Modifying Action Clip Values

 
 
 

You can modify a clip's values to make specific changes to an action clip itself, while leaving the original action source untouched. How you make these changes depends on whether the animation in the action clip is from function curves or from expressions or constraints:

With any type of animation data, you use the clip's Instanced Action property editor to edit it.

Note

If you change the name of an object driven by a clip in the mixer, the items within the clip are updated to reflect the new object name. In addition, if that clip was instanced from a source without going through a connection-mapping template for the object, then the source names are also updated (so that subsequent instantiations of clips will not display a connection-mapping dialog box).

This means that you can rely on the names listed in the Instanced Action property editor as being an accurate representation of what is being driven, so you can use them within your own scripts.

Modifying Expression or Constraint Data

To modify a clip with expression or constraint data

  1. Right-click the action clip and choose Clip Properties.

  2. In the Instanced Action property editor, click the Clip Item Information tab.

  3. To edit data from a constraint or expression, select an item in the Clip column and then click the Edit Clip-Specific Data button.

For more information, see Animating with Constraints and Animating with Expressions [Animation].

Muting (Deactivating) Parts or All of an Action Clip

When you're modifying an action clip, you may simply want to temporarily mute all or part of the animation. When the clip or parts of it are muted, their animations no longer drive the corresponding parameter.

TipTo mute parts of the animation in the action's source, see Muting (Deactivating) Animation in Sources. This mutes the animation for all clips that refer to that source.

To mute an action clip

  • Select it and press H.

To mute individual animation items in a clip

  1. Right-click the clip and choose Clip Properties.

  2. In the Instanced Action property editor, click the Clip Item Information tab.

  3. Do one of the following (see the illustration above):

    • Click in the animation item's On cell to toggle its activation.

      or

    • Click the On column to toggle all items' activation.

      or

    • Select items by clicking their Item number (Shift+click or Ctrl+click to multi-select items, or click the Item column to select all items), then toggle their activeness by clicking the Toggle Active button.