Start creating an animation by turning on the Auto Key button, setting a current time, and then changing something in your scene. You can change the position, rotation, or scale of an object, or change almost any setting or parameter.
When you make a change, a key storing the new value for the changed parameter is created at the current time. If that key was the first animation key created for the parameter, a second animation key is also created at time 0 to hold the parameter’s original value.
Keys are not created at time 0 until you create at least one key at another time. After that, you can move, delete, and re-create keys at time 0.
Turning Auto Key on has the following effect:
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The Auto Key button, the time slider and the border of the active viewport turn red to indicate you are in animation mode.
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Keys are created whenever you transform an object or change an animatable parameter.
Note: Autodesk VIZ supports animation of only a few parameters, depending on the object type.
For example, if you have a cylinder that has not been animated yet, it has no keys. If you turn on Auto Key, and at frame 20 you rotate the cylinder 90 degrees about its Y axis, rotation keys are created at frames 0 and 20. The key at frame 0 stores the original orientation of the cylinder, while the key at frame 20 stores the animated orientation of 90 degrees. When you play the animation, the cylinder rotates 90 degrees about its Y axis over 20 frames.
Just as you can animate at any time by turning Auto Key on, you can also model at any time in your animation without creating animation keys.
The results of changing an object or any other parameters with Auto Key off varies according to whether or not the object or parameters have been animated yet.
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If you create a new object, or change an object parameter that has not been animated yet, you can work at any time with Auto Key off. The changes you make are constant through the entire animation.
For example, you might animate an object bouncing around your scene and then decide to create pads for the object to land on. To do that, you drag the time slider to a time when the bouncing object hits the ground, and make sure Auto Key is off before you proceed. You can then create a pad under the bouncing object and repeat the process at the next time where it hits the ground. Because Auto Key was off, it does not matter at what time the pad objects were created. They remain inanimate through the entire animation.
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If you change an object or parameter that is already animated, while Auto Key is off, the amount of change is applied equally across all the animation keys.
Because some parameters in Autodesk VIZ can be animated and others can't, the easiest way to find out if something can be animated is just to try it. If the parameter can be animated, the key will appear in the track bar and the spinner will be marked with red. Autodesk VIZ supports parametric animation for doors and windows, lights and cameras, luminaires and the daylight system, as well as render effects and exposure control.
Sometimes you need to know in advance if you can animate a parameter. If so, you can use Track View. The Track View Hierarchy list displays every parameter that can be animated. See Track View and Animation Controllers.