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There are several ways to cycle animation in Houdini. For this example we will explain how to cycle the first 25 keyframes through the remaining 125.
Channel Before/After extrapolation
The simplest way to cycle animation is to set the Before and After Extrapolation to Cycle or CycleOffset.
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Scope the channels that you want to cycle in the Animation Editor.
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Click the Gear menu next to the Scoped Parameters list and choose Select All Values.
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Click on a value field in the Scoped Parameters list.
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Select Channels and Keyframes > Edit Channel Properties for Selected Channels to open the Edit Channel Properties dialog.
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Select all of the Before and After dropdown menu cells by holding ⌃ Ctrl while dragging with .
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Change the value to Cycle or Cycle Offset.
Expressions
One way to do this is by using the cycle()
or cycleoffset()
expression in the Animation Editor.
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Scope the channels that you want to cycle in the Animation Editor.
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Set a keyframe at frame 125 in the Graph view of the Animation Editor.
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Select the channel segments from frame 25 to 125.
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In the Function menu, choose
cycle()
orcycleoffset()
.
Tip
cycle()
will continue from the starting value of your channels.
Dopesheet
If you want to create actual keyframes for the cycle, use the Dopesheet in the Animation Editor.
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Scope the channels that you want to cycle in the Animation Editor.
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Switch to the Dopesheet view.
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Select frames 1 to 25 (inclusive) in the All Displayed Channels row.
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In the Edit menu, choose Copy.
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Select frames 26 to 125 (inclusive) in the All Displayed Channels row.
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In the Edit menu, choose Paste Special ▸ Cycle (or Repeat).
Motion Effects
For more procedural cycling of animation than the cycle()
or cycleoffset()
expressions, you can use Motion Effects.
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Scope the channels that you want to cycle in the Animation Editor.
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Click the playbar and choose Motion Effects ▸ Cycle.
Note
In the Extend CHOP parameter window that pops up, you can change the Right Behavior from Cycle to Repeat if you want to repeat the animation instead.