gerbick, pope, or matrix...another Q for you

[pheck]

is there a way to freeze frame a space warp anim so that it just stops 'blowing up' on frame 20, for example? I'd like to be able to do some camera anim through the shrapnel w/ the shrapnel frozen in space, but I can't seem to figure this one out. i'm working with 3DMax. I'm using a meshBomb. any ideas? thanks in advance.

[theMatrix]

Go into track view and expand the tracks for the mesh bomb. Find the track you want and set keys at the beginning and other critical points in the animation. Assign a linear float controller to the track and fix its value at whatever you want at frame 20. The track will assume the frame-0 key value, ramp to whatever it's set to at frame 20, then stay constant. Or, you could set a key at frame 21, edit the function curve, and drag the value down to 0. It's not quite a dope sheet in the Maya sense, but you can manage your entire animation from Track View.

good luck!

[pheck]

matrix,

thanks for your reply. i still can't seem to figure the baby out. i've never used the track view and am now finding it confusing. any chance you could give me a step-by-step on how this is done? thanks matrix.

[theMatrix]

Track View can be intimidating on the first few attempts at usage.

There are two issues here -- animating the parameter that controls the desired feature of your animation, and assigning the appropriate controller so that it behaves as desired between keyframes.

You can assign controllers through the Motion panel. So, where is your problem? Is it animating one of the space warp parameters, or its behavior of that parameter before/after frame 20?

You may just want to e-mail me.

good luck!