KF Auto vs Manual Examples/Tutorial....

[briancbb Profile Private message]

Ladybug

I guess when you are talking about seeing all the layers, you are meaning the transparent overlay of each layer gets confusing.

Remember you can 'untick' some layers so that they do not show, this may help, and 'retick' them later.

Brian

[Ladybug]

Ladybug

I guess when you are talking about seeing all the layers, you are meaning the transparent overlay of each layer gets confusing.

Remember you can 'untick' some layers so that they do not show, this may help, and 'retick' them later.

Brian

Yup! That's what I meant. If I 'untick' some, how do I see where each layer fits in association? That's the part that gets confusing for me after about 4-5, plus multiple KF on each layer! Sheesh! I try to think of each KF as a 'slide' as was suggested and it really helps....just that sometimes it was easier to see when each WAS a different slide. Oh well, I'm working on it. Thanks to all of you for your expertise!

G'nite! or G'morning to you!
LadyBug

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

OK, so in "auto" mode a key frame is in "flow through" mode.
What use is it in "flow through mode" as if it was not there ??
Key frames themselves (although a bit different from what I
have used before on other NLE programs) seem to be fine .. in
manual mode - they do what I want them to do ... isn't that the
purpose of a key frame - you can define what happens at that
point on the timeline ? Maybe the intent was to start in auto,
move the keyframe to where you want it to do something
different then set it to manual ? Reminds me of my old
assembly language days where we always wanted the
DWIM instruction ... Do What I Mean

mikey

[Tarafrost Profile Private messageWebsite]

Ah yes...the holy grail: DWIM! All my life as a software architect, I've been trying to deliver on that promise. Getting pretty close these days, at least with enterprise level systems.

Now about Auto. Yup....it puts a KF in "flow through" mode.....for that specific effect/motion!

The subtlety is in the last part: for that specific effect/motion.

Here's an example:

You want to do a rotation, starting at KF1 and ending at KF3 for 360 degress.

But also, you want the image to move from upper left to upper right corner from KF1 to KF2 and then move from upper right to lower right from KF2 to KF3, all while rotating!

Now sure, you could set the rotate to manual, and set it as follows: KF1: 0 degrees, KF2: 180 degrees, KF3: 360 degrees.

But there are some problems with that. What if the time between KF1/2 and KF2/3 is not an identical interval? Then you would have to manually calculate the portion of the rotation you need to set on KF2 (not 180!!!), based on the ration of the two timespans. And what if you go back and slide the KF locations around, changing the time ratios? Gotta go back and manually recalculate the KF2 rotation amount and set it.

Now, what if you set rotation to be Auto instead for KF2? PSP calculates the correct rotation value for KF2 for you. No muss no fuss. If the two time spans are identical it will set it to 180. But if they're not...then it saves you a ton of effort.

And then what if you decide that the movement from Left to Right should be 3 seconds, but from Right to Bottom 1 second, and you slide the KF's around to that effect? Auto will get PSP to calculate the rotation for you automagically, so that the full rotation is nice and smooth, with a constant angular velocity over the full rotation from KF1 to KF2.

My demo tries to show this, where some effects are allowed to "flow through" and others are fully manually controlled, for just the above reason.

Clear as mud, Mikey?

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Ah, a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel ... no wait, it's
an oncoming train !!!!

I see what you are saying - I have been sort of working in the
"all or nothing" mode where I set everything to manual, but as
you indicate, setting say rotation to "auto" while using manual
for pan allows me to pan around using that keyframe but it
does NOT impact what rotation is doing through that point.
That part was missing from my comprehension of auto vs manual.
"I see" said the blind man

Thanks !

mikey

[Tarafrost Profile Private messageWebsite]

The lightbulb turns on!

Yay!

Glad I could be of help!

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Yep -- I had been looking at it backwards and trying to figure
out what effect the keyframe has on things in the "auto" mode
and was not getting any where -- that is the whole point of
"auto" for that effect -- it essentially has "no effect". Looking
at it from that viewpoint, it makes sense. Thanks for making
it click!!

mikey

[Tarafrost Profile Private messageWebsite]

Click!

[jotafl]

Thank you so much for the tutorial, since the time I started to play with PSG and PSP KF's were like a demon hiden in a dark room, everytime I try to use them and understand them the demons will come out and bight me You made it more eassy to comprehend now and believe it or not, now they make more sense, so the demons are not as nasty as they want to be.

Cheeers

[Tarafrost Profile Private messageWebsite]

Bad demon....no soul donut!

Glad it helped shed some clarity on the subject.