Animating Your Scene

The program starts each new scene with 100 frames for animation. Frames are a way of measuring time, and you move through time by dragging the time slider. You can also open the Time Configuration dialog to set the number of frames used by your scene and the speed at which the frames are displayed.

When the Auto Key button is on, the program creates an animation key whenever you transform an object or change a parameter. To animate a value over a range of frames, specify the value at the first and last frames of the range. The program calculates the values for all of the frames in-between.

See Animation Concepts and Methods.

You edit your animation by opening the Track View window or by changing options on the Motion panel. Track View is like a spreadsheet that displays animation keys along a time line. You edit the animation by changing the keys. Track View has two modes. You can display the animation as a series of function curves that graphically show how a value changes over time in the Curve Editor mode. You can display your animation as a sequence of keys or ranges on a grid in the Dope Sheet mode.

See Track View.