|
|
|
|
|
 
|
|
What's a Capture Keyframe? What does the "C" button do?
To create a Capture Keyframe, depress the "C" button in the DekoCast UI main toolbar to enable Capture Mode. When Animate Mode is on and you make a change to a Parameter in an Object Editor, a normal keyframe gets added at the current position of the Timeline Thumb, and a Capture Keyframe gets added at time 0. If the Timeline Thumb is at 0, or a keyframe already exists at time 0, no Capture Keyframe gets added. The "C" button has no effect when Animate Mode is off.
Example 1:
Capture Keyframes are really useful for creating Actions that move an object from its current location to some other location. Without Capture Keys, you can only create Actions that move an object from a specific location A to another specific location B.
Suppose you have an element that can be positoned 1) upper left over-the-shoulder, 2) upper-right OTS, and 3) lower third, and you'd like to create Actions to animate that element between any of its positions. Without Capture Keys, you'd have to create 6 Actions - 1 to 2, 1 to 3, 2 to 1, 2 to 3, 3 to 1, and 3 to 2 - and when you animate the element, in order to select the correct Action to play you not only have to know where you're going, but where you're coming from. Using Capture Keys, you need only 3 Actions - current to 1, current to 2, and current to 3 - and you only need to know where you're going to pick the right Action.
To set up an Action to animate from current position to some specific destination:
- Create a new Action or select an existing one
- Set the duration to some non-zero value, e.g. 2 seconds
- Drag the Time Thumb to the end of the Action
- Select the Object you want to animate, select the Position tab in its editor
- Depress the "running man" Animate Mode button to turn on Animate Mode
- Depress the "C" button to turn on Capture Key Mode
- Adjust the Object Editor X, Y, etc thumbwheels to position the object in its final position
- Turn off Animate Mode and Capture Key Mode
Example 2:
Another reason to use Capture Keyframes is to defer a Parameter change until later in an Action.
For example, suppose you want to change a Transition Deko's deko filename to something different 2 seconds into an Action. Suppose the current value is "deko1.dko" and you want to change it to "deko2.dko". If you just just create a normal keyframe at time 2 with a value "deko2.dko", the file will change the instant the Action is played. Even if you slide the start of the Timeline Bar to be at 2 seconds, the filename will change immediately.
The way Actions work, they set a value for each Parameter they animate at every frame of the Action, regardless of where the Keyframes or Timeline Bar are positioned. That is, when an Action is played, it immediately sets each animated Parameter to the value of the first keyframe (Command Parameter types work a little differently).
To work around this behavior for the deko filename case, create a Capture Keyframe at time 0. The Action still sets the filename parameter to some value at time 0, but it sets it to its current value. The way the filename parameter works, it only does something if the value changes, so it doesn't do anything until the keyframe at time 2, when it changes the value to "deko2.dko".
last modified 8/27/2005
back to top
send comments
© 2005-2007 Serious Intent. The content of these pages is the opinion of the individual contributors. No guarantee is made as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained here. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by Pinnacle Systems or Avid Technology. Have a nice day!