Can You Animate Variables?

[BrianK]

Can you animate variables - like those that you see when you "alt-shift-a".

I know I could just make a channel & read it in place of using a variable... just wondering if there's a way to do it with variables.

While I'm asking, can a variable be anything other than a constant value?

[B.Walters]

You know, that is a fantastic question.

And I'd like to add a question on top of that: is there a way to run a specified script every time the frame number changes?

But here's the cheat/cheap way I found to do it: add a spare parameter to a given node being cooked, and in there use the curly brace expression mode {} , (What is that called by the way? Is there a proper term?)In there type the following:

{

run("set -g my_var = $F");

return 0;

}

It sets the value of the channel to be 0 (or whatever you type after "return" and before the semicolon). Then the run() expression runs the hscript command "set -g" which sets a global variable to a given value, in that example the current frame number. So replace the "my_var" with the name of the variable you want to animate it.

It's cheap and dirty - but hey, it works. I'll post an example file to go along with this.animated_global.hip

[Jason]

I don't think you can in the traditional sense (i.e. a channel), but I think you embed an "eval()" statement in the variable and so it can return a new value any time the variable is accessed (evaluated )

[peship]

i think they are looking more for something like variable variables in PHP.

[BrianK]

Interesting ideas, guys. Thanks.