If anybody knows of a good, up-to-date tutorial for using the action editor please let me know. I’ve seen several but I think I need more.
In the meantime, I’ve got a few basic questions.
First, how can I delete Actions? The little x to the right of the Actions drop down (or drop-up) does not delete the action, simply removes it from the current view. I want to know how to completely clear an action.
Also, within an action, how can I edit channel names? That is, if I have edited the armature, changed bones, changed names of bones, etc, the action is still keyed on the old names. It would be nice not to have to redo the whole action just because a few bones have different names. Is there some way to change the names of the channels corresponding to the bone I want to apply?
Hope that this question was clear enough. Thanks very much for any response.
1- To delete an action. You need to remove the fake user it have. to do so you can go in the datablock browser (SHIFT-F4) go in action folder select the action you want to remove and press FKEY. like any other datablock. The action will not be saved nex time you save, because it will not have any user. This is done to automatically keep actions when you create them as they will eventually have only the Fake user when you are not working on them.
2-Really dunno why this could happen since changing a bone’s name should update action. Anyway for now you can copy the IPO of the old action channel to the new channel with the good name.
-Just selec thet old Channle
-Look in the IPO window in Pose (drop down in the Header)
-Take note of the name of the IPO.
-select the channel with the good name(if there isn’t, just create one by keying the bone once.)
-Switch the IPO block with the old one.
Your comments remind me of another question I have, which is what is the meaning of the “users” in the action and IPO windows. Does it refer to objects which use the action/IPO? I’m just guessing here. What is the meaning of making something “single user”?
Yes, the “users” indicates how many things share that data (materials, IPOs, Actions etc). You make it single user to make a unique copy so you can edit the data separately for an object, otherwise any edit will apply to everything that shares it.
As Gaboi points out, the Fake User (F) allows Blender to keep data not currently being used. For actions this applies automatically since they are often not being used, for materials and other data you can apply a fake user so as not to lose that unused data when you quit.
Yes. When a datablock have a user, it mean it is linked to something else. Best example is to look into the OOPS windows. you can give the same IPO datablock to 2 different objects. This mean the 2 objects will “use” the ipo datablock. Making it single user when a specific object is selected, will do a copy of the shared datablock, meaning the new datablock will be used only by this object.
Is the “datablock browser” the same as the “outliner?”
If so, I can’t see any directory listed by the name of “actions”. Also, there are a bunch of actions listed in the dropdown list of my action editor which I can’t see listed anywhere in this view, under any objects. I can’t see any block labeled “actions” in the OOPS schematic, either.
Also, in this outliner, I cannot select-activate entries with right mouse click. I can open directories, but not things inside them to delete.
While I’m asking all these questions about the action editor, I may as well ask some more (I’m having lots of trouble with the action editor…)
How do I determine what action gets played when I press play in a timeline window? Is it necessarily the action that’s currently visible in the action editor (well, actually, I know that it’s not, but not sure why not…)
I appreciate you guys’ replies. This seems to be an area which is a little lacking in good, thorough documentation—combined with the new features and perhaps with a few alpha-release bugs… I’m finding it a little tricky to get a handle on.
Is the “datablock browser” the same as the “outliner?”
No, the Outliner is a Window that shows Data within Blender and the Datablock Browser shows Data on your HD.
I can’t see any directory listed by the name of “actions”.
Hit Shft-F4 and click on the 2 dots … at the top of the directory.
I can’t see any block labeled “actions” in the OOPS schematic, either.
In the OOPS window go View >> Show Outliner. Hit Numpad Plus till it’s fully expanded and you’ll see them.
How do I determine what action gets played when I press play in a timeline window? Is it necessarily the action that’s currently visible in the action editor (well, actually, I know that it’s not, but not sure why not…)
It must be the Active Action (shown in the Menu Datablock) of the Action window UNLESS you have NLA Strips on the same frames.
It must be the Active Action (shown in the Menu Datablock) of the Action window UNLESS you have NLA Strips on the same frames.
Ah, that seems like it must be it. There are NLA strips. Although I’m not quite sure how they got there or how to get rid of them… Time to go rtfm I think…
I think I’m beginning to get the hang of this relationship between the NLA editor and the Action editor. It seems that any time you edit an action in the Actions editor, it gets put automatically into a channel in the NLA editor, but in keyframe form, not strip form. To remove it you need to click the X by the name of the Action in the Actions editor menu. Editing the keyframes in the NLA editor will change the actions itself, so it’s more flexible to convert the keyframes into a strip there.
Once an object’s channel has been removed from the NLA editor window, by clicking the X by the corresponding Action in the Actions editor window, the only way to get that object back in a channel in the NLA editor is to make it active in the Actions editor, as far as I can see, although I’m probably wrong here.
Please correct me if any of this is wrong or if my terminology is unclear.
You will also find, or may have already, that the NLA operates in two different modes too. It can either playback the current action only or the combined NLA action strips. On the channels list on the left of the NLA you will see either an Action icon (little man) or an NLA icon (NLA strips). click on this to switch from one to the other (can’t remember if it’s LMB or RMB coz I use a one-button mouse and tend to do things from habit).
This is useful for modifying a single action after building a complex NLA combination.