User Presets and Animation TimeLine

From v9.0, the bottom of the control panel is a separate tabbed control that displays either the user defined presets or an animation timeline.

User defined Preset controls

At the bottom of the control window is a set of buttons and a drop-list. These allow the creation of 6 user defined preset camera and light positions.

The drop-list selects whether the buttons relate to the camera or one of the three possible lights (only available if the lights have been indicated as required). When in the camera/light control panel drop-list either the camera or one of the lights is selected, the user defined pre-set drop-list will select the same object.

Assuming that the camera is selected. Then any of the buttons in the top row that are shown as solid represent user defined camera angles. Clicking on a solid bottom causes the camera for the 3D window to switch to the saved position. Conversely, setting the camera manually to a desired position and then clicking on a hollow button causes the current camera position to be saved.

To remove a saved camera pre-set, click on the Clear Button below the redundant saved position.

Changing and saving the lighting positions works in an identical manner (only with the required light selected in the drop-list). 

 

Animation TimeLine

 

CFP or Translation keyframe

 

Bounce Keyframe

The timeline control is divided into three parts, as illustrated above.

The animation

The top half illustrates the currently selected animation and how editing will affect it. The left-hand image shows a CFP animation.

bulletThe small black lines divide the animation into 10 equal units (just to give some sense of scale).
bulletThe red line represents the selected time in the animation where editing will occur.
bulletThe grey triangles either side of the selected time represent the influence a change at the selected point will have. For CFP animations this illustrates the setting of the pre-and post sliders, whilst for a keyframe animation it represents the time to the previous and next frame.

A translation keyframe animation looks very similar to the CFP animation, except that the unselected keyframes are shown as blue lines.

A bounce keyframe animation is illustrated on the right, and looks like a translation keyframe animation reflected around the mid-point. As can be seen, the second half of the animation is shown shaded light grey.

The current time

The middle band of the timeline control represents the current time and as the animation progresses a green bar travels from left to right.

The clipping bar

The bottom bar allows an animation to be clipped, so that some selected parts is repeated. Normally, this bar is solid green, indicating that the entire animation will be played. The left-hand image above shows the situation where only the middle portion of the animation will be played (the blacked out sections are skipped). It is possible to skip the middle section of the animation so just the end and start are played, to test the transition.

 

The mouse actions

Left Clicking in the top half of the control allows of the selected time or keyframe to be changed. In a CFP animation, Left Dragging allows the selected time to be dragged as well.

Also in a CFP animation, Shift Left Dragging allows the pre-and post selections to be modified (depending whether the mouse goes down to the left or right of the selected time).

In the clipping bar, Left Dragging allows the start or end time to be changed. Which limit is dragged depends upon which was nearer the point where the mouse was initially clicked. Once a limit has been selected, you continue to modify that limit until the mouse button is released, allowing the start and end times to be exchanged, to deselect the centre portion of an animation. Shift Left Clicking on the clipping bar causes the whole animation to be displayed again .