Animation overview

Modified on Tue, 16 Jan at 4:13 PM

Timeline

The timeline shows the keyframes of the selected objects, the current time (position of the red indicator), and the start and end frames of the animation range. 


The default ruler line interval is seconds, but different ruler line intervals are supported. Use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out of the timeline and display the desired ruler line intervals. The smallest interval on the timeline is one frame.


Timeline indicator

The red timeline indicator shows the current frame and time on the animation timeline. The current time code of the indicator (in the format hh:mm:ss:ff) is shown in the animation window's upper right corner. 


You can drag the timeline indicator to move forward and backward in your animation.

Left-click & dragMoves the indicator to a new timestamp on the timeline 
SHIFT + left-click & dragSnaps the indicator to ruler lines, keyframes, or range limits. 
Double-click the triangle of a keyframeMoves the indicator to the keyframe and selects the keyframe 


Use playback buttons for stepping through your animation.

Moves the indicator to the start of the range
Moves the indicator to the previous keyframe
Moves the indicator to the previous frame (Shortcut: Left arrow)
Starts animation playback from the current position of the indicator (Shortcut: Spacebar)
Pauses the animation playback (Shortcut: Spacebar)
Moves the indicator to the next frame (Shortcut: Right arrow) 
Moves the indicator to the next keyframe 
Moves the indicator to the end of the range 


Range

The bright green timeline range lets you control the range of your animation that will be rendered as a video or previewed in playback mode.


Left-click & drag the handles to the desired start and end frames to define the animation range. SHIFT + left-click & drag to snap to the ruler lines, keyframes, and indicator. 


The time codes of the start and end of the timeline range are indicated on either side of the playback buttons.


Keyframes

The timeline shows the keyframes of all selected objects. A keyframe is displayed as a vertical line with a triangle on top.


The user inserts keyframes to specify an object's transformation at certain times. NUBIGON automatically creates a motion path connecting these keyframes into a smooth animation. Each increment between keyframes is called a frame. 

Basic keyframe operations:

IInserts keyframe at the current indicator position
KOpens a menu for setting keyframe interpolation and easing modes
Left-click (on a keyframe's triangle)
Clears the current selection & selects the keyframe
CTRL + left-click
Toggles keyframe's selection state, allowing multiple selections
Left-click on a space in the timeline Clears the keyframe selection
CTRL + ASelects all keyframes
Left-click and dragMoves selected keyframes
SHIFT + left-click and dragMoves selected keyframes while snapping to ruler lines, indicator, and range limits
DELETEDeletes selected keyframes


Copy & paste keyframes: Select the keyframes you want to copy and press CTRL + C. Then, move the timeline indicator to the frame where you want the keyframes to appear and press CTRL + V. 


Keyframes cannot be copied from one object to another in NUBIGON.


Menus & Buttons


Press Animate > Insert keyframe to insert a new keyframe at the indicator position. If there is already a keyframe at the indicator, then the keyframe will be updated.


Animate > Set keyframe interpolation lets you choose between different interpolation and easing modes for the selected keyframes.


From Animate > Select keyframes, you can also select all, none, right of selected, and left of selected keyframes. 


The playback speed can be set to No sync or Real-time. No sync plays every frame. The default Real-time playback keeps up with real-time by skipping frames.


Select the desired FPS setting from the dropdown menu. The options are 24, 30, and 60 FPS.


The Motion Path dropdown lets you configure the visibility of motion paths.


Once you finish creating your animation, press Export to open the Render Video window.