Adding frames to the timeline

[templer-lspt]

Hey all I was wondering if there was a way to add frames to the time line. What I am trying to do is add frames to certain parts of an animation to extend the amount of time in between key frames without having to reanimate the rest to the animation.

I was hoping there was a way to do this like you are able to do in Macromedia Flash by adding blank frames. I'm running Maya 6.5 so maybe there is a way to do in the new features and I'm just not seeing it.

Thanks for your help again

[japunto]

Yes, you can add time between frames, but not as directly as you're used to in Flash. Here's an example. You've got a bouncing ball animation that starts on frame 1, hits the floor on 5 and gets back to its peak at 10. If you want to add two frames of space between the start and the floor hit: a)increase the animation range from 10 to 12, pick the ball and head to the graph editor, c) marquee select they keys from frame 5 through 10, d) in the upper left hand corner of the graph editor there are two data fields (time and value) in the time field, delete whatever number is there and type
+=2 then press enter. This will move all the selected keys two frames forward in time. You'll still want to take a look at the curve tangency to see if it's giving you the look you want. Hope this helps.
-JP

[ocarinaplayer]

Another Method is to find the frame that you want to hold, select all your curves, and hit "s" to key everything. Then grab your keys afterwards and move them all to the right, then select all the keys on the held frame and copy paste them a frame to the right, now you can change the time between that one frame and adjust as necessary.

• this is kind of a messy way to work, but it's great if your animation is nearly complete and you just want to tweak some timing issues.

[dazed]

you may also want to take a look at the KEY SHIFTER script. i just found out about it and have been using it very often.

it does the same thing as Japunto desribes. except that it is much faster. using the example given by Japunto, instead of going thru the various steps, u just go to Frame5 and click on a 'right bump' button, which move all the keys from frame 5 onwards by one frame (or any specified number). the same for moving keys leftwards.