While behaviors and parameter behaviors permit a tremendous amount of control over animation in Motion, at times an object’s parameters can be more precisely animated using keyframes. Whether changing an object’s color or animating a filter or light, keyframes can create very specific animations quickly and easily, with additional control provided by the Motion Keyframe Editor.
When a project requires only a few keyframes, it may be easiest to create them manually from the Animation menu. This process also uses the playhead and the Inspector.
The Animation menu’s icon indicates the keyframed status of a parameter.
Option-click the Animation menu to create a keyframe at the playhead position without opening the pop-up menu.
The Record Animation feature allows for keyframes to be recorded automatically when making changes to a project—in other words, a hybrid version of manual and automatic keyframing. Although this can make animating extremely fast, knowing how to use the feature will prevent a lot of unwanted keyframes in your projects.
• If you want to advance manually, cue the playhead and then adjust an object’s parameters in the Canvas, Inspector, HUD, Timeline, or Keyframe Editor. Cue the playhead to the next frame that needs keyframes, and then adjust the parameters. Keyframes are recorded for each change.
• Alternatively, you could start playback and then adjust an object’s parameters in the Canvas, Inspector, Timeline, or Keyframe Editor during playback. Keyframes are recorded for each change.
The Keyframe Editor acts as command central when applying and working with keyframes in Motion. It allows precise control over animation curves.
To keyframe a parameter:
In addition to editing single keyframes with the Edit tool, you can edit multiple keyframes using the Box tool.
To modify a single keyframe, you can drag the keyframe vertically or double-click the keyframe and type a parameter value.
Interpolation determines the transition that occurs between and through keyframes, and it creates the “feel” of animated parameters. For example, if the interpolation for a keyframe is set to Ease Out, the animation will begin more slowly as it comes out of a keyframe, whereas an Ease In interpolation will make an animation end more slowly going into a keyframe.
To change interpolation, Control-click (or right-click) a keyframe and choose an interpolation from the shortcut menu. Here are some examples of interpolation options:
Curve snapshots maintain a record of original animation curves when you change keyframe positions in the curve graph. By taking a curve snapshot, you not only preserve a reference to the original curve, but you also enable the ability to restore that curve.
Exiting the Keyframe Editor or changing to another set of curves will dispose of the previous snapshot.
Extrapolation determines the animation that occurs before the first keyframe and after the last keyframe of a parameter—as opposed to interpolation, which determines behavior between the keyframes.
Extrapolation can be especially useful to loop (repeat), extend, or ping-pong the animation in a project.
Motion creates the additional keyframes.
Motion’s mini-curve editors are scaled-down versions of the Keyframe Editor. The mini-curve editors let you modify animation curves for certain parameters and appear for a few parameters when working with paint strokes and particle systems.
After creating keyframes, you may need to adjust their timings or even their parameters. In the Timeline, you can easily compare keyframes of multiple layers to adjust their relative timings.
• Hold down Shift to enable snapping.
• Control-click (or right-click) a keyframe, and from the shortcut menu, choose the value you want to change. Then enter a new value and press Return.
• You may also Control-click a keyframe and choose Delete Keyframes from the shortcut menu to remove the keyframe.
Sometimes you apply behaviors to an object that don’t offer the level of control you need over certain parameters. By converting those behaviors to keyframes, you can modify and edit the interpolation between keyframes and their curves.
Because this conversion may yield many more keyframes than you want to deal with, you may need to reduce the number of keyframes.
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