Timeline Options

The timeline settings dialog is placed at the bottom right under the view window. It contains controls that allow you to set when and how animations will appears in your scene.

The following Playback modes are available:

Continuous - The default value that turns off all other time options. In this mode, animation will play continuously without pauses.

Random - In this mode, animation will randomly start/stop. The pause and exposure time can be set in the control below.

Manual - This mode allows you to set exact time intervals on the time scale that is available on the right side.

Now we will describe each mode in detail.

Continuous Mode

This is the simplest mode designed for background animations that should play without stopping. For some animations, like stream brush, leaf fall, and butterflies, this is the only available mode.

Random Mode

This mode designed for objects that should be played in the scene from time to time, like lightning flashing in the sky, bird's tweets, or ghosts appearing and disappearing in the mystic forest. Turning this mode on makes the following controls available:

Pause, sec - Set the period of time when the animation will be stopped/invisible. Each time the program takes a random value within the defined interval.

Play, sec - Sets the period of time when the animation will be played/visible. Each time the program takes a random value within the defined interval.

Fade Parameter - Sets how animation disappears from the scene. Depending on the animation type, the following values may be available.

Intensity - smoothly remove the animation from the scene.
Translucency - smoothly change the animation translucency from maximum to zero.
Speed - smoothly change the animation speed from maximum to zero.

Fade In/Out, sec - Sets the transition period.

Using this mode is quite straightforward. Select an animation that should be played randomly, and set the Playback parameter to Random. Then set the animation duration and pause timing.

Here is an example of an animation created in this mode.

Download the sample project file.

Manual Mode

This is the most sophisticated mode, but also the most powerful mode. It requires you to choose the scene durations and set the exact play intervals. Using this mode you can create a chain of successive events or synchronize several animations.

To create an animation in this mode, first select the corresponding animation layer and set the Playback parameter to Manual, then set the Timeline Length parameter (which determines the length of the animation loop), and make sure that the Add button is selected.

On the right side, you have the time-scale control with a black running marker that shows the current time in the animation loop. Click the white bar to create a new animation interval:

The first yellow bar represents the fade in interval; the green bar represents the play interval; and the second yellow bar represents the fade out interval. You can drag the bars and bounds between them to set required timings.

Here is an example of an animation created in this mode.

Download the sample project file.