Copying Animation
 
 
 

There are different methods and levels at which you can copy animation in Softimage: between parameters, between objects, or between models. Here are the many different ways to do this.

Copying Animation Using the Animation Menu

  1. Select the object or mark the parameters from which you want to copy the animation.

  2. From the Animation panel, choose Animation Copy Animation and select any of these options in the menu:

    • Choose from Marked Parameters to copy all animation from the selected objects' marked parameters to the clipboard.

    • Choose from Transforms to copy all Scaling, Rotation, and Translation parameters. You can also choose to copy each of these types of transformations individually (X, Y, and Z parameters for each type) with their appropriate commands.

    • Choose from All Parameters, Any Animation Type to copy all animation from all parameters on selected objects to the clipboard.

    • Choose from All Parameters, Expressions to copy only expressions from all parameters on the selected object to the clipboard.

    • Choose from All Parameters, Fcurves to copy only fcurves from all parameters on selected objects to the clipboard.

    • Choose from All Parameters, Layer Animation to copy fcurves from all parameters in the current animation layer for the selected object.

Pasting Animation

  1. Select the object or mark the parameters to which you want to paste the animation.

  2. Choose Animation Paste Animation and either of these options:

    • Choose to All Parameters to paste the animation currently in the clipboard and apply it to all parameters of selected objects (based on parameter name matching).

    • Choose to Marked Parameters to paste the animation currently in the clipboard and apply it to the marked parameters.

    For example, if the clipboard contains animation for all transformations, but only the rotation parameters are marked, only the rotation parameters are pasted.

    TipIf you're having trouble copying and pasting multiple marked parameters with these commands, you can use the dopesheet to copy and paste a region of the relevant keys. See Cutting, Copying, and Pasting Keys in the Timeline for more information.

Copying Animation Using the Explorer or a Property Editor

Another way in which you can copy animation is at the parameter level using the explorer or property editors. This can be animation from keys, linked parameters, expressions, or scripted operators.

As well, you can copy the animation from the current animation layer and paste it to any animated parameter.

Animation can be duplicated between different parameters for the same object or for different objects. For example, you could copy the X rotation values from one object to the Y scaling of another object.

The following image and table shows you the different ways of copying animation between parameters, depending on which tool or view you're using.

Image Action

A

In a property editor, drag the animation icon of an animated parameter and drop it on another parameter's animation icon.

B

In the explorer, drag the name of an animated parameter and drop it on another parameter's name.

C

In either the explorer or a property editor, right-click the animation icon of an animated parameter and choose Copy Animation.

Choose Copy Layer Animation to copy only the animation in the current animation layer.

Right-click the animation icon of the target parameter and choose Paste Animation.

D

In the explorer, you can drag an entire folder from one object and drop it on another object's folder of the same name, such as the Pos folder which contains translation parameters.

 
Tip

Pressing Shift while dragging and dropping anything moves the animation instead of copying it.

If you drag and drop unanimated parameters or linked parameters, you create an "=" expression instead, meaning parameter A = parameter B.