Being able to add modifiers to curves is so awesome! But now that I’m using them, I cannot find a way to animate the modifier’s influence over time. I thought everything in Blender 2.5 was supposed to be animatable. Maybe it is, but as far as hovering the mouse over the modifier parameters and press iKey, it does not appear to be.
Does anyone know how to animate modifier influence?
Right mouse click hovering over the parameter and if it says Insert Keyframe you can animate it
Do these modifiers and such have any corollary in the “noodle” (node) networks that are now proliferating throughout Blender? (I’m a little gray on this one … and I’m not talking about my receding hairline :no:.)
If so, then a Time node (I believe…) can generate an arbitrary influence based on a curve over time.
“This is Blender. There’s more than one way to do it.” :yes:
I’m using a MacBook Pro at the moment so to simulate Right Click Mac users Ctrl Click. I tried that before posting. It did not work., but it did make iteasier to go into data entry mode for that parameter.
OOooohhhh…Just tried a CMD. Blender 2.53 treats CMD + Click as the right click instead of Ctrl Click. Seems more intuitive to have the mac version use the mac shortcut for right click. Whatever. This is awesome to know. Thank you for making my life 10 times better today!
Back again…CMD + Click brings up the menu on Modifier Paramerters and displays “Insert Keyframe”, etc…but it does not actually add a keyframe. It, in fact, does nothing at all.
Edit:
It really had no effect. Moving the playhead over time still shows no changes to that parameter. I keyed at .05 Strenth, then later keyed to 0. When I go back to the first location I set a key, the parameter is still set to 0.
Is there another way? There is also the option to add to keyset.
Edit 2:
sundialsvc4, I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying. Are you saying the Curve Modifier can be edited withing the Node Editor?
Ghost_Train:
I guess there is a confusion between what Richard told you and what you are trying to accomplish? If you bring the menu over any check-box, slider etc you may certainly add a key-frame for that “condition”…Let’s say a checkbox says “Normal”, then you can check or un-check this “Normal” trough the time. Same as if it were a slider, a Constraint influence, a constraint enabled or not, etc etc…so everything is keyable on 2.5. Really powerful to change textures, constraints on time !
Now you seem to want to add a key on a modifier curve, any where you want it, right? Well that would be redundant… Notice you have an “Additive” button, which mixes mathematically the original keyed curve with your modifier ! So you key your original curve and then apply your modifier with “Additive enabled” ! The final result is what you want. Lets say you have a sinewave modifier, or a noise modifier, if your original curve is flat on zero value, then you will see the original modifier curve as it is. If you added two keys on your original curve, then the sine or noise modifier will follow the pattern of your original curve !
take a look at these screenshots:
Now if want to cut out the modifier action at a certain frame, or key one of their internal properties you can Add a driver from the menu. i don’t know if the current curve is fully created, I guess it is since all keyed parameters changed their color to yellow. Amplitude for sine modifiers are no keyable right now. We see the “Insert Key” but in fact it does not key anything, I guess it will be available, not sure about it. At the moment you may play with the original curve and find a limited work around.
In 2.53 beta, you can see the value of a keyed modifier parameter changing with keyframes, but only if you keep your cursor pointing at the button of interest. I only tested with the Wave modifier speed, and a Twist modifier Factor but they are animatable and viewable in this manner.
I think I get what you’re saying and also think that’s now what I’m trying to do. (or I’m just slow) Anyway, what I’m trying to do, for this situation, is apply the noise modifier to my camera’s X and Y rotation curves. I did exactly that and got the results I wanted. But as the camera moves away from a certain position, I would like the noise (Strength parameter) to fade down to zero. So while the camera is near the running robot it will be shaky. As it moves away from the running robot, it will no longer be shaky. That’s basically all I’m wanting to do. I was hoping to key the Strength parameter to zero to accomplished this since there is no Influence parameter. So, keying the Strength at .05 from frame 1 to 40, then to 0 at frame 75. So it was “fade” from 40-75 if successful. When I key anything, a curve is created. But when I key the modifier parameter, nothing seems to be created. So there is no way to visually edit the parameter over time…as far as I know. It appear that I can only set its parameters once and they stay for infinity until I change them again.
Sorry, I didn’t catch that you were talking about F-curve modifiers. In my hands also (2.53, Windows 7) for F-curve modifiers, even though the right-click menu says insert keyframe, it doesn’t happen.
Curve, F-curve, graph, … I’m still catching on to the lingo since the upgrade.
I see what you are trying to do. It seems parameters within modifiers are not keyable yet.
If you key scale within the noise modifier, it adds a key frame on the X scale F-curve of the camera ! WTF? Trying to key the strength nothing happens, check the console for the errors. However the menu pops up with the option of add a keyframe???. I guess it is not finished yet…or may be a Glitch?
Insert Key: Could not insert keyframe, as RNA Path is invalid for the given ID (
ID = OBMesh, Path = strength)
Insert Key: Could not insert keyframe, as RNA Path is invalid for the given ID (
ID = OBMesh, Path = depth)
Insert Key: Could not insert keyframe, as RNA Path is invalid for the given ID (
ID = OBMesh, Path = phase)
Insert Key: Could not insert keyframe, as RNA Path is invalid for the given ID (:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
However I have found a quick solution for your problem.
After the noise modifier, add an Envelope Modifier. This modifier allows you to add points to draw an attenuation curve. Place the cursor where you want the fading to start, click Add a point, and adjust the two values. Then move a few frames ahead and add other point, until you F-Curve becomes zero noise.
However this will also attenuate your original keys where the Camera is located.So you may have to re-key on that time interval again once the Envelop modifier is on. Well just on that axis.
I think this way is even better than keying manually. Envelops will work as a logarithmic attenuation curve, like envelopes in audio editing software to fade out or in the volume.
I did it very quick with just a couple of points, see the results on the screenshot: Very easy to adjust. See the white dots, Blender indicates where they are…
Good find Animaticoide! I just tried it out and understand how you did. Thanks for sharing those tips! I see what you mean about having to rekey the position of the camere after adding. Maybe I just didn’t figure this part out, but seems like we’re limited to linear curves when using the envelop. Which, if that’s the case, is not the end of the world. Just requires some planning. Well, until they can fix the insert key function for Noise modifiers, this will do the trick.
you can create empty, set noise on it, and copy location from it using constraint. So you can animate constraint’s influence, this is the way to key noise’s influence
very useful discussion on
curve f-curve modifier envelope
and the <empty> control technique
Blender 2.55
does anyone know of documentation the envelope modifier or for the other modifiers ???
or why NLA editor strip modifiers differs in modifiers by one from the graph editor curve modifiers
Thanks.
I’m having a brain fart and can’t visualize how to do this, as simple as it sounds. Can you please upload an example .blend file?
Yes, had this problem too. Hope developers will fix it…
