Creating Animations by Animating Actors Individually

You can create animations in which you animate actors individually.

Note: You can also use the pre-defined animations from the Animation Library. See Creating Pre-defined Animations.

Note: The timeline is active in Animation mode only. If you are in View mode, click Switch to Animation Mode in the upper-left corner of the viewport or click Animation on the Home ribbon tab. By default, the Timeline pane is docked at the bottom of the Composer window.

This task shows you how to:

Before you begin: Make sure you are in Animation mode.
See Also
About Scenarios
Animate Tab
Timeline Commands

Create a Simple Animation

This topic explains how to create a simple animation with position and color changes.

As an example, let's take the following scene, which shows two actors, a nut and a bolt.

  1. Drag the timebar to 10.0".
  2. Translate the nut along the green axis.
  3. If Auto-Keys is cleared, click Set Location Key to create the key.

    Note: When Auto-Keys is selected, keys are created automatically when you change actor properties and locations.

    The red dotted line represents the animation trajectory.



  4. To play the animation, click Play (Timeline toolbar).
  5. Go back to time 2.0" and set a color key for the nut by selecting Color in the Properties pane and then clicking Set Keys in the Timeline toolbar.
    This records the nut's gray color.



  6. Go to time 6.0", change the nut color to red, and create another property key.



    Note: You can set other actor properties, such as materials or events for example.
  7. Play your animation.
    The nut color and position animate at the same time.

Notes:
  • Animations do not record changes to actor visibility (Visibility commands, the h key, or toggling check boxes in the Assembly or Collaboration panes). These actions do not correspond to property changes. To hide or show actors in animations, while in Animation mode show all actors that participate in the animation (Show All or selectively show actors) and then set actor Opacity keys as needed.
  • A maximum of three cutting planes can participate in an animation.
  • Rendering modes are not animated. When inserting more than one view into the timeline, only the rendering mode of the last view is used.
  • After you finish an animation, it is strongly recommended that you clean unused keys.

Create a Path from a Line

This topic explains how to create a path from an existing line.

Let's take the following scene as an example.

  1. In animation mode, position the timebar at the desired time.
  2. Select one or more actors or the camera.
  3. Click Animate > Create Path from Line (Linear Speed) .
  4. Click a polyline or line detected on geometry.
    A path is created for the selected actors, as well as the corresponding keys on the Location track.



Create a Camera Key

This topic explains how to create a camera key.

  1. Click Animate > Create Camera Key .
  2. Optional: Create a grid to help you position the camera.
  3. Move the timebar to the desired time.
  4. Click this command.
  5. Click in the scene to place the camera and click again to select the target.
  6. In the Properties pane, change path properties as needed.
  7. Move the timebar and create additional keys, or press Esc when done.
  8. Edit the camera path as needed by dragging red path anchors ( ).