Esoteric Software

[stikkanimate]

Hi Nate and Esoteric Team,

I'd like to request a button to prevent handles before a key selection from being altered. Or put another way, a button that only allows changes to curves that come on or after the selected keys.

A strong majority of my animations really benefit from not having uniform curves on both ends of a key.

Most keys are considered storytelling and breakdown poses. When curves extend the values beyond the storytelling pose at times that are many frames before the intended frame it both demolishes cleaned up curves done prior to those frames and, mistimes the pose positions requiring much more time to reacquire impact and subtlety every single time.

https://i.gyazo.com/663f8dad9def51fd5d95ec523e009970.mp4

Thank you for your other quick bug fixes too by the way. Much appreciated!

[Erika]

Hello,
I just tested it, and what you want can be achieved by pressing the Separate button before applying a preset.
Graph - Spine User Guide: Separate

It may also help to disable the automatic curves button, which may also be interfering with your keys adjustment:
Graph - Spine User Guide: Automatic
(It didn't look like it was from the video, but it doesn't hurt to point it out since it was active)

Cheers!

[stikkanimate]

Thanks Erika, that may come in handy. Though, there's one fatal flaw with this button it seems. You have to set an interpolation to curved before it will be usable.

Setting the interpolation to curved before being able to press the button defeats the purpose as the damage is already done as soon as the interpolation is changed. If that button is able to apply to any curve being set while active, then it'd be perfect.

In particular, it'd be even more perfect if it was something that could be set on the dopesheet as well as the graph. The dopesheet becomes even less reliable despite being less cumbersome than the graph without this sort of protection for previous key curves.

[Nate]

Setting the interpolation to curved before being able to press the button defeats the purpose as the damage is already done as soon as the interpolation is changed.

You mean when you set the interpolation to Bezier, the handles move? That doesn't seem to be a problem, since you are going to apply an ease preset that sets the handle positions anyway. So you'd click Bezier, separate, then the ease preset.

Maybe you would like a setting that defaults all Bezier handles to separated? This would be more similar to 3.8, which only has separated Bezier handles. You could still combine them using the button (or alt).

[stikkanimate]

You mean when you set the interpolation to Bezier, the handles move? That doesn't seem to be a problem, since you are going to apply an ease preset that sets the handle positions anyway. So you'd click Bezier, separate, then the ease preset.

If there's a bezier curve on a key that's immediately before the key being worked on, then the shared handle that's aimed left of the selected key will also adjust to match the one on the right. This wildly throws preceding animation curves out of position a majority of the time. Very troublesome for 95% of animations and animation fixes when a change or revision is localized.

Maybe you would like a setting that defaults all Bezier handles to separated? This would be more similar to 3.8, which only has separated Bezier handles. You could still combine them using the button (or alt).

This sounds perfect!