We all know Shake rocks, but anyone who's used the RotoShape tool is left wondering why they have a keyframing toolset so basic, it cana ctually make you cry. This technique outlined below is used to hide a shapes keyframes within RotoShape, preferably after you're done keying it. It may be a bug in Shake, or it may be intentional, but it sure isn't in the documentation, and it definitely works. There are other ways to avoid this problem, including using a different RotoShape node for each shape and using 'Add' to merge them as one shape/matte, but this technique allows all the shapes to co-exist in one node, which allows you to make use of parenting and other node related features.
This trick works best when you have a RotoShape node with two or more shapes, such as this one, that has been keyframed heavily.
As you can see, the timeline is littered with keyframes from both shapes, but not notifying which ones are for Shape1 (head) or Shape2 (body). This is horrible. (Shame on you Apple/NR.)
This can be remedied by right-clicking on the first shape, and choosing Copy Shape.
Now create a brand new RotoShape node, and send it to the viewer by double-clicking it. Follow this by right-clicking the empty viewer space and choose Paste Shape.
The Shape will appear...
...but the timeline is blank. Scrubbing through it shows you that the shape still moves as it did before, but the keyframes are now hidden. This is what we want. *Cue sounds of an angelic choir*
Turn on AutoKey and move one of the shape's points and all of the keyframes will reappear on the timeline. This way if you want the points to reappear, and clutter your timeline again, you have the choice.
You can use this technique, of copying shapes and pasting them into new RotoShape nodes, with as many shapes as you like, and as a quick way to hide or unhide the keyframes for specific shapes. Although it's a bit cumbersome and backwards to execute, it's better then the alternative, which is cluttered mayhem on the timeline. You can go one step further and choose Copy All Visible Shapes on the cluttered node and Paste those into a new Rotoshape node, making all the shapes keyframes disappear, and then bring them back only as you choose and please. Either way, it's helped me tremendously, enjoy!
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