According to the manual's flipbook section [sidefx.com]you can move keyframes in the Mplay timeline.

It says the following:

1 Set keyframes on all parameters on a character/object.

2 Right-click the Flipbook icon at the bottom of the toolbox (on the left side of the viewer) and choose Flipbook with new settings.

3 Turn on Scoped channel and key frames only and Enable block editing.

4 The keyframe images are highlighted on the MPlay timeline. You can select them with and drag them along the timeline with .

This lets you change the timings of the blocked out images and preview the changes without creating a new flipbook.

5 When you are finished, choose Tools ▸ Export Channel Blocking in MPlay to apply the edited timings to your scene.


I follow this word by word. My problem is that at step 4 I cannot select the keyframes. Every time I click on the keyframe on the Mplay timeline, it takes the playhead there, instead of selecting the frame.

I also can't seem to find step 5 Tools > Export Channel Blocking. Is this in the Mplay window or in H? I can't find it. Not that I need it since I can't do step 4, but I'm just saying.

Does anybody know where I went wrong on this?

Thanks

Wow what a weird hidden feature?!
Yeah it looks like left clicking the timeline in mplay doesn't work. I found that dragging a region around it does though. Hold down shift and click the key.

peteski
Wow what a weird hidden feature?!
Yeah it looks like left clicking the timeline in mplay doesn't work. I found that dragging a region around it does though. Hold down shift and click the key.

So I'm not crazy here…. thanks

I thought it was just me. I wonder if they check these features before they go in the docs.

when you find stuff like this in the docs just file a bug…

as for the correct steps…

from http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini15.5/anim/flipbook [sidefx.com]

Set keyframes on all parameters on a character/object.
Right-click the Flipbook icon at the bottom of the toolbox (on the left side of the viewer) and choose Flipbook with new settings.
Turn on Scoped channel and key frames only and Enable block editing.
The keyframe images are highlighted on the MPlay timeline. You can select them with LMB and drag them along the timeline with MMB.

***(so here's where the error is - it should say “You can select them with SHIFT+LMB and drag them along the timeline with MMB.” ***

This lets you change the timings of the blocked out images and preview the changes without creating a new flipbook.
When you are finished, choose Tools ▸ Export Channel Blocking in MPlay to apply the edited timings to your scene.

then here again this should read (at least on a mac) “When you are finished, choose ANIM ▸ Export Blocking in MPlay to apply the edited timings to your scene.”

submitted as #78509

This is a great feature that has been around since H7(?) I think…

arctor
***(so here's where the error is - it should say “You can select them with SHIFT+LMB and drag them along the timeline with MMB.” ***

This lets you change the timings of the blocked out images and preview the changes without creating a new flipbook.
When you are finished, choose Tools ▸ Export Channel Blocking in MPlay to apply the edited timings to your scene.

then here again this should read (at least on a mac) “When you are finished, choose ANIM ▸ Export Blocking in MPlay to apply the edited timings to your scene.”

This is a great feature that has been around since H7(?) I think…

Thank You Arctor

Maybe one day, if you have time, you'll get a chance to make a character animation tut [sidefx.com].

Been reading the threads pertaining to animation and rigging and you always give great advice and have a lot of experience. One can hope

PS: I wish I could have listened to your lecture on “Why Rig Characters in Houdini?” [sidefx.com] but it's not available online.

thanks
the BFX presentation was mostly an overview of Houdini and Rigging - not a ‘how to rig in Houdini’

I'm not an animator, so any animation tutorials wouldn't be done by me, or at least not entirely, but improvements to the rigging and animation documentation and tutorials are high on our list to improve on….so keep an eye out.