Timeline

The timeline is perhaps the most important part of any animation software. In this chapter we'll go over how it works so that you can begin building your next short film with ease.

The timeline rests at the bottom of the screen and is organized into layers. Each layer contains a collection of frames, which are shown as rectangular thumbnails.

You can create a new layer by clicking the "+" button in the top-left corner of the timeline, and specify the type of layer you want to create.

All frames on a given layer can only contain content specific to that layer type. For example, a vector layer can only hold vector-based content, and a text layer can only hold text properties.

Keyframes

As stated before, each layer contains a collection of frames. You can create new frames by clicking the "+" button in the top right of the timeline. Adding a frame will place it at the current playhead position. If there is already a frame at the current playhead, Animate will shift all frames after it forward by 1 and add the frame after the current one.

Note: Some layer types will not clear the canvas when creating a new frame. These layer types include Image, Text, Vector, and Symbol.

This is done with the assumption that when working with these layer types, the artist will want to pick up where they left off in the last frame rather than recreate from scratch.

By using a right-click on desktop and holding down the frame on iPad, you will open the keyframe properties panel. This is where you can access settings for frame opacity, exposure, deletion, tween, and cycles. In addition, these frame properties will change based on the type of frame that is selected.

Next to the add frame button you will also find the Multi-frame select button, which allows you to select multiple frames from any layer at the same time. This is useful for when you want to do things like extending the exposure of multiple frames at once, or moving frames around to different parts of the timeline.

Tweens

Animate supports a very important concept in the world of animation called "tweening." You can use the keyframe properties to toggle a tween on and off, as well as to select the easing function for the motion.

Most layer properties are capable of being tweened. For example, you can use the transform tool to show a motion path from the start of the keyframe to the end.

To change the beginning value of the tween, move the playhead to the start of the keyframe. To change the ending value, simply place the playhead anywhere after the thumbnail, but before the next keyframe.

Cycles

A unique feature of Animate is called Cycles, which allows certain frames to act as a marker to replay the frames behind it any given number of times. For example, if you have content that loops, you only need to animate it once. Then, you can create a new frame after that and toggle the Cycle option.

By specifying the number of "lookback" frames as well as setting the exposure of the cycle frame, the timeline will automatically look back at the previous frames instead of you needing to draw it over and over again. This makes animated looping content much easier and more memory efficient.