Hello there. I’m trying to figure out if it’s possible to reorder shape keys. By design, shape keys are arranged in the order that they are created.
In creating shapes for a character for lipsync, I modeled shapes symmetrically:
Later, by limiting their influence with a vertex group, I was able to split the shapes for the two sides:
However, because I split the shape in two after I had created a bunch of other shapes, they’re far apart from each other:
I thought it’d be nice to arrange the keys together. I know that the horizontal lines in the IPOcurve window correspond to the shape keys, and that they can be moved.
However, when I try to move the smile shape key, things go berzerk. Nothing really lines up with anything else. The smile becomes a jaw_left shape, and the Open becomes a smile.
Does anybody know what the problem is, or how I can fix it? I messed this up pretty bad and I don’t even know how to fix it. I put the keys back in the right order but the problem remains. Thanks so much for your help!
The video doesn’t help me much even though it’s the quickest loading vid I ever saw!
The shapes can be reordered by moving their Base-Keys, but the bottom Key is listed at the top of the column (on the right) which can be confusing. Rather than messing with the slider just RMB a base-key and the mesh should show what shape it is (selecting the Key from the Column only selects the IPO Curve for that shape). I haven’t ever had keys being cross-pollinated while reordering them.
I’ve always had shape keys “cross-pollinate” with any attempt to re-order them too. The name changes place as expected but takes on the shape that was stored there - so Key Label “EE” might become Mesh Shape “OO” and so on - not very useful. I haven’t tried it for some time though.
(OSX 10.3.9; Blender 2.37, 2.4+)
EDIT:
Just tried it with my 2.42 and it still does it. The weird thing is that the labels in the (F9) Shape Key UI still perform correctly so the problem lies in the labelling as displayed on the Action Editor since that labelling no longer corresponds with the UI labels after re-ordering the basis curves in the IPO Editor.
To test:
Take a default cube in top view and make two new shape keys as follows:
drag the tow top-left verts far to the left - name it LEFT
drag the tow top-left right far to the right - name it RIGHT(test em if you have to - one should stretch left and the other right)
Set a key on frame one for shape LEFT at value 1.00 - the mesh deforms.
Now, open an IPO window, choose SHAPE and select the basis dotted line from the list. Then select the bottom BLUE line (between the blue and orange) this should activate the LEFT shape key. G-key drag the line above the other blue line. This re-orders Left and Right in the IPO list (Note, the list is opposite to the lines display - top is bottom and vice-versa).
The Shape labels/sliders have also been re-ordered in the Action Window but RIGHT has a key set on frame one - but the 3D view will show the LEFT mesh shape is keyed.
Although the Action Editor shows (incorrectly) that RIGHT has a key set on frame one, look at the list in the Shapes UI and RIGHT has no value keyed while LEFT does. (You will need to change frames back and to in order to see the keyed value after selecting the key from the UI menu).
Ultimately shape keys should be able to be re-ordered the same way bones are in the Action Window. Until then maybe Toloban will have to come to the rescue.
I am currently writing a tut on this. Be aware also that deleting keys in the Ipo, when there is a corresponding shape key, messes things up horribly as well. Also, duplicating keys and then deleting the dupe will mess up the original deformation. Also the 3D window does lose sync with the Action Editor, and sometimes you have to pin/unpin a shape so that the correct shape is shown in the 3D window. I’d submit a bug report, but mine are never re-createable it seams, or are Windows related.
I know about not being able to reproduce this bug.
When it happens and you save your work inaware of it, the file is permanently damaged and your hard work is lost because of the corrupted curves. The only fix is to regenerate the shapes using scripts
The report is closed, but I can’t tell if the problem is really fixed. The Blender test version crashes when removing a shape key from models which seemed to not cause problems in CVS builds.
Click to play.
Click to play.