Animation Setup

The Animation Setup command brings up the Animation Setup dialog where you set up the time settings for your animation.

To set up the Animation:

1. Choose File > Animation Setup from the menu or press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N. The Animation Setup dialog will come up.
   
   There are three parts to this dialog. The top part indicates where the animation is right now, the middle part is where you define the length (duration) of the animation, and the bottom part is where you control the playback and how the time readout is to be displayed.
   
   
2. Set the animation time settings:

• Current - As mentioned above, this shows where the current animation is at in time and the current frame number. The triangle next to Current brings up a popup menu where you can set the working range of the animation, for example, if you only want to work on minutes 5 through 9 in the scene.
• Working Range Low - Select to set the start of the working range, set either the time or the frame number.
• Working Range High - Select to set the end of the working range, set either the time or the frame number.
  
  
• Frame # - Shows the frame number of the current frame.
• FPS (Frames per Second) - Sets the frames per second for the animation. Lower frame rates render faster but can produce a jerky animation while a higher frame rate will product a more smooth animation.
• Duration - Shows the current duration of the animation and allows you to add more time to extend the length of the animation by either entering the time in the fields or entering a number in the Frame # field.
• Frame # - Shows the total number of frames in the current animation.
• Scale - Select to switch the Duration fields from setting the total time of the animation to setting the scale instead.
• Extend or Clip - Select to switch the Duration fields back to setting the total time of the animation.
• Play - Provides options you can use to alter the preview of your animation.
• Once - plays the animation only once
• Repeat - plays the animation continuously
• Pendulum - plays the animation forwards then backwards, then forwards, continuously
• The Play Mode can also be set in the Timeline Options menu.
• Display - Select whether to display the animation in SMPTE Time or as a Frame Count.
• The Display Mode can also be set in the Timeline Options menu.

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