Plugins + Scripts Timeline

[vamurai]

Great plugin! I have a 20 sec animation of a BJ with her head going up and down each second. I want to add a slow twist to the left that starts at 0:07 and ramps in gradually until 0:14, while keeping the motion. I tried Bulk → Offset controllers (pivot mode) with the range set to 7–14, twisted the head at 14 and applied. But it applies the full twist instantly at 7 instead of easing in, I assume because offset shifts every keyframe in the range by the same amount. Is there a way to ramp an offset across a range?

I've never been very good at using the shortcuts like that, but you're probably correct. I don't know if it's helpful, but I always do this by planning ahead a little (when I remember!) In your example, I'd make a keyframe at the beginning of the planned total time (7 seconds) with the starting tilt, then jump to 14 seconds and get my ending tilt keyframe, then do the animation in the middle, only adjusting the vertical movement for the new movements (at each second) in between.

When I haven't planned ahead, which happens ALL the time, I usually still follow the same process, just deleting the keyframes between the first and the last. I went ahead and popped into my Palm Sunday scene to show you what I mean. The first thing I do is show you what the animation looks like. It starts with ten seconds of simple up and down movement, same keyframe location and rotation for top and bottom on each movement. I go to my LAST keyframe and adjust the rotation where I want it, then I delete all of the keyframes between the first and last. Then I show you what the full movement looks like without the keyframes in the middle. From there, I just one second at a time and mark the keyframes manually so they pick up the rotation from the first to the last keyframe. Last, I go back and manually adjust the up and down motion.

This way of doing it has two benefits. First, you get that twist that you're trying to animate. Second, since you'll be hand-adjusting the up and down movement at each keyframe, no two will be exactly the same. This helps prevent movements that look repetitive.

I hope this helps! Others may do it better or faster, but this is about 90% of how I animate my scenes, and it works for me!