trouble inserting actions

philjherman · Post by **philjherman** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:31 pm

Hi, I was hoping someone out there could help me with an issue I am having.

I am trying to animate a spaceship flying through space, one of the features on the spaceship is a rotating object. I created an action and used to points for a full 360º rotation. I used an action because I want this rotation to repeat.

There are two issues:

The first is that I cannot insert the action into the timeline, the button is greyed out. The action itself has no bones or any layers line that, instead it is only a rotating object in a group of three objects. May there be an issue with the way this is structured?

The second issue is that when the actions repeats (when i view the action instead of the mainline) it seems to stop for a split second between every repeat, since i cannot insert it into the mainline I do not know if it will do this or not when I do insert it but if that is a behavior how do i fix it?

I appreciate any help! I like this program and want to end up making a little production out of it but the documentation that comes with the software doesn't seem to cover all aspects of controlling this program. Thanks!

jonbo · Post by **jonbo** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:43 pm

The easiest way to answer your question is to upload the file to a file sharing site. We could go back and forth several times asking each other questions when we could find the answers quicker by seeing the file. The first question I'd ask is are you trying to insert the action on frame zero?

ponysmasher · Post by **ponysmasher** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 4:10 pm

Also, if you want seamless looping, you should use cycle keyframes. They can be used in an action.

philjherman · Post by **philjherman** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:36 am

@jonbo I believe I was trying to insert the action at frame zero, however at any frame it will not let me insert the action and the button is still greyed out.

@ponysmasher cool name! also, i tried using keyframes and this did not fix the pause in the middle of the loop issue. To recreate what I am doing, create a circle with orgin in center on frame 0, at frame 100 spin the circle 180, at frame 200 spin the circle to 360. I thought maybe there was a repeat since frame 360 and frame 0 would be at the same place, I also tried lowering the last frame to 360 and 355. It almost looks like the spinning object decelerates instead of continuing at the same speed and then stopping, thats what makes me think this is a behavior.

jonbo · Post by **jonbo** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:43 am

What you're describing is most likely having the default key frame interpolation at smooth. Right click on the key frames and choose linear. As for the action insert problem, I suspect it has to do with the layers being in a group. select one of the sublayers and try inserting it. if it works, try selecting the group layer and creating a new action. call it something else than the other action you made. then while still in the action creation mode go to each sub layer and make your motion. double click on the mainline button to exit action mode. select the group layer and try inserting again. also when you want to insert, you click once on the action, there should be a red arrow next to the mainline icon but the action will be highlighted.

philjherman · Post by **philjherman** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:18 am

Just wanted to say thanks. The fact that the action was in a group was causing the problem, I need to practice with all of this more, because even now that I fixed the issue and finished my practice animation there are some behaviors i do not understand.

I am getting there though and my problems i spoke of are now solved! Thanks for all of the help!