Capturing Animation Information

To capture animation information

1. Make sure that the appropriate device driver is active in the Device Manager.

2. Select realtime playback for capturing (see Playing Back All Frames or Playing in Real Time [Basics]).

3. Select the object whose animation you want to capture.

4. Do one of the following to start the capturing:

   • In the Device Manager, click the Start button to start the session, which turns on all active device drivers. Press the space bar to start the capture.

     or

   • Press Ctrl+Shift+up-arrow.

     or

   • Choose Tools Devices Start Capture from the Animate toolbar.

5. Use the connected device to animate the object.

   For example, if you have the mouse driver active, move the mouse to animate the object according to the channels you set up. Each time the mouse moves, a key is set. No key is set if there is no movement.

6. To end the capturing, do one of the following:

   • In the Device Manager, press the space bar again. Then click the Stop button to stop the session, which turns off all active device drivers.

     or

   • Press Ctrl+Shift+down-arrow.

     or

   • Choose Tools Devices Stop Capture from the Animate toolbar.

7. Function curves are created for the parameters that you animated with the device.

   See Editing Function Curves for more information.