Keyframe Animation
Ornatrix App animates Operator parameters and object transforms with keyframes, in the way 3ds Max does. A key fixes a value at a moment in time, and between keys the value is interpolated, so a few keys can make a curl tighten, a length grow or an object move over the timeline.
Keys belong to a Curve controller, one of the parameter controllers. It can drive any parameter that holds a number or an on/off switch.
Animated parameters
A parameter driven by a Curve controller stays editable, and is outlined so you can tell it is animated:
- An orange outline means the parameter is animated, but the current frame is not on one of its keys.
- A red outline, with a red tint behind the value, means there is a key at the current frame.
A key button in front of the control adds a key at the current frame holding the value shown. When the current frame is on a key, the same button deletes that key.
To animate a parameter by hand, without the Animate mode below, right-click it and pick Curve under Assign Controller, then go to each frame you want a key on, set the value, and click the key button.
The Animate mode
The Animate button at the right end of the timeline turns the Animate mode on and off; N does the same. The button is red while the mode is on.
In the Animate mode, changing a parameter sets a key at the current frame:
- If the parameter is not animated yet, it gets a Curve controller and a key at the current frame. When that frame is later than the start of the timeline, the value the parameter had before also stays in a key at the start, so the change animates the parameter rather than changing it everywhere.
- If there is already a key at the current frame, its value is updated.
- Otherwise a new key is added.
Editing outside the Animate mode
With the Animate mode off, changing an animated parameter does not create keys. It moves every key of the parameter by the amount of the change, which raises or lowers the whole animation while keeping its shape. The same goes for dragging the parameter's slider.
Animating objects
Moving, rotating and scaling an object animate in the same way. In the Animate mode, a change made with the transform gizmo, or typed into the Translation, Rotation and Scale fields of the Select Scene Geometry tool, gives the object an Xform controller which drives its transform. Each changed axis gets a Curve controller with a key at the current frame; axes you did not change are not animated. Outside the Animate mode, a change of an animated axis moves all of its keys, as it does for parameters.
The tool's Translation, Rotation and Scale rows show their animation like any parameter: the outline, and a key button that keys all three axes at once, or deletes their keys at the current frame. Right-clicking a row's name opens a menu with an X, Y and Z submenu, from which each axis can be given any controller. The Xform controller is created when an axis first needs one.
Keys on the timeline
The timeline marks every key of the groom with a red line. Click a line to go to that frame and select the controller holding the key, which also opens it in the Curve Editor Tool. Hover a line to see the controller's name and the key's time.
Interpolation
How the value changes from one key to the next is set on the first of the two keys:
- Step - holds the key's value until the next key.
- Linear - changes at a constant rate.
- Smooth - eases out of the key and into the next one.
- Spline - a smooth curve through the neighboring keys. New keys use Spline.
Before the first key and after the last one, the value holds the nearest key's value. A Curve controller without keys holds its own Value. Change the interpolation of a key in the Curve Editor Tool.
Related
- Curve Editor Tool - moving keys and changing their interpolation.
- Parameter Controllers - the other kinds of controllers.
- The Timeline and Playback
- Keyboard Shortcuts