Animation
The Animation panel is a timeline. Use it when several objects need to move together, in time with each other.
Open it with Animation in the left rail.
For one smooth change, you do not need the timeline. Set a duration on an event step instead.
Presets, bars and keyframes
| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
| Preset | One named animation you can play. |
| Bar | One object's part in the animation, on its own track. |
| Keyframe | A point in time, a value, and the easing used to reach it. |
A bar animates one component of one object. That object does not have to be the one that owns the preset, so one preset can animate a whole group. When a bar animates another object, that object's component shows that it is being animated.
A play bar is a second kind of bar. When the playhead reaches it, it starts another object's preset. Use play bars to split a complex animation into smaller presets.
A preset lasts as long as its longest bar. You can also give it its own duration; the timeline then runs past the last keyframe.
The panel
With nothing picked, the panel lists the animations in the scene. Pick an object in the scene or in Layers to work on its animations.
| Area | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Top | Where you are: Scene animations, the object, and the animation open on it. Switch, rename, copy or delete animations here. |
| Left | The tracks of the open animation, grouped by object. |
| Centre | The timeline of the open animation. |
| Right | Templates: ready-made moves, such as spin, scale or fade. Drag one onto the timeline. |
If the object has no animation yet, press Create animation.
Under the tracks:
- Track adds a parameter to animate. Find it in the list, or click a highlighted field in the inspector.
- Object adds another object to the animation. Find it in the list, or click it in the scene or in Layers.
The header has the edit commands and the playback buttons. Playing the timeline, or dragging the playhead, moves the objects in the scene.
Pick an object, and the panel shows its animations: its own, the one that moves it, or its nearest parent's. The tracks narrow to that object and the objects inside it. Clicking empty space keeps the panel where it was.
Auto-keyframing
The Auto-keyframing toggle is next to the play button. When it is on, moving an object in the scene adds a keyframe at the playhead.
To animate this way: move the playhead, pose the object, and repeat. It is the fastest way to work. It is also the easiest way to add keyframes you did not want.
Work on the timeline
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Drag a bar | Moves all its keyframes together. |
| Drag a keyframe | Moves it in time, between its neighbours. |
Ctrl + drag an end keyframe | Stretches or shrinks the whole bar from the other end. |
| Scroll | Zooms the time axis. |
You can copy, cut and paste bars. Deleting the last keyframe of a bar deletes the bar.
When bars are selected, duplicate, copy, paste and delete work on the bars. Objects in your scene are not affected.
Easing
Easing sets how a value changes on its way to a keyframe. The curve you pick on a keyframe shapes how the animation arrives at that keyframe.
- Quad, Quart, Circular, Exponent and Back, each as In, Out or In-Out.
- Elastic, with its own Amplitude and Period.
- Step, as Hold (keeps the old value until the keyframe) or Jump (changes it at once).
- Linear, and a custom curve you shape by hand.
Things that arrive and then settle look natural. Things that speed up into their end position usually do not.
What each curve feels like: Animation.
Play an animation
The Play animation step in Events plays a preset. You set:
- the loop mode: Once, Count or Forever;
- how many times it repeats;
- the speed;
- a delay.
Autostart plays a preset when the scene starts. It is a checkbox on the object's Animation component in Element settings. Checking it adds an event that plays the preset on scene launch, and unchecking it removes that event. You can see and edit the event like any other. While Autostart is on, its loop mode, repeats, speed and delay are right below the checkbox.
Next: Patch editor — build logic by connecting nodes.