Mute the Time Editor

Note: This topic is about temporarily deactivating the Time Editor so you clips in the Time Editor no longer drive animation in the scene. To mute a Time Editor track, see Common Track operations.

Once scene objects are driven by the Time Editor, you may need to temporarily disable the Time Editor to make adjustments to your animation. The Mute/Unmute the Time Editor option lets you switch back to Maya's non-Time-Editor driven mode (also known as Scene Authoring mode,) by temporarily disconnecting all attributes to author new animation (including constraints, expressions, Driven Keys, and so on). This way you can add new animation to your scene that you can add to the Time Editor.

Mute/Unmute the Time Editor lets you add animation instantly to a scene, without importing animation.

  1. Once you have populated the selected scene objects in the Time Editor, turn on Mute/Unmute the Time Editor in the Time Editor toolbar. A appears over the Time View to signal that the Time Editor is temporarily disabled.
  2. Make changes outside of the Time Editor window to author new animation, apply constraints, create expressions, and so on.
  3. When you are done, from the Time Editor menu, click Mute/Unmute the Time Editor again.

    4. See Animate attributes with the Time Editor for an example of a workflow where a scene is edited outside of the Time Editor using Mute/Unmute the Time Editor.

Parent topic: Time Editor