{"id":21374,"date":"2013-03-27T14:18:39","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T18:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/?p=21374"},"modified":"2013-03-27T14:48:56","modified_gmt":"2013-03-27T18:48:56","slug":"keyframing-in-smoke-the-channel-editor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/keyframing-in-smoke-the-channel-editor\/","title":{"rendered":"Keyframing in Smoke – The Channel Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Animations are only as good as your keyframes. Find out how to get the most out of the Channel Editor in Autodesk Smoke.<\/h2>\n

\"Smoke<\/a><\/p>\n

Autodesk Smoke<\/strong> gives you great power in adding effects to your edits. But great effects are only as good as the keyframes that control them.<\/p>\n

Smoke’s Animation Channel Editor<\/strong> is often overlooked, but I find it to be one of the video editing application’s strongest features. \u00a0Working with Smoke’s animation curves allows you to easily tweak an animation so that it flows naturally and has just the right feel. Smoke’s Animation Channel Editor is similar to the Graph Editor in Adobe After Effects or the F-Curve editor in many 3D software.<\/p>\n

There is a lot to the Smoke Channel Editor,<\/strong> so in this post we will take an in-depth look at the Channel Editor and the Keyframe Tab<\/strong>. The User, Filter, and Audio Tabs<\/em> will be covered in a future post. Whether you work with AutoKey On<\/strong> or manually setting keyframes, eventually you need to adjust your animation. Within the nodes in ConnectFX<\/strong>, almost every parameter is keyframeable. This means that the Channel Editor often has lots of information to look at… sometimes too much. When you have lots of nodes in a ConnectFX setup, each node and every property of that node is accessible in the channel editor. Figuring out what’s what can be a challenge (click image for larger view).<\/em><\/p>\n

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You can access the Channel Editor with the aptly named ANIMATION<\/strong> button found in the main CFX Menu (and is also accessible within every node). This will bring up the Channel Editor in the lower part of the UI. \u00a0This allows you to easily see your curves, along with your schematic and result views\u00a0(2-up view).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you hold SHIFT and double-click<\/strong> in a numeric field that has a keyframe set, then the Channel Editor will open up full screen at the top of the UI and switch to 1 up view. \u00a0The numeric field you clicked on will be highlighted and framed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you hold SHIFT and single-click<\/strong> in a numeric field, and then open up the Channel Editor, that numeric field with it’s keyframe curve will be selected and framed for you.<\/p>\n

You can expand and collapse the keyframe channels by clicking on the triangles. The nodes are broken down by name and contain channels organized by feature properties.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You can also choose to place the Channel Editor (F5 Hotkey)<\/em> in one of the multi-view views which gives you access to the Curve editor<\/strong>, your Result View<\/strong>, and the numeric controls<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\"AutodeskBy activating the REGEN button<\/strong> in the Animation menu, any adjustments made to the curves will be instantly seen in the Result View. \u00a0So tweaking a curve will show you instant feedback on screen.<\/p>\n