Time-Track

[vid2k2]

Example:
90frames of flap flap
select frames 30 through 60 ( for the slow motion )
You'll get a Value Key / Properties
Time field >>>> click the up arrow to say 45
Play animation and see the slow mo

[JeremyW]

Could you post a scene file? I don't get it.
Thanks

[Per-Anders]

The time track works by changing the current time of the tracks it's affecting as a percentage, so 0% is the beginning 100% is the end of the tracks it's affecting. Thus you can slow something down by adding a couple of keyframes along it's length where the curve between them is less steep (consider the curve to be time itself), so therefore because it's less steep between those two keys things will happen slower (less time is passing).

To apply a time track to multiple other tracks just select those other tracks all at once and drag in the time track into the appropriate slot in the attributes manager, you can even select the parent objects and don't worry about children tracks as they will get selected at once (remember you select the objects in the timeline on the left hand side to select the track, not anything in the "keys" area).

There is one limitation to bear in mind, as the time tracks apply to the length of the animation (i.e. from the first keyframe to the last) rather than teh duration of the documents animation for the tracks theyr'e applied to you should make sure to duplicate any first/last keys (or record a dummy key) on the same start/end point of all tracks you want to be affected by the same time track. I.e. just have all the obejcts selected, move hte playhead to the very first key's place in time (you can do this easily in the powerslider by click dragging the playhead then holding down the shift key once the playhead is being dragged), and then record a keyframe for all those selected obejcts on all their tracks (record keyframe button or CTRL+Click in the powerslider on that frame), then do the same but for the end of the animation.

[Creature]

Thank you, that did it :)

Figured out how to use the Time-Track now and actually it's a pretty cool thing. I think my problem was that I was thinking too much in Softimage XSI time editing terms here. But once I got my head round it (and got the fact that the Time-Track basically gives you one single f-curve for the whole animation) I learned to love that feature rather quick.

[vid2k2]

I suspect another method is to delete every other set of flaps
to slow things down too. In essence that's what was done in the
sample I just ran above.

[Creature]

I had the slow flapping and needed to speed it up in parts of the animation. But with a smooth transition from slow to fast (ease in / ease out). That smooth transition is very important to the animation. Time-Track did it just fine.

But thank you very much for your effort :thumbsup:

[vid2k2]

No problem :)

Just reverse the process.
Glad you got it sorted.

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