There are a number of tools in Softimage that can help you while you’re using action sources and action clips in the animation mixer. As well, there are other general tools that are useful when you’re using the animation mixer—see Useful Tools for Nonlinear Animation for information on these tools.
Finding Action Elements in the Explorer
While you are working with actions, you’ll find that the explorer is a valuable tool in helping you find things.
The main node you need to know about is the Mixer node, found in every model (the scene root has one too because it is also a model). You can use the Mixers Only filter in the explorer to limit the amount of information to only what’s in the Mixer node.
• The Sources > Animation folder contains all the action sources that you have stored for the model. What’s stored in this folder is actually a copy of the sources stored in the Sources > model folder. That folder contains all sources created for all models in the scene. See About Action Sources and Clips for more information on sources.
|
• Use the Sources/Clips filter in the explorer (press o) to quickly see all sources for all models in the scene. • You can create your own custom folders within a model’s Mixer node so that you can organize your sources and clips in any way you like. See Creating Custom Folders for the Mixer for more information. |
• The Templates folder contains any connection map or value map templates. For more information on these, see Connection Mapping Templates and Modifying Action Clips with Value-Mapping Templates.
• The Tracks folder contains all the tracks that exist in the animation mixer for the model.
For each track, there is also a Clip list folder which contains each clip that is on that track. From there, you can access all information that is particular to each clip, such as its time control (see Changing Time Relationships (Timewarps)) or clip effect information (see Modifying Action Clips with Clip Effects).
|
To open a clip’s path quickly, select the clip in the mixer and then press E in the explorer (shows only the selected object). This way, only the clip and its nodes appear in the explorer. You can also press F in the explorer to frame the clip. |
• The Transitions folder contains the information on any transition you’ve created between clips on tracks (Standard, Cardinal, or Bridge). For more information, see Creating Transitions between Clips.
The Animation Icon and Actions
When a parameter is driven by an action in the mixer, its animation icon in the explorer appears as a little plug (see below). In the parameter’s property page, there are more visual indicators of how an action is driven. Normally, the animation icon is a green box beside a parameter:
• If the parameter is driven by an action, its animation icon is a green or red box with a plug 
.
• If the parameter is driven by an action clip as well as a function curve, expression, constraint, or scripted operator at the same time, the animation icon is a green or red plug with a plus sign 
.
For more information about the different states of the animation icon, see The Animation Icon [ Animation ].
|
In the schematic view, any node driven by a mixer is identified with an “M” above it. |
Selecting Objects with Actions
When you have a crowded scene, it’s sometimes difficult to select only the objects you want. To make it easier to select only objects that are animated by actions, you can use a special mixer filter from the Filters menu on the Select panel.
To use the selection filters
1. In the Select panel of the main command panel, click the little arrow button to open the Filters menu.
2. Select the Obj w Mixer Anim filter.
Selecting Action Clips and Objects
To select the clips driving an element
• Select an element in the scene and choose Clip > Select Driving Actions from the mixer’s command bar to select the clips that are driving the element.
|
If you want to see only the fcurves inside the clip that is driving an object’s animation, select the animated element, choose Clip > Select Driving Actions, and then open the animation editor. |
To select objects animated by the current clip
• To make it easy to see what elements are being animated by a clip at any given time, you can select one or more clips and choose Clip > Select Driven Objects from the mixer’s command bar (or right-click the clip and choose the same command).
Autodesk Softimage v.7.5