Editing animation clips

Animation clips contain animation data objects and are used for editing animations. Animation clips can share animation data. Use animation child clips to create hierarchical animations and use the animation clip itself to target a specific object. Make the animation clips to target a hierarchy of children of the targeted object.

To edit an animation clip or animation data items, in the Library > Animations > Animation Clips double-click the animation clip or animation data item you want to edit. Animation Clip Editor opens.

Animation clip editor toolbar

Tool	Description	Shortcut key
	Pan the animation canvas by clicking and dragging the canvas. You can zoom using the mouse wheel or by pressing the middle mouse button. To zoom either x or y axis, click and drag the right mouse button.	S Right mouse button
	Select and move the animation channels and keyframes. You can select multiple timeline entries. Selected items are grey shown in the Properties.	V
	Scale more than one selected keyframe: Left mouse button scales the selected keyframes along x and y axes. Right mouse button scales the selected keyframes along the x axis. Middle mouse button scales the selected keyframes along the y axis.	X
	Add keyframes after selecting at least one animation channel.	I
	Linear interpolation creates a linear transition between keyframe values. See Changing the interpolation mode between keyframes.	N/A
	Step interpolation keeps the value of the current keyframe right until the next keyframe when its value is instantly taken into use. See Changing the interpolation mode between keyframes.	N/A
	Bezier interpolation interpolates the values between keyframes using the Bezier polynomial. See Changing the interpolation mode between keyframes.	N/A
	Toggle snap for animation canvas. When snapping is on, the cursor moves only to the points on the grid you can configure in Edit > User Preferences > Animation Editing tab. Snapping grid is different from the grid in the animation canvas.	N/A
	Scale the animation canvas so that all keyframes are visible.	N/A
	Set the animation clip start time and end times to the first and last keyframes in the animation clip editor.	N/A

Copying and pasting animation items

When copying an item, the default paste performs a deep copy: all the items under the copied item are duplicated.

Items in Animations and Composers can have the same children under many parents. To copy these items you can use:

Paste as Instance. Use Paste as Instance when you want to create just a link to the item you want to copy. For example, if you have an animation clip with Jumpy animation, when you copy the Jumpy animation to another animation clip, Paste as Instance creates just the link to Jumpy animation.
To paste an item as instance, right-click the item and select Paste as Instance.
Paste Item and Instance Children. Use Paste Item and Instance Children when you want to create a new copy of the root item and only links to its children. For example, if you have a Hippie animation clip with animation, when you copy the Hippie animation clip, Paste Item and Instance Children creates a new animation clip and only links to the animation. When you change Hippie animation clip, the changes do not affect the new animation clip, because Hippie animation clip and the new animation clip are two different items. However, if you change the animation under Hippie animation clip, the changes affect the animation under the new animation clip, because they are instances of the same item.
To paste an item and create instances for its children, right-click the item and select Paste Item and Instance Children.

Removing animation items from their parents

When you want to remove an item from one parent (for example, Animation Data from an Animation Clip, or a Render Pass from a Composer), but want to keep it under the other parents, right-click the item you want to remove and select Remove from Parent.
Kanzi Studio removes the reference, but preserves the item in question in its library.

Keyframe output values

The output value of a keyframe is usually a constant. However, you can make keyframes dynamic, so that the value is determined at runtime using the Keyframe Value Source setting in the animation clip editor.

The available options for keyframe value sources are:

Timeline: The value is constant that is specified in animation timeline.
Currently Animated Object: The value is fetched from the animated property just before the animation starts playing. For example, you can use this to animate an object from its current to another location.
Project Item: The value is fetched from a specified project item from the corresponding property that is animated just before the animation starts playing. For example, you can use this to animate an object from the location of another object node that is dynamically moved at runtime.

Using the animation recording mode

In the animation recording mode, all the background timeline sequences of the scenes are replaced with a temporary animation recording sequence, which contains only the clip open in the animation clip editor. This makes possible to preview the animation in the Preview so that the timeline of the animation clip corresponds to the timeline of the Preview. You can activate the animation recording mode only when the Preview is running.

When animation recording mode is active, you can edit the animations using the Properties. In this mode, the values in the Properties correspond to the animation keyframe values, not to the base property value.

To enter the animation recording mode, click the Record Active button. When in the animation recording mode, a keyframe button appears next to each property you can animate: