Copying Camera animation from one to another

[Shredder565]

how can i copy key camera animation from one camera to another?

[SamHowell]

You can just copy and paste it.

Animation\Copy Animation\from all parameters
Animation\Paste Animation\to all parameters

Code: Select all

SelectObj "Camera"
CopyAllAnimation2 "Camera", siAnySource, siAllParam
SelectObj "Camera1"
PasteAllAnimation

[Shredder565]

You can just copy and paste it.

Animation\Copy Animation\from all parameters
Animation\Paste Animation\to all parameters

Code: Select all

SelectObj "Camera"
CopyAllAnimation2 "Camera", siAnySource, siAllParam
SelectObj "Camera1"
PasteAllAnimation

huh.. i gave that a try.. but it erased the animation i had at the begining. i had a scene 5,000 frames long, and decided to join the two scenes together to make it a bit easier to manage. One camera had animation from 0 to 2538, the other from 2538 onward. tried copying key frames from one to the other, that didn't work..the method above just erased all that had come before on one or the other camera....

what i wound up doing was just manually ghosting it. extra work but it was worth it..
thanks

[NNois]

you could have your two cameras and constrain pose the first to the other one at frame 2538 (animate the constrain pose switch)

[RichardCulver]

You would not want to use the method described in your situation. Because that is more of an overwrite. There is no control over where the frames go with that option. In the manual there is a whole section devoted to copying animation.

To go from one object to another in the way you were looking for, one way is to open the Dopesheet and select both objects. This gives you the timeline of both objects. Using the region select tool you can then select a region of the source object and right click, chose Copy Keys. You don't have to expand all the channels. Just grab the master channels of that object (even with the object name on the left).

Then drag out a region on the master channel of the target object where you want the animation to go and right click again to chose Paste Keys.

A good read over the Animation section in the docs will help you with these kinds of situations and save you lots of time.

[Shredder565]

You would not want to use the method described in your situation. Because that is more of an overwrite. There is no control over where the frames go with that option. In the manual there is a whole section devoted to copying animation.

To go from one object to another in the way you were looking for, one way is to open the Dopesheet and select both objects. This gives you the timeline of both objects. Using the region select tool you can then select a region of the source object and right click, chose Copy Keys. You don't have to expand all the channels. Just grab the master channels of that object (even with the object name on the left).

Then drag out a region on the master channel of the target object where you want the animation to go and right click again to chose Paste Keys.

A good read over the Animation section in the docs will help you with these kinds of situations and save you lots of time.

that was the first thing i tried, but with the animation editor. guess i was in the wrong tool. i never use the dope sheet.. thanks

[RichardCulver]

You can do the same thing in the Animation Editor also if you are more comfortable there. It is similar to the other method, using the Region Select tool. I like using the dope sheet for timing and more global moving around and copy paste of key frames. But you can use the Animation Editor for this as well if you like.

[myara]

CopyAnimation2 + PasteAnimation will copy all the animation from the Source to the Target with their keyframes as they are and replace the animation in the target.

To preserve the target animation you'll need to use CopyKeys and PasteKeys in the Animation Editor. This way you can copy a key to a different frame in your target, and it will overwrite only those keys that are overlapping.

You could also use Actions, store them and merge them in your Animation Mixer.

[Shredder565]

CopyAnimation2 + PasteAnimation will copy all the animation from the Source to the Target with their keyframes as they are and replace the animation in the target.

To preserve the target animation you'll need to use CopyKeys and PasteKeys in the Animation Editor. This way you can copy a key to a different frame in your target, and it will overwrite only those keys that are overlapping.

You could also use Actions, store them and merge them in your Animation Mixer.

I tried that with the copy and paste, but for whatever, reason, i just couldn't get the two to merge...despite having both of the items selected at the same time.

[RichardCulver]

That is because it does not work that way between objects. You have to use the region select tool for the copy and paste. Then it will work. And it does the same thing in the graph editor or the dope sheet. At least that is how it was in my tests and the manual confirms.

Just be sure when you use the region for the paste that it is the same length otherwise it will scale the animation to fit. And that is a cool feature if that is what you want. But maybe not what you want in this case.

[Pancho]

I wonder if you create an ice tree on a camera and then use the kine global from another one to move this camera, what will happen if you freeze this tree. Probably you could switch between to kine global at the frame 2800 something. Could work.

[minilogoguy18]

I'd just do the already mentioned store action then copy the clip from one mixer to the other, as long as the names match it should work perfectly. Later if you want you can just plot the animation back into editable keyframes.