When you select an fcurve, any modifications you perform are done to only that fcurve. To select fcurves and their associated keys, one of the select tools must be active. When selected, fcurves are highlighted in white and their keys are the original color of their fcurve (for example, Y parameters for transformations are green, so the unselected keys on the selected Y fcurve are green).
• If your fcurve has lots of keys on it (such as when importing motion capture data), use the animation explorer to select a parameter, then choose the View > Selected Parameter filter to display only its fcurve in the graph. This prevents keys on the other curves from being moved accidentally, and also lets you retain previously selected keys if you deselect the fcurve and then reselect it later.
• Choose View > Curve and Axis Labels to show or hide labels on all selected curves in the graph. Because fcurves for expressions and linked parameters do not necessarily use the same horizontal time units as other curves, you should select Curve and Axis Labels to know the meaning of their values.
To select fcurves and keys
• Do one of the following:
- Choose Edit > Select Tool.
or
- Press Y.
or
- Click the Select icon in the fcurve editor’s toolbar.
With this tool, you can set different preferences for left and middle mouse button interaction in the Animation Editor Preferences.
- Use the left mouse button to select keys, curves, and slope handles.
- Use the middle mouse button to move whatever is selected (in both X and Y).
- The right mouse button is mapped to the fcurve context menu.
To select only curves
• Do one of the following:
- Choose Edit > Select Curve Tool.
or
- Click the Select Curve icon in the fcurve editor’s toolbar.
or
- Press the space bar.
This tool selects only curves without changing the key selection.
You can select an fcurve while any tool is activated by clicking the parameter name in the animation explorer.
To select and move fcurves
• Choose Edit > Select and Move Curves or press N.
To keep an fcurve selected while deselecting keys, middle-click+drag around the keys to deselect them or choose Edit > Deselect All Keys.
To select multiple fcurves
There are several ways to select multiple fcurves. First activate the appropriate select mode, then do one of the following:
• Shift+click the associated parameters in the animation explorer or the parameters’ fcurves in the graph to add them to the existing selection.
or
• Ctrl+click the associated parameters in the animation explorer or the parameters’ fcurves in the graph to toggle their selection.
or
• Drag the mouse pointer across a range of fcurves in the graph; the red selection box indicates the region you are covering. Any curves that pass through the box are selected.
or
• Choose Edit > Select All Curves from the fcurve editor’s command bar to select all curves currently displayed in the graph.
Deselecting Fcurves
To deselect fcurves
• Click in an empty area of the graph. This deselects all fcurves.
If there were any selected keys on the fcurves before you deselected them, they are “remembered” when you select the fcurves again.
or
• Choose Edit > Deselect All Curves from the fcurve editor’s command bar or press Ctrl+Shift+A to deselect all fcurves. This does not “remember” selected keys on the fcurves the next time you select them.
or
• Ctrl+click to toggle the selected fcurve.
If there were any selected keys on the fcurves before you deselected them, they are “remembered” when you select the fcurves again.
Setting the Default Selection Tool
By default, the Select tool is active, but you can choose which selection tool you want to be the preferred one.
- Select and Move Key Tool — selects and moves keys.
Changing the Selection Area around an Fcurve
By default, there is a buffer of 8 pixels around an fcurve in which you can click to select it. Normally, you don’t need to change the size of this area, but you can if you like.
To change the selection area around an fcurve
1. Make sure you have opened the animation editor (with the fcurve editor displayed) at least once in your Softimage session.
2. Close Softimage and restart it, but don’t open the animation editor yet.
3. In the script editor, enter and run the following lines (replacing 4 with the number of pixels you want):
in the fcurve editor’s toolbar.
in the fcurve editor’s toolbar.