some noob questions

[akademus]

1. You can click on one of the rotational axis and move the mouse to rotate, for example, if you click on red one (Heading) and move to the right camera will rotate to the right and vice versa.

2. You can lock specific channels per selected model by clicking on X, Y, Z names (for translation) in the lower left corner of the viewport, just left to the values.

3. You select all the keys (boxes) and move them by clicking and dragging between them.

4. You can use graph editor for that, its easier and undoable.

5. Undo is kinda dull and outdated in LW, it works only when you move things around, but not if you change values.

6. You can use Classic Scene editor for that, select models and under visibility set what you want. You can make selection sets there as well.

Cheers and best of luck

Hi,
I've learned a bit of LightWave over the weekend, for an animation project, and it seems easy enough to work with, but I have a few things I didn't yet manage to figure out...

1. Numero uno and my main concern: rotations are backwards from my usual, is there a way to have an object rotate with the mouse, not against it? As in the attached pic, I hope it's legible (the straight line is the mouse movement, the curve is the obtained rotation).

2. How do I unselect an object in the viewport, so nothing in the viewport remains selected, or at least, if one object must always be selected, not be set to move or rotate.. (so I don't accidentally move things around)?

3. How do I shift keys or selections of keys in the DopeTrack in a controllable fashion? A.t.m. it seems like they only want to move if I drag vigorously, for a while I thought they're locked... also, can I scale selection of keys in the DopeTrack (I assume this is a 'ney', but I had to ask)?

4. Each time I set or delete a keyframe I get a pop up, can I avoid that without using autokey? (in fact, there's a large amount of pop-ups for all kinds of actions, it would be great to be able to turn them off and have LightWave just use default values, without it asking each time)

5. I don't understand undo/redo. Undo sometimes doesn't undo at all, or just undoes one step, sometimes a few, but never all the steps it should... (I set it to 100 steps, and even tried to set it to infinity, same results).

6. What's the LightWave way to deal with hiding/unhiding groups of objects? I'm looking for a simple, elegant solution, if possible, something that I can toggle on an off 1010101 times a day, quickly, like visibility layers.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read all this!
:)

[PixelInfected]

Hi. welcome to Lw community,
to use better lw you need to learn a bit more about tools of lw, but it's only a time matter, no more, i try to answer to all your question.

Hi,
I've learned a bit of LightWave over the weekend, for an animation project, and it seems easy enough to work with, but I have a few things I didn't yet manage to figure out...

1. Numero uno and my main concern: rotations are backwards from my usual, is there a way to have an object rotate with the mouse, not against it? As in the attached pic, I hope it's legible (the straight line is the mouse movement, the curve is the obtained rotation).

i don't know if i understand correctly about rotation direction, but it's the lw way of rotation, to semplify the work is better that you click on gadget of rotation (the colored circles) and this help you to rotate in a more simple way.


2. How do I unselect an object in the viewport, so nothing in the viewport remains selected, or at least, if one object must always be selected, not be set to move or rotate.. (so I don't accidentally move things around)?

you can't, in Layout must be an item selected, everytime, can be camera, a light, be you muste leave selected an item. but if you want you can open Classic scene editor, and lock items on selection in the viewport, then you can select items only from panel of scene editor.

3. How do I shift keys or selections of keys in the DopeTrack in a controllable fashion? A.t.m. it seems like they only want to move if I drag vigorously, for a while I thought they're locked... also, can I scale selection of keys in the DopeTrack (I assume this is a 'ney', but I had to ask)?

if you open New scene editor, you can select more keys at same time, you can move and strech keys without problems, you can move if you click at center of selection, or you can stretch if you grab left or right handler or selection

4. Each time I set or delete a keyframe I get a pop up, can I avoid that without using autokey? (in fact, there's a large amount of pop-ups for all kinds of actions, it would be great to be able to turn them off and have LightWave just use default values, without it asking each time)

you can setup the level of alert in the option panel (hit "o" and you can see all options)

5. I don't understand undo/redo. Undo sometimes doesn't undo at all, or just undoes one step, sometimes a few, but never all the steps it should... (I set it to 100 steps, and even tried to set it to infinity, same results).

in the option panel you can setup the level of undo, and VERY IMPORTANT lw not have undo on all things... unfortunately...


6. What's the LightWave way to deal with hiding/unhiding groups of objects? I'm looking for a simple, elegant solution, if possible, something that I can toggle on an off 1010101 times a day, quickly, like visibility layers.

check the options of New scene editor, you can build a groups, and you can hide and show group of items, without 10001 selections ;-)
[QUOTE=VM]

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read all this!
:)

[VM]

Hi guys, thanks for replying!

About 1, I guess this is the lw way of rotating, but I have a hard time working with it, I hoped it might be customizable. It's backwards from the norm, which is why it's hard to rotate all 3 axes as well. Hard but not impossible, and I'll definitely practice so I can do that (like flying up side down, haha, not easy I guess, but doable). If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm sorry, I can't explain any clearer than with my drawing (I'd have to make a video, hehe).

About 2, yeah, too bad it doesn't work, maybe I'll keep a null handy and I keep selecting that, just so I don't have a controller selected when I'm not working with it. But I'm shocked to hear this. At least... if I could switch to a tool other than Move or Rotate, something that would do... ideally.. nothing :D I guess that's why lw has a default keyframe on objects... or is it just for nulls? Btw, I don't understand why I have to keyframe a null to keep it from going to 0.0.0. Even if I delete the default keyframe, it still zeroes itself out when I press play. Not important though...

About 3, I know I can shift and scale keys in the dope sheet or graph, but my question was about the timeline/dopetrack, which is what I use mostly when animating, because I mostly work in the viewport. The problem I have with moving keys in the dopetrack is... it's impossible :D They either don't move, or move a lot, chaotically, when I drag fast and... vigorous, haha. Maybe it's my wacom? I tried with both pen and wacom mouse... same.

About 4, I set the alert level to all 3 values, to see if there's any change. I guess it affects other types of alerts, but I still get a pop-up when I try to set a keyframe. I can set keyframes with fast double-enter, but... it's not ideal, heh. Also setting keyframes in the Graph wouldn't be an option, but I see the Graph also brings up a pop-up... so no difference there.

About 5, I'm in a deep state of shock :P So how do you guys work with lw if you can't undo things? It's like in real life I guess... hehe.

About 6, I discovered sets, and I'll use them, but I hoped there'd be a more elegant way. Well, actually, it's not so bad after all. Only if I get a scene with hundreds of sets, and I have to add some of my own, and navigating for my sets would probably take some time. But I also don't need to switch sets, or the visibility of certain groups of controllers, all the time, luckily.

Also, one more question:
Can I translate an object in the camera plane? (not XY, not YZ, not ZX, but left-right-up-down based on camera view. I use this a lot when animating in other software, it's a huge help, just like being able to rotate in all 3 axes, huge animation help :) )

Thanks again for helping me!

[PixelInfected]

Hi guys, thanks for replying!

About 1, I guess this is the lw way of rotating, but I have a hard time working with it, I hoped it might be customizable. It's backwards from the norm, which is why it's hard to rotate all 3 axes as well. Hard but not impossible, and I'll definitely practice so I can do that (like flying up side down, haha, not easy I guess, but doable). If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm sorry, I can't explain any clearer than with my drawing (I'd have to make a video, hehe).

About 2, yeah, too bad it doesn't work, maybe I'll keep a null handy and I keep selecting that, just so I don't have a controller selected when I'm not working with it. But I'm shocked to hear this. At least... if I could switch to a tool other than Move or Rotate, something that would do... ideally.. nothing :D I guess that's why lw has a default keyframe on objects... or is it just for nulls? Btw, I don't understand why I have to keyframe a null to keep it from going to 0.0.0. Even if I delete the default keyframe, it still zeroes itself out when I press play. Not important though...

About 3, I know I can shift and scale keys in the dope sheet or graph, but my question was about the timeline/dopetrack, which is what I use mostly when animating, because I mostly work in the viewport. The problem I have with moving keys in the dopetrack is... it's impossible :D They either don't move, or move a lot, chaotically, when I drag fast and... vigorous, haha. Maybe it's my wacom? I tried with both pen and wacom mouse... same.

ehm, have you tried to use a mouse, not a wacom mouse? i use wacom to paint or sculpt in zbrush, but i found many difficult to use in 3d space, in every software...

About 4, I set the alert level to all 3 values, to see if there's any change. I guess it affects other types of alerts, but I still get a pop-up when I try to set a keyframe. I can set keyframes with fast double-enter, but... it's not ideal, heh. Also setting keyframes in the Graph wouldn't be an option, but I see the Graph also brings up a pop-up... so no difference there.

and use autokey options? you can setup autokey only for modified channel, is the faster way to animate, i use from lw 3, and i hate everysoftware that not allow me to work in this fluid way.


About 5, I'm in a deep state of shock :P So how do you guys work with lw if you can't undo things? It's like in real life I guess... hehe.

is a shock? why?
the limits of lw undo are not so big when you work in a common way, usually i need undo only sometimes, when i do some error of animation, but usually i not so much undo in lw, cinema4d, maya, aftereffects and so on...



About 6, I discovered sets, and I'll use them, but I hoped there'd be a more elegant way. Well, actually, it's not so bad after all. Only if I get a scene with hundreds of sets, and I have to add some of my own, and navigating for my sets would probably take some time. But I also don't need to switch sets, or the visibility of certain groups of controllers, all the time, luckily.

search on flay.com
there are many plugs free that allow to build from sets customs windows where you can use sets in more confortable way.

Also, one more question:
Can I translate an object in the camera plane? (not XY, not YZ, not ZX, but left-right-up-down based on camera view. I use this a lot when animating in other software, it's a huge help, just like being able to rotate in all 3 axes, huge animation help :) )

Thanks again for helping me!

i don't know if i understand correctly, but probably only if you parent item to camera, please let me know how this can help you, i'm so curious.

[VM]

Thank you Carlo,
and use autokey options? you can setup autokey only for modified channel, is the faster way to animate, i use from lw 3, and i hate everysoftware that not allow me to work in this fluid way.
I never use autokey. I'm thinking especially in lw, where you can't unselect objects or have selected objects not be affected by translations or rotations. Autokey means that if you move something accidentally, it will be saved as a key. So moving things accidentally is not something I can guarantee it won't happen, but making sure that I only set a key if I actually want to set a key, that's doable :D So that's the way I work.

About undo... well... ummm... I guess I'll have to press save before every operation. I'm not kidding. I'll press save and only then press set-key, if I could make a script that does that and assign it to a shortcut... Hey, I just realized, that's the solution to my keyframing problem! :D And a shortcut to a script that would select a null would be the solution to unselecting objects! Yeeey :)

[PentamiterBeast]

Well...

for having a tool that does "nothing"... you can just switch to the sliders tool (which is basically like a manipulator for controlling slider banks).

As for the undo... it works just fine.. with limitations.

When you set a constraint objct, or name something, etc, etc... then undo does nothing. But perform a move/rotate/scale... or a whole bunch of them one after another, and hit undo, and you'll step back, and back, and back...

And if you use autokey... then turn on autikey management in options, and when you move something, and then undo it, itll undo the keyframe too.

[VM]

Well...

for having a tool that does "nothing"... you can just switch to the sliders tool (which is basically like a manipulator for controlling slider banks).

As for the undo... it works just fine.. with limitations.

When you set a constraint objct, or name something, etc, etc... then undo does nothing. But perform a move/rotate/scale... or a whole bunch of them one after another, and hit undo, and you'll step back, and back, and back...

And if you use autokey... then turn on autikey management in options, and when you move something, and then undo it, itll undo the keyframe too.

Thanks, but I don't use autokey, and if I set or delete a key and then undo, the undo doesn't work.
I'll look for the slider tool.

[VM]

Looks like querying time in lw is a possible problem, can anyone help me out?... If I want to script something like "set keyframe at current time", how do you get the current time?...

[PentamiterBeast]

Looks like querying time in lw is a possible problem, can anyone help me out?... If I want to script something like "set keyframe at current time", how do you get the current time?...

Someone helped me out with this a lil while back... this lil slice of script worked well for me... keys both bones and objects together at once, or can be split for one or the other.

@script generic

generic {

@define POSITION 1
@define ROTATION 2
@define SCALE 3



SelectByName("some bone name");
AddToSelection("some other bone");
//add lots more bones



//get a list of items, in this case, all selected items
items = Scene().getSelect();

//check autokey state, turn on if its off.
autokey = Scene().generalopts[7];
if(!autokey) AutoKey();

//keyframe all items in position and rotation using user defined function below.
foreach(item, items) { //foreach item in items.
keyframe(item, POSITION, item.getPosition(Scene().currenttime));
keyframe(item, ROTATION, item.getRotation(Scene().currenttime));
keyframe(item, SCALE, item.getRotation(Scene().currenttime));
}



//restore autokey state
if(!autokey) AutoKey();





SelectByName("objectname");
AddToSelection("some other object");
//add lots more items



//get a list of items, in this case, all selected items
items = Scene().getSelect();

//check autokey state, turn on if its off.
autokey = Scene().generalopts[7];
if(!autokey) AutoKey();

//keyframe all items in position and rotation using user defined function below.
foreach(item, items) { //foreach item in items.
keyframe(item, POSITION, item.getPosition(Scene().currenttime));
keyframe(item, ROTATION, item.getRotation(Scene().currenttime));
keyframe(item, SCALE, item.getRotation(Scene().currenttime));

}



//restore autokey state
if(!autokey) AutoKey();
}

[VM]

Someone helped me out with this a lil while back... this lil slice of script worked well for me... keys both bones and objects together at once, or can be split for one or the other.
Awesome, thanks! I'll look at it. I need something that only keys what I have selected, so controllers, not bones, but maybe I can use some info from this script and see how to query that time value. Anyway, it's not a huge deal to just press S and 3 times enter for a keyframe :D just a bit tedious, when you have to do it thousands of times a day...

[PentamiterBeast]

Well, thats why I always go with autokey (;

In all the years Ive been using LW, I could probably count on my fingers the amount of times Ive accidentally moved something with autokey on. And even if you're more ham fisted than I... you can undo an autokeyed frame, or just delete it... which would likely amount to far fewer keypresses than manually keying each time to avoid making a mistake.

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