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What are Black Keyframes on the timeline.

revel68
Advocate

What are Black Keyframes on the timeline.

revel68
Advocate
Advocate

I have seen these before and I am seeing them now using multiple Morpher modifiers.

 

In general, what does a black keyframe denote? I've got a complex file of CAT animations on laters etc... and When I'm animating I sometimes see black keyframes. I have no idea what this means!?  Imo they should not be there and make no sense to me.  They make it incredibly hard to work/animate.  I need to know how and why these are coming about or atleast what they are?    

They could be keys that are on "lower layers".  where an object is being affect by keyframes from data in a different layer be that layer a Morpher Modifier or a CAT Layer under a CAT Layer that has Locals set < 100%.   But right now I don't really understand. Especially since the new keyframes on some of the stuff I'm doing show up black.

Thanks

 

 

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RobH2
Advisor
Advisor

Can you post the scene to look at?

 

Tip, don't rely on that tiny timeline for complex animations. Open the 'Curve Editor' and manage your keys there where you can actually see them better.

 

I realize the lingering question is "what is a black keyframe" which I don't know the answer to. But if you upload a file I'll explore it and try to figure it out. Here is a post like yours from 2017 that went unanswered so I don't know right now. Maybe someone else does off the top of their head but until the post something, I'll try to help you figure it out if you can post a file. 

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-animation-and-rigging/curve-editor-keyframes-black-and-unedit...


Rob Holmes

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3ds Max (2023-2025), V-Ray 6.2, Ryzen 9 3950-X Processor, DDR 4 128MB, Gigabyte Aorus X570 Master motherboard, Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 M.2 drives, NVidia RTX 4090, Space Pilot Pro, Windows 11 Pro x64, Tri-Monitor, Cintiq 13HD, Windows 11 x64
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RobH2
Advisor
Advisor

Quick update, I'm working on an animation and I just noticed that my Camera keys are Black. I'll pay more attention to them now but maybe that's how it's designed, that Camera keys are Black. I've done 100s of animation and really never noticed it. 


Rob Holmes

EESignature

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3ds Max (2023-2025), V-Ray 6.2, Ryzen 9 3950-X Processor, DDR 4 128MB, Gigabyte Aorus X570 Master motherboard, Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 M.2 drives, NVidia RTX 4090, Space Pilot Pro, Windows 11 Pro x64, Tri-Monitor, Cintiq 13HD, Windows 11 x64
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