Locking/Unlocking Control Points

When you add a control point to a motion path, you can change its position to anywhere between the closest keyframes. This not only changes the shape of the motion path, but can also slightly affect the velocity of the pegged element’s movement.

However, if you need the element’s movement to change at a specific frame, you can lock the motion point at a specific frame number to create a keyframe.

Let’s say you had a character whose drawings changed drastically on specific keyframes (for example, the character is pacing and he turns around at specific frames). If you wanted to plot a complex motion path for that character, you could lock the control points on the important frames and then change the shape of the motion path.

To lock/unlock your points:

1. Select a peg in the Timeline window. The peg appears in all Sceneplanning View windows.

2. Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Motion. This activates the Motion tool.

3. With the Motion tool, select a motion point on the motion path. The Motion Point tab opens in the Properties window.

4. Use the Lock in time checkbox in the Motion Point tab to lock or unlock the point.

If you select the Lock in time checkbox, the control point locks itself to the current frame and turns red on the motion path. The control point now becomes a keyframe.

If your control point is between frames, the Toon Boom Studio selects the closest frame as the locked frame.

If you deselect the Lock in time checkbox, the keyframe becomes unlocked and turns green, indicating you can change its position. The keyframe now becomes a control point.

The frame number may change as well since the spline adjusts its velocity on either side of the control point.