topic add a key to only one attribute in 3ds Max Programming Forum

add a key to only one attribute

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:26:17 GMT

What I'd really like is to be able to right click on the attribute, say X position, and hit Key but then I'd be working in Maya.

I did find the "create key" buttons under the PRS Parameter under the motion menu, but that will key the entire controller. The controller might contain multiple keyable features, however, and often times a good animation will require different timing for each attribute.

What I want to create is a floating toolbar with 9 boxes on it. scale, rotate, and translate with x, y and z for each. I'd like each button to have a script on it that would place a key for that value and Only for that value for the selected object at the current keyframe.

I can figure out how to create a key, but not for only one of the attributes.

Has someone already created such a tool? If not, any idea on how to do it. I probably only need one or two examples and I can figure out the rest, or just tell me the name of what I'm looking for if it's listed in the maxscript reference files. I just can't find it there and I've had no luck guessing what the syntax might be.

Any help is appreciated.

Re: add a key to only one attribute

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 02:05:04 GMT

Hello Andy,

The code:

addNewKey $.controller currentTime

Would create a key to the selected node... (That's the $ sign)
In the Transform... (That's the first )
In the Rotation... (That's the index - position being and scale being )
In the Z Axis... (That's the last Index - X being and Y being )
To The referred track's controller... (that's the .controller property - a bezier float by default)
At the current Time... (Where the time slider is...)

The default Animation controller for scale is the Bezier-Scale, in wich every key is for all three axis of the scale, so if you want to key them independently you need to assign a Scale-XYZ controller to the scale Track, and it will have a sub controller for each axis, like the position and rotation have by default.

Hope that helps,

Oded

Re: add a key to only one attribute

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 03:06:13 GMT

That's exactly what I was looking for. Why can't the help file be that simple?

I can't quite figure out visual maxscript though.

I created a quick test of just three buttons, but I can't seem to run it.
I thought I could just create that, save as a max script, run it and it would pop up a window with my buttons on it.

The help file is absolutely no help there. I can't even find Edit>Edit Rollout anywhere, and it assumes you know that. And Rollout? Am I just doing this totally in the wrong place?

Re: add a key to only one attribute

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 21:33:27 GMT

rollout SetKey_Buttons "Set Individual Keys" width:135 height:78
(
    button ButtX "X" pos: width:18 height:18 toolTip:"key position X"
    button ButtY "Y" pos: width:18 height:18 toolTip:"key position Y"
    button ButtZ "Z" pos: width:18 height:18 toolTip:"key position Z"
    pickButton btn4 "PickButton" pos: width:0 height:0
    label lbl1 "Position" pos: width:40 height:12
    
    )
    on ButtX pressed  do
        addNewKey $.controller currentTime
    on ButtY pressed  do
        addNewKey $.controller currentTime
    on ButtZ pressed  do
        addNewKey $.controller currentTime
)

OK, that's what I've got so far, but it's not working. I tried using the visual maxscript editor, and it didn't work either. I had things named PositionX, PositionY, and PositionZ, but I thought that might cause problems, so I renamed it, but that didn't help.

each script works on it's own. Why would the visual editor write me script that doesn't work? I don't know what I did wrong.

Re: add a key to only one attribute

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:24:02 GMT

Are you launching the dialog after you create it with Visual MAXScript? VMS creates the code for a rollout but doesn't create code to launch it as a dialog, since rollouts have numerous other purposes.

Add this to the script after the VMS-created Rollout code:


createDialog SetKey_Buttons

Re: add a key to only one attribute

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 04:02:15 GMT

script spot link

OK, there it is. People who are really good at scripting will probably laugh at my formatting, but it at least seems to work.

The only thing that seems to kind of stink is the keys don't always show up in the track bar until you deselect the object, then select it again.
I'm not sure if there is a way to refresh the trackbar forcefully, or if writing in to deselect the object, then reselect it again. That just seems very unnecessary though. If you have a thousand objects selected that would be a rather large array just because max isn't displaying the trackbar correctly.

Let me know of any modifications you would suggest. I'm trying to slowly add to my scripting knowledge, which is still quite small.