Animate polygon vertex colors

You can animate color per vertex data applied to polygon vertices. For example, you can create an animation of blood color dripping down a wall or of a crystal changing from dull to glowing green.

To animate vertex colors

1. Before you begin, make sure the object has some construction history. If it does not have construction history, the colors per vertex feature will fail to set a key.

   You can quickly create history on a model by choosing Edit Mesh > Transform, but moving nothing.

2. On a given frame, assign colors to selected vertices. The color assignment operations, such as Apply Color and the Paint Vertex Color Tool, are found under the Color menu.
3. Select Mesh Display > Set Keyframe for Vertex Color.

   You cannot use any other keyframing method.

To delete vertex color animation

1. Do one of the following:

• Delete the polyColorPerVertex node.
• If you delete construction history from the mesh (Edit > Delete by Type > History), Maya also deletes the vertex color animation.

Troubleshooting color per vertex animation

Playback becomes slow after animating vertex colors?

Maya creates animation curves for each vertex per face. For this reason, playback performance slows down significantly if you animate too many vertices.

Try to limit the number of vertices you animate. Another alternative is to delete the static animation curves.

I get a warning “Active objects have no keyable attributes?”

You must first apply a color. You cannot set a keyframe if there is no color assigned.

I get a warning “Current manipulator and active objects have no keyable attributes?”

You must add construction history to the mesh. If the mesh does not have construction history, the vertex color change not set a key.

You can quickly create history on a model by using Edit Mesh > Transform with translation set to 0.