Category: #animtip

While we have a full free course on getting up to speed on Blender from Maya here are a few extra tips to help you animate easier.

Question 1:
Is there a way to auto-frame a channel f-curve in Blender in the Graph Editor?
Answer:
Yes, https://cenda.gumroad.com/l/autoframe-fcurve

But in 3.6 there are some new updates to framing you might also like
Frame Channels Operator
Allows to frame onto the contents of a channel, or a selection of channels. Works in the Graph Editor and the Dope Sheet. PR #104523 It is called with “.” on the numpad or right click the channels and choose the “Frame Selected Channels” option. Alternatively press ALT+MMB to frame the channel under the cursor.

Question 2:
There used to be a preference to turn on and off “Only Show Selected Keyframes” but it became a global not per-file preference in 3.6
From the Release notes,
Settings moved to the User Preferences

Two view options in the Graph Editor have been moved to the User Preferences (Only Selected Curve Keyframes, Use High Quality Display). (PR #104532 Animation: Move Graph Editor settings to User Preferences)

Answer:
This addon will let you put it in a Q quick menu to make it easy to toggle again.
Download it here “only_show_selected_keyframes.py” from Dr. Sybren.

bl_info = {
    "name": "Only Show Selected Keyframes",
    "author": "dr. Sybren",
    "version": (1, 0),
    "blender": (3, 6, 0),
    "location": "Graph Editor > View",
    "description": "Show a 'Only Show Selected Keyframes' option in the graph editor header",
    "warning": "",
    "doc_url": "",
    "category": "Animation",
}


import bpy


def draw_menu(self, context):
    layout = self.layout
    layout.prop(context.preferences.edit, 'show_only_selected_curve_keyframes')


def register():
    bpy.types.GRAPH_HT_header.append(draw_menu)


def unregister():
    bpy.types.GRAPH_HT_header.remove(draw_menu)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Question 3:
The keys and handles are hard to tell apart and see

Answer:
In the Blender Edit Menu- Preferences-Themes-Graph Editor you can find Vertex Size and Handle Vertex Size and adjust them so you can more easily tell them apart.

Question 4:
In Maya I can quickly insert a key with the mouse on a curve without moving the timeline, is that possible in Blender?

Answer:
Yes in the Blender Graph Editor you can hold CTRL and Right click to insert a key anywhere you want on a curve. Note that it won’t snap to the frame but you can hold Shift S to bring up the snap menu and snap it to nearest frame when you are done.

Question 5:
Inserting keys and editing them moves the curve and impacts the other keys too much, what Blender setting makes the keys most like Maya?
Answer:

Answer, setting your curve to Bezier and the keys to Auto Clamped will give you the most similar feel to Maya when editing the keys. Not that Blender tangent handles are never fixed, but if you want to edit them without causing them to lengthen you can simply use the rotate tool to rotate the handles.

A bonus trick with the “Set Keyframe Interpolation” is that you can change back and forth between Constant and Bezier as you want to check blocking or to un-spline for a bit to work on poses and timing and when you turn it back to Bezier, it will leave your keys/tangents alone. So you can jump back and forth between the two and not loose your work.

Check out our free Maya to Blender course https://ondemand.riggingdojo.com/MayaToBlender and our other Blender resources here on our Blog.