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Using a slider to move null object between keyframe 1 and keyframe 3 but skipping keyframe 2.
I’m building a complex mouth-rig that could be animated using one single master-slider.
I’d like to be able to position an object in 3 different positions using 3 keyframes, and then use a slider to seamlessly animate the object between these positions, which is pretty simple to do. However, as it stands, the slider acts as a “time” selector, not a “position” selector. I’d like to be able to move this object from the position of keyframe “1” to the position of keyframe “3” without the object having to also move through the position of keyframe “2” before arriving at keyframe “3”. I’d like to be able to control whether or not the slider will “skip” or “ignore” keyframe “2”.
I suppose I’m trying to bridge the gap between “time-based” animation and “position-based” animation, and I know after effects’ strength is time-based animation.
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4 Replies
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Since it is just three positions, the easiest solution would be to make one more keyframe 4 as a duplicate of keyframe 1. Then you can animate from keyframe 3 to 4 to get what you want.
Kalleheikki Kannisto
Senior Graphic Designer -
Thank you, yes, that definitely would be the easiest solution for this example.
But I’m ultimately looking to be able scale this idea up to 11 or more different positions, and be able to move independently and seamlessly between any of the positions of keyframes 1-4, 5-1, 4-6, 7-4, 9-11, etc., using a single control interface, such as a slider. I think I might be expecting a computer to be smarter than they currently are, or maybe I need to write a discrete script for this purpose.
I’ve been looking into the Joysticks & Sliders script, which gets me a little closer to what I’d want to do, but still appears to have some limitations.
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The problem with that idea is that you can’t go from 1 to 5 (for instance) with a slider without going through 2, 3 and 4 in between.
Perhaps hold keyframes would work. If the transitions between states are the same length in time (X frames), a loop backwards X frames to see if the value of the slider was different during that time and basing the position on the time progress from that point (current time minus X frames to current time, and where the change happened within that time frame) to interpolate between the two keyframe positions in question.
If the timing needs to vary, a second slider could conceivably be used to vary the transition time. Should work as long as the motions don’t overlap.
Kalleheikki Kannisto
Senior Graphic Designer -
Thanks! Very interesting actually, I’m gunna mess around with this kind of method.
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