Copy Animation State

[andrei]

Is there a way when using copy animation state to copy interpolation of the characters as well?
If there is no way of doing this...Is there a way to display key frames of Animated Elements in the timeline?
Thanks in advance

[Greg Lennon]

Copy Animation State only copies that single point in time. However, there's a simple way to do what you're asking:

Try this exercise:

Create a 2D Text box & make it full screen (right-click canvas, select 'Make Full Screen').
Type some text (I'll use Chyron)
Right-click the canvas and select Animate Elements
This will create a group in your scene graph with each character being a separate layer. Ungroup that group (CNTL-U)
Now you've got separate layers for each character. Select the 'C' and create a 4-frame animation for it (Maybe scaled & Z-rotated). Once you've got the move made, right-click that object's timeline and select 'Copy Timeline' (not Copy Animation State).
Now select all the character layers (INCLUDING the 'C' from which you copied the timeline). Right-click the timeline object and select 'Paste Timeline'.
An offset window will pop up asking if you want to offset the paste. Give it an offset of 2 (which is, in fact, frames even though it doesn't say that). Say 'yes' to extending the camera & lights.
Now you've created a custom character-based animation with a minimum of effort.
Note that in this 'Animated Elements' state the text is no longer editable (similar to doing text animations in Transform on an Infinit), so keep that in mind.

Hope this helps...
Greg

[andrei]

Thanks for the golden nugget, Awesome power tip, it is sure to stremline my animations. I have a couple more questions for you.
#1 Alpha channels, how do you export alphas to lyric? I tried psd files with alphas, targas and tiffs, no luck. That is independent of Aprisa.
#2 Animating with light. Lately I've been messing around with spot lights. I've figured out how to apply a light to 2d layer(Just change the lightning option to enabled in internal properties), yet I get all or nothing effect at 89 degree angle I get just little light while at 90 I get the full effect. I tried changing the xyz, but to no avail.. Could you plz shed some light on the problem.
#3 Is there a way to put interpolation on camera moves?
Well I lied 3 questions. Thanks in advance
Andrei

[Greg Lennon]

Hi Andrei,

Lyric automatically imports alpha channels, assuming they're present. If you're creating graphics in Photoshop, be sure the alpha channel is present then save the file as a 32-bit TGA. There's nothing you have to do in Lyric to make them 'work'...I'd check your graphic files and confirm they're right. You can always check it on the canvas by changing the background color (click the button on the menu bar that's a square that's half black & half white, split diagonally). There you'll see if it's keying. If it's okay there but not keying in your switcher then there's a hardware setup issue.

As for your lighting question, at this time the lights will only affect 3D objects. I believe it's in the works for future versions (having lights reflect on 2D objects), but at this point it's not supported.

The camera is a keyframeable object, just like anything else. Set your camera position for your first frame, then another position for your last frame (or any frame in between, for that matter...). It is keyframed the same way as everything else.

Hope this helps...
Greg