Animation Advanced Mode

• Animation Advanced Mode
• Editing an Animation
• Advanced Mode Sidebar
  • Animation Targets Section
  • Keyframes Section
  • Timing and Flow Section
  • Target Settings Section

Animation Advanced Mode

Advanced Mode is accessed by going to the Module Editor, then the Right Sidebar, and clicking the Animation icon in the Mode Switcher to enter Animation Mode. Select a layer, then choose Advanced with the switch at the bottom of the sidebar. Advanced is one of Animation Mode's two sub-modes. The other, Essentials, applies ready-made presets.

In Advanced Mode you edit a layer's animation directly, keyframe by keyframe. The sidebar lists the parts of the layer that can be animated, called animation targets, and the keyframes of the selected target. Selecting a keyframe shows the values the target holds at that moment, ready to change.

A new layer has only the Layer target. Further targets are added with Add, or arrive with an Essentials preset that needs them, and any added target can be removed again. An animation applied in Essentials Mode is made of keyframes too, so it can be opened here and adjusted freely.

Keyframes also appear on the Timeline, as frames on the layer's track. The Timeline is where a keyframe is moved in time and where the scene being edited is chosen. This article covers the sidebar's side of the same work.

The settings each target offers at a keyframe are described in five companion articles: Layer & Background, Masking, Text Splitting, Motion & Effects and Pan Zoom Animation. This article covers how the sidebar is organized and how an animation is edited.

Editing an Animation

Editing an animation in Advanced Mode is a six step process.

First, select the layer to animate, by clicking it on the Stage or by clicking its track in the Timeline. The sidebar stays empty until a layer is selected. The Slide Background is selected from its track at the bottom of the Timeline.

Second, choose the scene to edit with the Scene Switcher at the top left of the Timeline. In Animation is chosen when a layer is first selected. Each scene holds its own keyframes for every layer.

Third, choose an animation target in the Animation Targets section. Layer is selected when the sidebar opens, and Add offers the further targets the layer can take.

Fourth, select a keyframe in the Keyframes section, or click its frame on the Timeline. The Stage moves to that moment, and the sidebar shows the target's settings with the values held there.

Fifth, change the settings. The Stage shows the result at once. Add keyframes to build up the animation, and set each keyframe's Duration and Easing in the Timing and Flow section.

Sixth, play the scene with the Play button on the Timeline to check the result.

Advanced Mode Sidebar

In Advanced Mode the sidebar holds four sections. Animation Targets and Keyframes are always present once a layer is selected, Timing and Flow appears with a keyframe after the first, and the last section carries the selected target's settings.

Animation Targets Section

The Animation Targets section lists the parts of the selected layer that carry their own keyframes. Each target animates one aspect of the layer and has keyframes and settings of its own.

Target Tiles (Tab Select)

Sets which target's keyframes and settings the sidebar shows. The tiles are the targets the layer has. Layer is always present for a layer, and the Slide Background has Background in its place. A target added with Add appears as a further tile, under a short form of its name, Clip for Content Clipping or Chars. for Animate By Chars.. The highlighted tile is the target being edited, and the others are dimmed until clicked.

Options:

• _Layer: The layer as a whole. Its position, scale, skew, rotation, opacity, shadows and colors.
• _Background: The Slide Background's transition into the slide, offered in place of Layer when the Slide Background is selected.

Add (Action Menu)

Opens the list of targets the selected layer can take. The list depends on the layer's type, and a target the layer already has is not offered again. Choosing an entry adds the target as a tile and selects it, with a first keyframe ready to edit.

Options:

• _{Mask Shifting}: Listed under Masking. Adds the Mask target. Its keyframes move the layer by an X and Y offset inside a box that hides whatever lies outside it, so the layer appears to slide out from behind an opening.
• _{Content Clipping}: Listed under Masking. Clips the layer's content to a region that changes from keyframe to keyframe.
• _{Animate By Chars.}: Listed under Text Splitting, for text layers. Animates the text one character at a time.
• _{Animate By Words}: Listed under Text Splitting, for text layers. Animates the text one word at a time.
• _{Animate By Lines}: Listed under Text Splitting, for text layers. Animates the text one line at a time.
• _{Pan Zoom Animation}: Listed under Motion & Effects, for image and shape layers and the Slide Background. Pans and zooms the layer's picture over time.
• _{Wrapper Motion}: Listed under Motion & Effects. Adds the Wrapper target, a second set of position, scale, rotation and opacity keyframes on a wrapper around the layer, with a motion path option. The layer's own animation plays inside the wrapper, so the two movements combine.
• _{Filter Animation}: Listed under Motion & Effects. Animates filters such as blur, brightness and grayscale on the layer.

Remove Target (Button)

Removes the selected target from the layer, with its keyframes. The button sits at the top right of the section and carries the target's name, Remove Mask for the mask target or Remove Content for content clipping.

Keyframes Section

The Keyframes section lists the selected target's keyframes in the current scene, in time order. A keyframe holds the target's values at one moment, and the animation is the movement between one keyframe and the next.

Keyframes (Tab Select)

Selects the keyframe to edit. The first keyframe is Anim From and the last is Anim To, with the frame's duration in milliseconds shown between them. Keyframes added between them appear in order. Clicking a keyframe moves the Stage and the Timeline playhead to its moment, and selecting a frame on the Timeline selects the same keyframe here.

Options:

• _{Anim From}: The target's values at the start of the animation.
• _{Anim To}: The target's values at the end of the animation, with the movement into it set in the Timing and Flow section.

Add Keyframe (Button)

Adds a keyframe after the selected one, or midway to the next keyframe when one follows. The new keyframe is a copy of the selected one, so the animation looks the same until its values are changed. If there is less than half a second of room before the next keyframe, nothing is added and the editor shows Not enough Space between Frames. With the Layer target selected, the keyframe is added to every target on the layer's track at once.

Split Attribute Target (Toggle Button)

Gives the selected target its own keyframes on a track of its own in the Timeline, so they can be timed apart from the layer's animation. While the target follows the layer's keyframes, the section heading reads Keyframes (Inherit). Click the button again to return the target to the layer's keyframes.

Repeats (Button)

Opens the Repeats panel, where a run of keyframes is set to play more than once. The button sits at the right of the section heading.

Repeats Panel

In the Repeats panel set part of the animation to repeat, how many times, and how each repeat plays.

Enable Repeat on Timeline (Toggle)

Sets whether the run of keyframes between From and To repeats. The other settings in the panel take effect while it is on.

Options:

• _On: The run repeats as set below.
• _Off: The animation plays once.

From (Dropdown)

Sets the keyframe the repeated run starts from.

Options:

• _Keyframe: Any of the target's keyframes in the current scene.

To (Dropdown)

Sets the keyframe the repeated run ends at.

Options:

• _Keyframe: Any of the target's keyframes in the current scene.

Repeat Amount (Number)

Sets how many more times the run plays after its first pass. -1 repeats without end.

Animate in Both Directions (Yoyo Effect) (Toggle)

Sets whether every second pass plays in reverse, so the run swings back and forth instead of jumping back to its start.

Options:

• _On: The run alternates direction on each pass.
• _Off: Every pass plays forward.

Animate to 'From' Frame (Toggle)

When set to off, each pass starts by jumping the layer back to the values it had at the start of the run. When set to on, each pass begins by animating from the end of the run back to the From keyframe's values, so the repeat plays without a jump.

Options:

• _On: Each pass animates back to the From keyframe before starting again.
• _Off: Each pass jumps back to the From keyframe.

First Frame in Scene (Button)

Creates a fresh first keyframe for the layer in this scene, holding the layer's current state.

Play IN in This Scene (Button)

Makes the layer play its existing in animation as part of this scene.

Play OUT in This Scene (Button)

Makes the layer play its existing out animation as part of this scene.

Timing and Flow Section

The Timing and Flow section sets how the target moves into the selected keyframe from the keyframe before it.

A preset applied in Essentials Mode is made of keyframes like any other animation, so a preset's timing and easing are changed here after it has been applied.

Duration (Number, milliseconds)

Sets how long the movement into the keyframe takes. The same value is shown on the frame in the Timeline, and dragging the frame's keyframe there changes it too.

Easing (Dropdown)

Sets the curve the movement follows, from a constant speed to curves that speed up, settle, overshoot or bounce. Each family below is offered as easeIn, easeOut and easeInOut, which place the curve at the start, the end or both ends of the movement. Linear and the three Late curves are single entries.

The easing a preset applied in Essentials Mode is changed here, one keyframe at a time.

Options:

• _Linear: A constant speed from start to end.
• _{Power0 to Power4}: Curves of increasing strength, Power0 being nearly linear and Power4 the most pronounced.
• _{Quad, Cubic, Quart, Quint}: The same curves under their mathematical names, from gentle to strong.
• _Sine: A gentle curve based on a sine wave.
• _Expo: A sharp curve that starts or ends very fast.
• _Circ: A curve that starts or ends abruptly, based on a quarter circle.
• _Strong: The strongest of the plain curves.
• _Back: Overshoots the end value and settles back.
• _Elastic: Overshoots and oscillates before settling, like a spring.
• _Bounce: Bounces against the end value before settling.
• _{Late, Late2, Late3}: Custom curves that hold near the start and do most of their movement at the end. Late3 starts moving earliest of the three, Late2 holds the longest.

Target Settings Section

Below the keyframes, a section named for the selected target holds its settings at the selected keyframe. Change a value and the Stage shows the target at that keyframe with the new value.

The settings differ by target. Layer holds opacity, position, arc tension, scale, skew, rotation and transform origin, with switchable Text Shadow, Box Shadow, Text Color and Background Color sections. Background holds the transition's timing, style, stacking order and performance priority across five tabs. Each target's settings are described in its companion article.

Reset Keyframe (Button)

Returns the selected keyframe's settings to the target's defaults.