that moment, and a gray ball means there are no keyframes for that element

[Mylenium]

[Rob] “i’m wondering what this red ball means in the Material Editor? sometimes its full, sometimes hollow and these materials with the balls randomly turn on for some reason”

Animated properties. Check your timeline/ f-curve editor.

[Rob] “the other question i have is, when loading layers into the materials, should a copy be created at the document location? My materials keep disappearing and i’m wondering if its because i said no to this question when the window came up.”

Yes. If you did not tell C4D to look for specific paths (in the Prefs), textures must be in the directory of the scene file or a “tex” sub-directory.

Mylenium

[Pour Myl

[Robert]

i’m used to working in Lightwave where i have separate folders for objects, scenes, materials, etc. Can i assign Cinema to look for objects in an objects folder and textures in a different folder or do i have to have a bunch of different files all in one folder?

[Robert]

i’m also wondering how the red balls (keyframes) work when it comes to animation. i have quicktimes that i’ve imported in the color and transparency sections. there are red balls, full, sometimes hollow but in the timeline i can’t see where these keyframes are. it would explain a lot as my files keep turning off/on and slipping in time. just wondering where these keys are when it comes to the animation section?

[Adam Trachtenberg]

Unlike LW, Cinema doesn’t have separate formats for objects, scenes, materials, etc. You can pretty much arrange things however you like. You can set up texture paths in preferences so Cinema will know where to look for bitmaps if they aren’t in the project folder.

[Adam Trachtenberg]

[Rob] “i’m also wondering how the red balls (keyframes) work when it comes to animation. i have quicktimes that i’ve imported in the color and transparency sections. there are red balls, full, sometimes hollow but in the timeline i can’t see where these keyframes are. it would explain a lot as my files keep turning off/on and slipping in time. just wondering where these keys are when it comes to the animation section?”
If you’re in R10 try going into the Timeline’s View menu and turn on automatic mode and show animated. Then select “Go To Main Level”. That should make everything that has keyframes appear in the TL.