Render negative frames OR move ALL keyframes in file

Support Animation and Rigging
#1

Hey everybody,

I’ve asked this over on reddit, but thought it might be worth cross-posting: Is there a way to render negative frames in Blender 2.8? All I’ve found online is someone else asking my exact question in February, sadly to no avail. So I will go ahead and paste our question here:

I have a blender animation that I’d like to add frames to the beginning of. I’ve learned how to let the timeline allow negative frames. However, I can’t figure out how to render them in an animation. The “Frame Range” setting does not seem to allow for negative numbers?

Is this possible?

Alternately, is there a way to choose ALL keyframes in an animation- material keyframes, composite keyframes, and so on- without having to go in one item at a time and shift them by a certain amount manually. I know how to use the dope sheet to move the all the keyframes of the currently selected object, but not of ALL the keyframes in a given file.

Ideas?
Thanks!

Source: https://www.questarter.com/q/render-negative-frames-or-move-all-keyframes-in-file-16_131500.html

Thank you all in advance!

EDIT:
Here’s what I could gather so far:

  1. To move everything up in the timeline, deselect everything. Make sure the left icon is inactive: dopesheetIcons and the dope sheet will show you all animated properties.
    However, this method leaves you with all physics, f-curve modifiers etc. that are not keyframed. You have to adjust those manually.

  2. Entering negative numbers as Start Frame in the properties editor is not possible (maybe a bug?). If you have “Allow Negative Frames” selected in Preferences > Animation, you can move the timeline indicator to your desired start frame and choose Playback > Set Start Frame directly from the timeline panel. This way, you can render negative frames. You might need to update frame ranges in physic simulation etc.

#2

Someone on reddit helped me out!
The arrow in this icon determines, what is visible in the dope sheet, if nothing is selected

dopesheetIcons

Just deselect the icon to show everything at once., so you can move all keys back a little.

However, I’d be still interested in the underlying question: Is it possible to render a negative frame range?

#3

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The bit that says “Allow Negative Frames”.

Easiest workaround is to move everything up so many frames, so its all positive, if this doesn’t help you. Why do you want to render negative frames?

Cheers, Clock. :beers:

#4

Hey,
as the other person I quoted already said: If you want to add frames to the beginning of your animation without changing it, that might come in handy.
Moving everything up seems trivial, but gets complicated for physics, f-curve modifiers and other stuff that does not show up in the dope sheet.

Another redditor gave me a hint:
Rendering negative frames is not possible from the properties panel. If you enter negative numbers, it jumps back to 0.
However, you can move the timeline indicator to a negtative frame and then choose Playback > Set Start Frame. That way, you indeed get to render those frames.

1 Like
#5

I succeeded in rendering by this way, using OpenGL rendering. Firstly, I tried to render by usual animation rendering method, but I failed, because starting timeline indicator always backs to zero point. Only static scene was able to be rendered at the negative frame. However changing to OpenGL rendering worked it out. As I’m using Blender 2.79, I set my Start Frame by using shortcut S key, putting mouse pointer on timeline window. Thank you for your information.