Repeat frame values in After Effects like MMB in Maya

[NewtV]

Is there a way to repeat values to another position in timeline in After Effects? I mean, you have a key at frame 1 and one at frame 30; you would like to have the values that you currently have at frame 10 to become the values for the key at frame 20.
In Autodesk Maya, you would go to frame 10, MMB drag the timeline to frame 20 and set a key for the attributes you want keyed, because when you MMB drag in Maya the animation “freezes” and can be keyed in a different frame with the same values. It's very useful if you have many values to transfer/keyframe at the same time.

I know I can create/copy/paste keyframes, but it's tedious if you have many keyframes to deal, like a character with many keyframed setups.

[Rick Gerard]

Hold keyframes? If I'm using Time Remapping to animate a character's mouth for example, I'll just use hold keyframes for each sound drawing. Did that make sense?

I'm not exactly sure what you are asking but I think using Hold Keyframes may be the answer.

[NewtV]

In Autodesk Maya, when you drag the timeline using MMB (middle mouse button), the animation doesn't run, so you can go to another frame and keyframe it with same status of the initial drag. For example: you have a ball in position A (frame 1) that goes to positon B (frame 10) - In Maya, if you want to repeat the position A in frame 20, just MMB from frame 1 to frame 20 and keyframe it. You get A-B-A.

It's very useful and fast if you have many setups to keyframe (transfer in timeline). And the best is that you don't necessarily need to keyframe the initial value, since an intermediate value not keyframed can be transfered through the timeline.

[Rick Gerard]

If you want a repeating animation you can use any of the loopOut() expression variations. If you want to go from A to B to A 4 seconds later then set B, move the CTI to the third position, Select A and Ctrl/Cmnd + c then Ctrl/Cmnd + v. The animation will run from A to B then back to A.

If you want to go from A to B, then hold b for 4 seconds, use the same procedure and then select B, right click and Toggle Hold Keyframe. The animation will then run from A to B, then hold for the next 4 seconds, then jump back to A.

There is a lot more information in the User Guide. Use Search Help in the top right corner of AE to look for controlling keyframes or even just keyframes.

[NewtV]

Hi Rick. I've tried to simplify my explanation using the A-B-C example, but it's not that simple as a loop.

Imagine I have a character with many action poses (and keyframes) during the timeline. I want to take a certain pose (complex with many keyframes) and transfer that same pose to another frame in timeline. It's not a loop, but to reuse a pose (or part of it) from a frame to another. I know I can copy and paste keyframes, but I was wondering if there is a better and faster way to do that.

What Maya does, that I would like to see in AE, is exactly that:
Keyframe Animation Basics in Maya - YouTube

[Rick Gerard]

There is no select a keyframe and drag to duplicate in After Effects. Copy and paste is the best that you can do. I've never found it a problem, but I can see that there would be a slight advantage to be able to select a keyframe in the timeline, press a modifier key, then drag a duplicate to another spot in the timeline.

In your example, it looks like there was a keyframe at frame 8 for scale, that keyframe was selected and then dragged to frame 22 using the middle mouse button. I actually don't see much difference in the time or effort taken to move the time indicator to frame 22, select the keyframe at 8 and Ctrl/Cmnd + C then paste using Ctrl/Cmnd + v. I almost think it would be quicker.

If there was no keyframe data at frame 8 in AE but you wanted that scale value you could move the CTI to frame 8 press Alt/Option + s then Ctrl/Cmnd + X to cut the keyframe you just set for scale and store it in memory, then move to frame 22 and press Ctrl/Cmnd + v to paste it. If you use a Tablet these actions could be added to the pen shortcuts to speed things up.

You could always post a feature request. You can find a link in the Overview section of this forum (Bug Reports).

When you talk about character poses I usually use Time remapping for that. Let's say I have a character that raises his hand and lifts up the index finger, then moves his hand back and takes notes. I would pre-compose, Time Remap then set a keyframe for at rest, then a keyframe for the hand raised, then a keyframe for hand lowered, then a pair of keyframes for taking notes. Each of these time values would be noted then I would just move the keyframes around in the timeline and or copy and paste some of them to get the character to sit for a minute, then raise his hand quickly, hold for a few seconds, lower his hand and rest, then take notes, then raise his hand more slowly this time, then lower it quickly and start taking notes. There are some pretty good tutorials on that kind of workflow by pros like Angie Taylor.

[NewtV]

Thank you for your answer, Rick.

The advantage of this feature in Maya is that it's fast and you don't need to keyframe the values to transfer them, since it can fast transfer values between keyframes and not necessaraly a certain keyframe.

Seems like I'll keep doing as the same way I do in AE.

[Roei Tzoref]

Specifically for pose to pose animation try Joystick & Sliders Script. You can record poses and animate through them with a controller.

[Roland Kahlenberg]

Take a look at this free script, Marker Triggery, https://markertriggery.com/

[dj.summitt]

You can also suggest features to the development team at:
After Effects: Hot (1727 ideas) – Adobe video & audio apps