Editing Property Timelines

Each object in the Hierarchy List has a number of timelines associated with it. When you display an object's properties you can see the timelines associated with each object.

To display an object's property timelines:

• To display an individual object's property timelines, click the name of the object whose properties you want to display.
  
  
• To display all the property timelines of an object and its children, hold down Opt/Alt while you click on the name of the parent object.
• To display all property timelines in the Hierarchy List Area, select Expand All Timelines from the menu to the right of the Preview Area.
  
  

These timelines represent the various animatable properties for an object type. Different types of objects have different animatable properties.

For example, this is the listing for a sphere object. When the object's property timelines are displayed, you can see the key events recorded for each property. The white tick on a property timeline indicates that a key event has been recorded for the property.

The ruler at the top of the Sequencer lets you see the exact point in time when the key event was recorded.

You can tell exactly when an event was recorded by lining the key event marker up with the ruler at the top of the Sequencer area. In the example above, a position key event was recorded at time 00:00:00.06 (or 0 seconds and 6 frames).

By moving these key events you can control precisely when events occur. For example, this sequence represents an animation where a ball moves up and down four times, rotates as it makes its third jump, and shrinks when its done bouncing.

If you move the position key events closer together the bounces occur faster, but the timeline remains the same.

If you move the fourth position key event in front of the third event, you're changing the shape of the motion path, because the ball bounces up before it bounces down.

Position is not the only key event you can arrange. Here both the rotation and scale key events have been repositioned. Now, the ball grows larger as it bounces and it rotates only at the end of the animation.

It's a good idea to activate the continuous preview while editing the timeline, so you can quickly see the effects of your changes. Refer to "Previewing Animations" for more on previewing.

The amount of time available in the Sequencer area is not limited by the current Animation Range. If you position a key event past the current limit of your animation, the Animation Range is automatically extended.

To move a key event on a timeline:

1. Expand the listing you want to edit.
2. Click the white tick mark on the listing's timeline.
   
   
3. Drag the key event to a new position.
   
   

To move a group of key events:

1. Drag a marquee around all the key events you want to select or hold down Shift and click each of the key events you want to move. You can select key events on different timelines.
   
   
   
   The selected key events will be highlighted.
   
   
2. Drag one of the selected key events. All the other selected key events move also.
   
   

To delete a key event from a timeline:

1. Select the key event or group of events you want to delete.
   
   
2. Press Backspace (on some Macintosh keyboards, the backspace key may be labeled "Delete"). The key event is removed from the timeline.
   
   

To copy a key event on a timeline, hold down Cmd/Ctrl and drag a key event. The original remains in place, but the copy moves as you drag.

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