How To Make An Animation Take The Shortest Path In Blender

Blender is an awesome open source blitheness program for both second and 3d, but information technology isn't the easiest to learn to apply. My biggest issue was learning to make Blender loop animations inside of a longer animation. For example, say you're animating a music video that is one minute long. You need your graphic symbol to run from 2d 10 to 2nd fifteen, but you lot take a scene before that, and a scene right afterward that.

This is when you discover the Time Offset modifier. But y'all'll rapidly discover a huge trouble. This modifier loops your animation indefinitely. Even once you flip scenes your character volition continue to run, which is not desirable. And when you lot add a blank keyframe your modifier breaks and the character only loops once. And sometimes even without the blank keyframe your character doesn't loop at all – which is equally frustrating.

Blender doesn't take an intuitive solution to this, but the good news is the solution exists and it'due south easy.

How to Set upward a Normal Loop (Space)

Prerequisite: Have an blitheness ready that needs to be looped.

Stride i: Go out of edit manner if you're in it. The Time Outset Modifier volition not loop your animation while in edit mode. Either click the edit icon adjacent to your grease pencil object until it disappears – I circled this in blue below – OR click on "Edit Style" in the height left of your screen and switch to "Depict" or "Object Mode."

Step 2: Select the grease pencil object layer in your Scene Drove. Make sure your layer is highlighted bluish like mine. (circled below.)

Step 3: Open the Modifier window. As you can see, this tin exist constitute in your list of tools – information technology is the wrench icon (circled below.) You can tell y'all accept the correct layer selected when the title higher up the "Add Modifier" dropdown menu mirrors the name of your grease pencil. In my instance it is "iii – Trot Cobalt."

Step 4: Click the "Add together Modifier" dropdown and select "Time Offset." (circled below)

Step 5: One time y'all select "Time Start" y'all'll be faced with a few settings.

• Leave way on "Regular" unless you desire your grapheme to loop in opposite.
• Exit "Frame Offset" on i, unless you want your frame to showtime from a different frame than the normal starting frame. (For example – my trot loop starts at frame 177, but I could start it at 190 if I preferred)
• Leave "Scale" as the default 1.000.
• Make sure "Go along Loop" is checked.
• Bank check "Custom Range" and click the pointer to open the range'due south settings.
• Take note of your loop's beginning frame on the timeline. (I marked mine with a blueish arrow – 177) Then take note of your loop's concluding frame. (Mine is 200, which I besides marked with a bluish arrow)
• Add the loop's outset frame as "Frame Get-go" and the loop's last frame as "End." This tells the Time Offset modifier which frames to pay attention to when generating the loop.

How to Add together a Outset and Cease Time to Blender Loop Animations

Steps ane – iii: Adding a Start Time

Make sure you follow the steps in the previous section before post-obit these steps.

Step 1: Next to the Time Offset modifier there are two icons. One looks similar a computer screen which is basically your view port or your sheet. And the other 1 looks like a photographic camera which ways your render view.

The first step is to tell Blender you desire to see this loop starting at a sure keyframe. Simply hover your mouse over the computer screen icon (circled beneath) and on your keyboard hit "i" . This tells Blender to create a keyframe. You'll notice the icon turn yellow to signify there is now a keyframe at this frame.

Step 2: Allow's practise the same affair, but with your Return icon. That way when you export your animation, this one is included. Hover over the Render icon and printing "i" on your keyboard. This icon will also turn yellow which ways you were successful. (circled below)

Stride 3: Just to keep things tidy, I recommend adding a keyframe correct earlier your first one and telling Blender to plow off our modifier. That fashion your grease pencil isn't looping until the first frame appears on your canvas. To practise this movement your cursor to one frame before your loop (in my case this is frame 176 – marked beneath with a blue arrow.)

And so hover over the computer icon and click "i" on your keyboard. Click on the icon with your mouse to plow the modifier off. Do the aforementioned thing with your photographic camera icon. Yous'll notice when you click the camera icon an "10" will appear in the middle of the camera. This signifies the modifier is turned off which is perfect.

Pat yourself on the back! Yous've successfully set up Blender to start this loop at the correct fourth dimension.

Steps iv – 6: Adding an End Time

Step 4: On the timeline, move your cursor to the frame you want your loop to cease. In my screenshot I have multiple layers, and so I pulled the timeline up so I could easily meet what I'grand doing. Once you're at the correct spot, click "i" on your keyboard. A footling carte du jour will pop up – select "In Active Group." This will add a blank keyframe to all the layers in your electric current grease pencil object.

Step v: I compressed my timeline again so things are easier to see. Now we just demand to tell Blender where to stop looping. On your timeline, go one frame before your new empty keyframes. Hover over the computer and camera icons and click "i" on both. Very similar to how we added our starting time time. The icons should plow yellowish.

Pace 6: On the timeline, put your cursor back on superlative of your new blank keyframe. Hover over the reckoner and camera icon again, and click "i" on both. Then click each icon with your mouse to turn them both off.

And that'south it! Play your animation back and lookout man as the loop starts and stops at the exact times you demand it to. Besides, get grab yourself a java – y'all earned it.

If you are nonetheless having problems, delight check out the troubleshooting department below.

How to Troubleshoot a Blender Loop Blitheness that Isn't Looping

1. Brand sure you lot are not in EDIT fashion. I've noticed the Time Offset Modifier doesn't work in this department. You tin can flip this off by clicking directly on the edit icon next to your layer OR switching from Edit to Draw or Object way in the tool carte.
2. Make sure in that location isn't a bare keyframe inside of your looped animation. This will cause the modifier to intermission. Only have your bare keyframe directly later on your blitheness loop ends.

Exercise you have more questions or bug?

Did this help at all? If you have more than questions, delight leave a annotate below and I can update this article with the respond. Happy animative!

P.S. Thank you and then much to Wilks for sharing this solution with me!

Source: https://www.thunderkathryn.com/blog/blender-loop-animation-with-start-and-end-frames/

Posted by: chentropir.blogspot.com

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