Bezier handles in CS4 for motion editing

I have watched movies of people using the motion editor, I have read books, I have even consulted the cursory help that Adobe offers. Nothing I do generates Bezier handles that i can see, although the motion lines show evidence of bezier-liek modification. What happens seems largely random.
Just as random is the scatter of keyframes. Put a symbol on the stage. Add a motion tween, Move it to a new location: fine, it works. Bend the path, and look in motion editor: suddeenly, dozens fo keyframes. Prod them with the mouse and they distrot, but with no obvios controls. Shift moves them, Cntl deletes them, Alt does god knows what, but evokes the path edit tool from Photoshop.
The documentation on this package is extremely poor. However, self-teaching is impossible as the system is not at all intuitive. If you don't know that you are supposed to toss salt over your left shoulder whilst pushing Alt-Scroll Lock, you don't see what tehbooks describe. But they always leave out that little detail. Adobe's videos are of the same style - too smallto seeproperly, all done at a tremendous pace by a laconic individual with the teaching capabilities of a firing squad.
So: please, ayone, how doo you get the Bezier handles to appear? Where does one find a decent set of documentation? Why does Flash help keep referring to Illustrator?

Thank you for that.
I discovered that bezier handles are not available for X, Y, Z manipulations in the motion editor (! agast !) but only for things whewre you do not need them, like tint and alpha. Bizarre.
A useful tip for the motion editor is to use the otherwise useless feature of multiple customised interfaces. If you make one called "motion" - or something - and close everything except the motion editor - which you maximise to take the enotre screen - you can then jump to the editor at full scheme. Why the dear,dear Adobe people chose to make this grey on grey is yet another of those mysteries, like the nightmare Microsoft ribbon. Software houses get wedded to the notion of change for its own sake, perhaps: they certainly don't ask the use what they want.
As a further comment on the UI - supposing that Adobe read these things - there is a big problem with the layers in the timelines. The name of the layer is shown in white font (why??) when the layer is selected. Additionally, my usual windows selection colour (light yellow) is superimposed over the whole line. So the name is white on light yellow - unreadable, even if it wasn't in weeny font - and the animation colors are overlayed with a sickly blend of thsi and the underlying blue, etc. A moments thought would say: put an arrow icon (or something) to show which layer is selected, and leave the rest alone.
Flash isa steep cliff to climb, with precious few hand holds. Why Adobe have to make it quite so hard to even see properly is beyondf me.

Similar Messages

Bezier Handles not showing in motion editor

I can get them to display for every property except for x and y which I find them the most necessary. I control+click to add a new keyframe while in the motion editor then alt click to convert it to a smooth keyframe. All of them let me adjust the bezier handles except for the x and y properties. It seems to automaticaly smooth but i would like more control.

This happen to me a few weeks ago and this is how I fixed it.
Try this... Make a new user account on your Mac. If the canvas shows in Motion using the new user account do this:
1) Go to the Finder Menu, Go...
2) Hold down the Option key...
3) Go... Library....
4) Application Support... Motion... Layouts... Modified... Delete Default.ModuleLayout and delete Motion.saved.moduleLayout files.
Restart Motion and see if that works for you.

How to show bezier handles in cs4?

hi all
i have drawn a triangle using the pen tool, it has 3 points.
i'd like to modify the bezier handles to give it curved edges but dont know how to make IL show the handles.
could someone please advise?
many thanks
-s

With the convert anchor point tool (Under the Pen tool or Shift C) click and drag the handles out of the anchor point.
Or Effect>Stylize>Rounded Corners might work for you the effect can be expanded but keeping it live gives you the opportunity to change or , hide or delete the effect even after saving.

How do I export a PDF to CS4 for editing.

Someone sent me a PDF that was orignally created as a CS4 document. I want to export back into CS4 for additionally editing. How can I accomplish this?

Not using standard InDesign-- it's like a vector illustration saved as JPEG, a one-way street.
There is a commercial program, PDF2ID, that can read the PDF and re-creates it as an ID document from scratch -- so it's not a faithful conversion either. But its results have been reported as "workable" ;-) (http://www.recosoft.com/products/pdf2id/)

A way to "re-connect" bezier handles and other path editing techniques

I've searched and rummaged through tutorials for days but I haven't found a way to do a few things that I've come to think of as essential when it comes to path manipulation.
I'm using Illustrator CS4 (on Windows XP SP3) and I'm coming from a background of Inkscape. Within Inkscape, there are several handy tools that are missing from Illustrator that I haven't found workarounds for. Here's a list of these tools and a brief description for each of how they work within Inkscape:
]- "Shift + C" with anchor point selected: this will make the bezier handles of the point move independently of each other.
]- "Shift + S" with anchor point selected:
b this will "connect" the bezier handles
so that moving one side moves the other side relatively (and opposite to each other so that the bezier handles form a straight line).
(note: in Inkscape there is no way to make the bezier handles relative and not form a straight line, which is something I know would be useful)
]- "Shift + Y" with anchor point selected: this will make the bezier handles collinear (like shift + S) plus make the lengths of both handles the same.
(note: another possible feature would be to make the handle lengths relative, but not the same)
]- "Shift + Click + Drag" on a selected anchor point with the path selection tool: this creates one bezier handle in the direction you drag. This is very useful if you don't want to change the curve of the other side.
With these functions (preferably including the suggestions I've noted), path editing in Illustrator would be much easier.
On the topic of Inkscape's path editing abilities, there is also a way within the program to delete anchor points in two ways:
]The default way is to press "Del," which deletes the anchor points and makes the anchor points around the deleted points attempt to fill the area as close as possible to how it was with points.
]The second way is to press "Ctrl + Del," which deletes the points and does nothing to the surrounding points.
Inkscape's default deletion method is a huge time saver when you simply have a surplus of anchor points; you can the excess and the shape maintains itself (often the result is for the shape to smooth itself out).
I hope that these suggestions are described well enough to be understood. I also hope that, in understanding these potential techniques, you can see their potential usefulness within Illustrator.

Lee,
All those functions are present in Illustrator. I personally think their interface stinks in some ways, but they are there.
> "Shift + C" with anchor point selected: this will make the bezier handles of the point move independently of each other.
Convert AnchorPoint Tool. Press Alt to invoke it when the Pen tool is active. Otherwise, switch to it with Shift C. Use it to drag a smoothPoint's handle, and it will convert the point to a cornerPoint, letting you move the handle you click independently.
> "Shift + S" with anchor point selected: this will "connect" the bezier handles so that moving one side moves the other side relatively (and opposite to each other so that the bezier handles form a straight line).
Again, the Convert tool. Mousedown on an anchorPoint and drag. The point will become a smoothPoint and both handles will extend symmetrically.
There are also buttons to convert selected points between smooth and corner in the Control Panel when anchorPoints are selected.
> (note: in Inkscape there is no way to make the bezier handles relative and not form a straight line, which is something I know would be useful)
In my musings about Bezier drawing interfaces, I've often imagined a metaphor of "joints" rather than points. (That's really what they are: two adjacent Bezier curves with coincident endpoints.) Joints can be "hinged" or "locked"; "bent" or "straight". They can also be "dislocated". Joints can be locked bent or locked straight, and can be moved either way.
> "Shift + Y" with anchor point selected: this will make the bezier handles collinear (like shift + S) plus make the lengths of both handles the same. (note: another possible feature would be to make the handle lengths relative, but not the same)
See second item, above.
> With these functions (preferably including the suggestions I've noted), path editing in Illustrator would be much easier.
They are there; thier interface is just different.
> On the topic of Inkscape's path editing abilities, there is also a way within the program to delete anchor points in two ways:
> The default way is to press "Del," which deletes the anchor points and makes the anchor points around the deleted points attempt to fill the area as close as possible to how it was with points.
Not present in AI. (Not associated with a direct point manipulation tool, anyway. Commands like Simplify try to remove points while retaining the shape.)
> The second way is to press "Ctrl + Del," which deletes the points and does nothing to the surrounding points.
The Delete AnchorPoint Tool. Invoke it by pressing the minus key. Similarly, there is an Add AnchorPoint Tool, invoked by pressing the plus key. By default, the Pen Tool does that automatically to selected paths, but you can turn it off in prefs (unlike the infuriating auto join behavior, which affects UNSELECTED paths.)
> Inkscape's default deletion method is a huge time saver...I hope that...you can see their potential usefulness within Illustrator
Just about every user of programs like Illustrator, FreeHand, Draw, Canvas know very well the advantages of keyboard modifiers for such things, and all such programs provide them. (Although I do consider AI's treatment considerably more tedious than FreeHand's.)
You need to spend some time looking at the keyboard shortcuts described in the Help files, and carefully practicing them. You need to know how to invoke them while in the process of drawing paths with the Pen.
JET

Can't see the anchor point or bezier handles when editing an effect

Please help! This may be an easy fix, but when editing an effect I can no longer see the anchor point, keyframes, or bezier handles on the timeline image. Specifically, I am keyframing the Brush Position in the Write-on effect, and while I can move the brush position, there is no visual cross-hair on the image nor bezier handles to adjust the curve... every adjustment is therefore a guess as to where the adjustment handle is.
Is there a button that toggles anchor point and keyframe path display? Obviously, not being able to see what you're working on is very frustrating. I tried to click the icon to the left of the Write-on effect bar (4-point square with the selection tool in the upper right), but nothing happens. The write-on effect bar is selected and the Brush Position is in keyframe mode.
Thank you in advance for your help.

I worked with this the other day. Bezier handles and the hot spots are tough to see and the write-on effect is a bit wierd for me. You may have more success placing keyframes at beginning and end of a clip as I had trouble keyframing only part of a clip and still controlling the writing effect. You can then slide the keyframes later to change the duration.
Also, you may want to disable all the other effects while editing this one, as the others keep getting selected instead for me and I end up e.g. moving the image instead of the brush.

InDesign CS4 crashes during "Export Book for Digital Editions"

InDesign CS4 crashes each time I select "Export Book for Digital Editions." I tried deleting my preferences and then creating books that contain only two very simple INDD documents, but I still get this error:
Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library
Runtime Error!
Program: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CS4\InDesign.exe
R6025
- pure virtual function call
I can export books as EPUB files without problems on my personal laptop, which has InDesign CS5. But we're using CS4 at the office. Any ideas?
I'm running InDesign CS4 version 6.0.6 on Windows XP Professional, Version 2002, Service Pack 3, HP Compaq desktop, Intel Core 2 Duo CPU.

google r6025 runtime error and you'll see a lot of advice for tracking down and correcting the problem.

Problem for EX1 edit in CS4

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PP CS4 will told me about *.XMP, *.BIM, *.XML, *.SMI coudn't be import. Error Message says: File format not supported.
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That is weird. I have never experienced that.

Bezier handles In Illustrator CC do NOT dislplay

I cannot edit bezier curves - if I select a point the bezier handle appears, but as soon as I try to grab it it disappears.
Works fine in CS6 - I tried matching preferences - seem to be okay BUT I CANNOT USE BEZIER CURVES in Creativ CLOD

Eric,
Have you updated/upgraded to CC2014?
If you have, you may start on the following list.
The following is a general list of things you may try when the issue is not in a specific file (you may have tried/done some of them already); 1) and 2) are the easy ones for temporary strangenesses, and 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences); 5) is a list in itself, and 6) is the last resort.
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to 3 times);
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);
Even more seriously, you may:
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http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

When creating keyframes on timeline, why does it sometimes add bezier handles and sometimes not?

OK, so one of the key steps in my workflow is to do a pass of manual audio 'normalization'. Yeah, I keep getting the feeling that there might be automated tools that could do a better job, but I'm also listening for content.
But what is driving me a little crazy right now is that sometimes, the ctrl-click adds a normal keyframe and other times, it adds a control handle for a bezier curve. This is especially frequent when doing speed ramps, but it's just so inconsistent that it drives me nuts.
I am working on one timeline and halfway through the sequence, it comes to a clip where it ALWAYS adds bezier curves. And when I try to drag the keyframe down, it grabs the bezier handle instead, creating this bizarre S curve.
I just don't know what I'm doing differently in that segment compared to other places. Hundreds, if not thousands of edits like this and I haven't come across a problem like this.
Undo, and do it again causes the same thing.
But one segment over, creating keyframes doesn't create any bezier handles.
Production Premium CS6

This is helpful as it explains why suddenly there are a few in a row that are bezier.
But it doesn't explain what it is that I did to make them bezier in the first place. It just seems random. I'm just control-clicking on the timeline.
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Look at the system configurations at http://ppbm4.com benchmark to see what is in your terms high end. Do the benchmark yourself and submit the results to Bill (you can also send them to me by private mail or here if you want). That way you will know how your system performs and whether further tuning is needed to handle your AVCHD material.

Keyframe Bezier Handles

Hi:
I'm having a bit of a problem getting Bezier handles to show up while keyframing in Motion 4. I am adjusting the Transform.Rotation.Y parameter on a group. I can put in the keyframes where I want them, and assign their interpolation to Bezier. A checkmark appears in the interpolation menu beside the Bezier option, and the path changes to the nice smooth S-shape.
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2) Navigate to User/Library/Preferences.
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Hi Thomas, that's it!
Thanks for this - it clearly shows the TV standard and the resolution plus 4:3 etc., so everything I needed for confirmation.
Glad I cheked because it was in Pal - thought the conversion in DVDxDVPro looked a bit ropey.
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Kind regards
Michael

Bezier handles in CS4 for motion editing

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