Animation as a tool

Support Animation and Rigging
1

I’ve heard the only silly question is the one we don’t ask so there it is.

To set up some light parameters instead of moving it up rendering, moving it back a bit, rendering, moving it up again, rendering, and so on I make an animation with the intensity 0 on frame 1 and 5 on frame 11 render it, see that the right value is between frame 6 and 7.

Then I make another animation with the frame 6 start value and the frame 7 end value spread on 10 frames and usually I get the right value somewhere in there.

Problem is that when I adjust the lights for back-lighting the right intensity depends on the position so I have to read and copy 4 set of parameters and sometimes I need more than to animation to find the right set of values. The thing can get even worse when I have to set both the x,y position and the z position of the light.

Is there a way to use an existing frame as the start for a new animation and another existing frame as the end?
I use Blender 2.79b.

2

You have an interesting method for lighting. Instead of copying each value to the start and end keyframes, you could always insert new keyframes on the frames that look good, then use the graph editor to move those keyframes in time to the start and end frames. They will automatically overwrite the old keyframes. This can be done for all the parameters at once.

3

Thanks Rocketman.

That’s so simple and elegant. I can hardly believe how powerfull and userfriendly Blender is. And for free!

All the best to you.

4

And by the way, I’m going to use this method everytime high precision setting is required. Not only for lights :slight_smile:

5

Glad I could help! Just to be certain, you know about render preview mode, right? You can just hit Shift+Z in the 3D view and you’ll see a rendered view that changes each time you update a value. Just wanted to make sure

6

Hi Rocketman,

I know but it takes some time to adjust on screen. Particularly when I need to see the details and so need high resolution rendering. The way I do it, I trigger the rendering, get a coffee, find the right values, render once or twice more while drinking it and I’m in businness.

Actually I’d like to work with a 3D artist on a project that is so 2D oriented that I can’t find anyone. It won’t take long for the 3D artist to provide me with what I need but it must be a cooperation since it will go for the duration. More details if you think you can be in. Actually it is a the kind of very strange idea that could be pure genius or purely nut. :smile: