Okay, I've put together an animation in Poser. I used constant interpolation throughout because I'm not yet comfortable with letting the program think for me. The end result is very jerky. I need to add some interpolated frames between those that I've animated "by hand". Can I do this? If so, what is the best way? I know, I'm trying to put it together backwards....

Don't have Poser in front of me right now so hopefully somebody will give you a better answer but... 1. lengthen the animation the desired amount by adding frames to the end. 2. I think it's called RE-TIME animation which lets you move frames around thereby creating the holes for new frames where you need them. For example, if you have a 60 frame animation and want 10 new frames between frame 30 and 31, first lengthen the animation to 70 frames, then reasign frames 31 through 60 to frames 41 through 70. 1-30 are the same as before, 31-40 become your new frames, and 41-70 are still your old 31-60.

Hi, Nance. Thanks. I didn't try re-timing the animation, but I just tried something similar. I extended the animation length from 30 to 90 frames, then did a tedious (!) cut-and-paste job, spacing the existing frames equally throughout the new length. I thought it would then just be a matter of assigning interpolations with my existing frames as keyframes. OOPS! The camera settings and figure scaling and positioning went crazy. My main figure shrank to about 10%, then shot up out of the scene, as the camera swung about wildly. What happened? I'll try the re-timing feature. I really need to stop doing things the wrong way around....

Move through the animation to each key frame to find the ones that are out of range. Then move down the Animation palette to the camera and lights and highlite the green mark for them click on delete key frame. Be sure to have "this element" checked. This will cause the camera, light to be an interpolation of what ever key frame is before and after the one you deleted. This can also be accomplished with the graph view. or: Save the camera and lights to the DOTS and move to the offending key frame and press the DOT to re apply the correct setting. Fun, isn't it.

I've never used those dots before. They just sit there. I tried the retiming of the animation, and everything is fine. The work is back on track, and I have a better understanding of the whole process. Now that I know the trick, I may just keep working backwards this way. Or is it backwards? How do others procede in making animations? The topic doesn't seem to be discussed much on the Forum.

Cage, An easy way to "move blocks" of "key" frames is as follows: 1. Open the "Animation Palette" from the "Window" menu. 2. In the "Frame XXX of YYY" area, add the number of additional frames to the YYY value. Click on the YYY value window and then enter the (total) number of frames. 3. Now, Put the cursor on the upper left corner of the "stuff" (i.e. beginning key frame) you want to move - click (and HOLD the mouse button) - 4. Now "DRAG" the mouse to create a rectangle around the key frames to be moved. 5. Release the mouse button. 6. Place the cursor inside the rectangle. 7. Click (and hold) and "DRAG" all the key frames at the same time. (either left or right) Play with it a little on a test file 'till you get the hang of it. Hope this helps. If I can be of further help, email me at "geep@cybertrails.com". Cheers, geep