Let's Go For a Walk!

IpoEdit v2.6 It is now possible to create an animation library, of complex motions. Save, reuse, adjust length, and reassemble your animations rapidly, any way you want!!

Open your Ipo_edit2.6 blend file

On screen is a copy of tHe IcemAn 's mannequin. Poor little thing. He wants to move, and we can help, fast! Let's first take a bit to learn how to perform simple edits, from a single IPO block, to another.

Press the Layer 5 button, as shown at the left. There you will see two objects, one inside the other. Press Alt a and the Cube object moves. If the Cube object is selected, the IPO block, "ObIpo" appears in the IPO window. Select the Icosphere object, and another IPO Block appears, "ObIpo.001". This block will only be keyframed at frame 1. "ObIpo" has Loc curves, and is keyframed at 1, 11, 21, and 31. We will now copy this motion from "ObIpo", and paste it into "ObIpo.001", and cause the Icosphere to move the same, as the cube. Select the Icosphere, in the 3D window, so we can watch the action IPO window, for "ObIpo.001".

Now move your mouse inside the text window, which contains the IPO Edit script, and type Alt p. IPO Edit's control panel will appear. There is a larger picture of this control panel further down on this page. You will see two buttons, each marked, "Select IPO". The lower of the two buttons is for the Source IPO. Press this button, and drag down the mouse, until you are over "ObIpo", then release the button. This name will now remain on top of the button, and "ObIpo" is selected as the Source IPO block. Now press the other "Select IPO" button, for the "Destination IPO", and this time select "ObIpo.001" . This sets "ObIpo.001" as our destination.

Click the "From" button and select frame 1. Click the "Thru" button, and select frame 31. Now select frame 1, with the "At" button. We are now ready for a copy operation, from "ObIpo", beginning at frame 1, and ending with frame 31, to be placed into "ObIpo.001", at it's frame 1. Press "INSERT", and the operation is complete. Press the "Home" button (the little house icon) in the IPO window, and you will see the completed edit. Press Alt a, with the mouse over the 3D window, and both objects now move together.
Curve edits may be inserted anywhere along an existing destination curve, even in the middle of other keys. The original keys, after the edit, are simply shifted to the right, later in time. If an edit is inserted into a middle region, which has no keys and is large enough to take the edit, then no shifting occurs.

The "at time" slider
The "at time" slider allows you to place an edit somewhere on a curve, which does not yet have a keyframe set. First, select the Source IPO menu, and change it also to "ObIpo.001". The Source and Destination blocks can be the same. Leave the "From, and "Thru" values the same. Now move the "at time" slider to frame 50. If you can't get it exact, by moving the slider, you can try clicking on the left or right side of the slider button. You could also click on the "at time" message, and then type '50' directly into the slider. Press "INSERT", and a new segment is pasted into the curve, starting at frame 50. Again, click the "Home" icon, to see the result of your edit.
The "Scale" slider
The "Scale" slider and "Scale Next" button allow you to change the length (time) of a segment you are pasting into a curve. Slide the "Scale" slider all the way to the right, and the next edit will be twice as long as the other two. Press the "Scale Next" button in. Move the "at time" slider to 100. Press "INSERT". Play the animation, and view the curve. The "Scale" slider allows a range from 1/10 to 2 times the Source segment duration. We are done with Scale, so now press the "Scale Next" button, to disable it.
DELETE KEYS
This is a DANGEROUS feature! Press this button, and everything in the Source IPO block, in the range defined by "From"/"Thru" will be deleted! No undo. If Group Mode is selected (explained later), everything in the Source Group, between "From"/"Thru" will be deleted. You have been warned. Now let's try it.
Select "From" 100, and "Thru" 160. Press "DELETE KEYS". Those selected keys are now gone.
Group Edits

Now we get to the real power of IPO Edit. Characters are not single objects, which float around in space. They are collections of complex objects, which move in relation to each other. The arms, legs, hands, head, body, of a character all require their individual IPO blocks. Posing and keyframing a character across a complex action can take a long time. Even a simple walk cycle will take forever, if you have to repeat the same motions, over and over, for each control point. IPO Edit allows you to save your complex character actions, and re-assemble them in any order. What might have taken weeks to do, can now be done in seconds! After you finish this introduction to IPO Edit, read my discussion on Structured Animation, and download the amusing character library file!

Examine the characters describe below.

These 4 layers contain the information for the character we want to animate. Layer 1 are unused control empties. Play with them on your own later. Layer 2 are the empties we will animate. Select them, and you will notice that they have IPOs assigned, with the X,Y,Z, Loc Curves, and keyframed at 1 with the initial pose. Layer 11 is the IK skeleton for the character. (Just so you know) Layer 12 is the Mesh Objects of Ice's mannequin. Leave this on, so you can watch!

These other 4 layers are a copy of the same character, but with animation. I call the IPOs associated with the 5 empties on layer 7 the Library Curves. The Curve types, such as Loc, Rot, dLoc, etc, are consistant with all the objects used in this example drawing. Earlier versions of IPO Edit required that if you were using Groups, that all Source IPOs must have the same number of keyframes, at the same times. Destination IPOs, when using Groups, needed to be consistant in the same way. Thie objects and curves in this example drawing was designed for the earlier versions, and will have these consistant curves and keys. IPO Edit 2.6 doesn't care what keys or curves exist any more.

A Warning: IPO Edit 2.6 will copy all keyframes, beginning with the 'From' value and ending with the 'Thru' value, for all curves in a source IPO. It will paste these keys into any matching curve names it finds in the destination, beginning with the 'At' time, or insert slider value. BE SURE this is what you want to do. IPO Edit has no idea where your character actions begin or end!

Study and Understand the following section, and you will know what I mean

The Source Curves, (the Library), have the animation to copy. The Destination Curves will receive the animation, in the order, and locations where we paste it. Here are their names:

Hit the Alt P key, with the cursor in the text window, containing the script. The Script should start with the Operation Panel.

If there is a problem, pull the slider down to the end of the script, and see if there is any 'garbage'. There seems to be a bug with Blender, 2.03 and earlier, which sometimes loads part of a script twice. The '############' you see at the bottom, is normal, and something I had to add to help deal with the problem. Nothing else should be beyond this.

This example is for using IPO Edit in Group mode. Press the Mode button and leave it. The word "Group" will appear beside this toggle button. Pressing either 'Select IPO' menu buttons, will display all the Usable IPOs in the drawing. You can even use IPO blocks, whose objects have recently been deleted, but make sure you assign them to objects before saving the drawing, or you will loose them.

The Menu, beside "Source IPO", is where you will select your Library Blocks. Press it now, and select "Lankle". Now select the menu beside "Destination IPO", and choose "Lankle.001". Notice that "Lankle.001" reports only one keyframe. Press the "Add" button. The Group List menu message will change from "No Group Created", to "Group IPOs". You will see a green confirmation message. You can review what Source/Destination IPO blocks have been added, by pressing the Group List menu button. If you make a mistake, select the incorrect entry in the Group List menu, and press "Delete".

Now, go ahead and continue doing this with all the listed in the Library/Destination table above

Press the Group List Menu, and review your Group. The order the lines appear is not important. What you must remember is the Left side is the Source, and the Right side will be the destination. Source>Destination. If anything is wrong, select the error, press "Delete", and then you can add it again. Get rid of duplicates too.

OK, We are nearly ready! The table below shows the Action in the Library, and the Key times:

In the 'Destination' row of buttons, Press 'At', and select 1. The destination mannequin is posed in the 'Stand' position. Press the 'From' menu,(the next button after the IPO name, in the 'Source' row), and select the first keyframe for 'Stand>StepRight', which is 15. The 'Thru' button, (just after the 'From' button), select 26.

So, 'At' frame 1 of the destination Group, we are pasting 'From' frame 15, 'Thru' frame 26, from our source Group. Now Press the 'INSERT' button. A green "DONE!" confirms your edit. Any red message tries to explain what went wrong.

Assuming all is well, press the 'At' button, and select the keyframe at the end of your edit, frame 12, and continue with the 'At', 'From', 'Thru', 'INSERT' sequence, as shown below. If you are doing this, as you are reading, remember, that you already have done the first edit!

OK! Select Layer 12, and press Alt A. He walks!

Yes, it would have been easier to 'At' 1, 'From' 15, 'Thru' 71, 'INSERT'. I wanted you to practice.

Remember that with 'Group Mode', you still need to be careful to set the 'Source' and 'Destination' IPO menus to block names which correctly represent the 'Source' and 'Destination' IPOs of the group.

Note:

Things may float, or move unexpectedly, after performing edits. I believe there are a few reasons:

1. The 3d view may not always be as accurate, as an actual render.

2. If previewing with the 3d window, and Alt-A, make sure all layers are selected, which have parts, for your character.

3. The FIRST and LAST keys of an edit, should use Vector type handles. Bezier type handles (the default) don't align themselves well with their neighbors, when pasted. You can change a key from Bezier, to Vector, by opening the IPO window, choosing the IPO block to edit, selecting your curves, entering edit mode (Tab key), highlight in yellow (B key) the desired key, for all desired curves, and press V key. H key can change a key back to Bezier mode, if desired.

4. I may still have something screwed up. Handle calculations may still need to be improved in the script. Grabbing the curves in edit mode, and tugging them a bit often recalculates them correctly.

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Check Out the anim.blend file, in the Animation Library Proposal discussion! As of September 2, 2000, this file has all of the Entry and Exit keyframes set to Vector mode, and now edits very nicely!

ANYONE WHO HAS DOWNLOADED anim.blend (anim.zip) before September 2, should get their new copy!

Now press the 'Exit' button, and then Alt P to restart the script

Repeatedly clicking the 'Delete' (NOT 'DELETE KEYS') button, beside 'Add', will delete members one by one, until the red 'No Group Defined' message appears. This is also an easy way to delete a Group.

Press the 'Mode' button (for Group)

and now set up the Group like this:

Set the 'From' menu to 1, and the 'Thru' menu to 57

Move the Slider to 150, and press 'INSERT'

You just copied the entire sequence over to frames 150-206!

Select Empty.025, (on Layer 2), and you should see the IPO Lhand.001

Now, you may notice that the curve bends a bit, in the wrong places. Breaking handles, and other normal features to Blender can be done later. Don't worry about it for now.

Let's insert another stand, step, stand sequence in the middle of these curves.

Between frames 57 and 150, the character is standing.

We want to insert a

sequence at, let's say frame 80. You could reset the Group back, to include the Library curves, or if you knew which frames to copy in the present animation, you could use them. Well, I have done the work for you.

Position Slider to frame 80

'From' : 1

'Thru' : 12

'INSERT'

Continue, using the 'AT' menu button

You now have a newly inserted sequence between frames 80 and 113

Insert Edits Anywhere

The 'At' slider, or 'At' menu, may also be used to insert an edit at the beginning or middle of a sequence. If there are no keys, in the destination, for the range of the edit to be inserted, the edit is placed without affecting any of the later keys. If the destination block has keys, in the range to be inserted, then the destination shifted from the 'At' point, to fit the incoming edit.

Group File Operations

This is a new feature with IPO Edit 2.5. Normal Groups are lost every time you exit the script. It can get annoying to repeatly change or re-enter the same groups, especially when they have at least 12 members. Group File operations allow you to save and retrieve your commonly used groups to disk.

First, you need to modify the file path in the script, to suit your particular computer. Exit the script and look for the line which says, "#######Modify this next line to point to your working directory"

Hopefully, you understand this. Change this line, which begins with 'filename', to a path you wish to use for keeping the 'group.txt' file. Modify only the part within the double quotes. You may use a file name different from 'group.txt', if you wish.

The example 'group.txt' file, included with this release, contains two groups. 'Group1' is the animated group pointing to the non-animated group. 'Group2' is the non-animated group (the '001' IPOs) pointing to themselves. Make sure that the 'filename' path is now set correctly, for your computer. The green 'Group File OK' message should appear, when you start the script. If not, then you still need to fix the 'filename' line.

Loading a File Group

Start the script. Note the green 'Group File OK' message. Press the menu labelled, "Load File Groups", and drag down, to select "Group1". Now press the menu labelled "Group IPOs", and you will see the same group you had entered in the first group exercise. Any Group edit is now possible, in the normal way.

Any selection of another File Group, at this point, ADDS it to the current Group. To change Groups, you must either restart the script, or press the 'Delete' button, until the red 'No Group Defined' message appears.

Writing a File Group

New Groups may be added to an existing 'group.txt' file. Create your new Group. Enter a name, for your Group, by pressing the 'New Group Name' button, and typing in a name you will remember. Now press "Write". The new group will now be appended to the file, and will be available in the 'Load File Groups' menu.

You may maintain different Group Files, or start 'clean', by writing a new filename in the 'filename' line, at the beginning of the script. IPO Edit does not worry too much, if a Group File doesn't exist, when it starts. A new Group, created and written in such a session, will produce a new file with the path and name specified in the 'filename' line.

Have Fun!

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