Timeline

Where an animation is made: what changes, and when.

The bottom of the window, in Animate mode. If Animation States are open instead, the Animation States graph takes this space.

What it does

A timeline is a list of tracks — one per property you have keyed — and the keys on them. Between two keys, the editor works out the values in between; how it gets from one to the other is the interpolation.

Along the top is the transport: play, loop, ghosts, auto-key, the work area, and the Key button.

Your first key

1. Switch to Animate (Tab).
2. Put the playhead where the movement should start.
3. Move something on the stage. With auto-key on — the red dot in the transport, on by default — a key lands at the playhead.
4. Move the playhead on, and move the object again. That is an animation.

With auto-key off, nothing is recorded by moving things: you key deliberately, with the diamonds in the inspector or the diamond on a track row. The transport says which way you are working:

Auto-key on: moving, turning or recolouring something writes a key at the playhead. Click to turn off.

Auto-key off: a property with no keys changes the setup (start it with its diamond in the inspector); one that already has keys still keys at the playhead. Click to turn on.

Which one to use. Auto-key is quicker and is how most animation is built. Turn it off when you are adjusting how a graphic starts — its setup — rather than how it moves, because with it on, every nudge is recorded. A property that already has keys keys either way: drag, type or scrub it at the playhead and a key is added or updated there, and scrubbing afterwards shows the new key on every frame.

Reading the tracks

Rows come in three levels: the object, a group of its properties (Position, Scale, Rotation, Fill, Text…), and the channel itself, with its current value and a diamond.

• The diamond on a channel row is filled when there is a key at the playhead. Clicking it adds a key, or removes the one that is there.
• Folding an object keeps its keys visible, gathered on the object's own row.
• Clicking an object's name selects all of its keys; clicking it twice brings the view to them.

An empty timeline tells you how to start rather than showing you nothing.

The rest of the timeline

Page	What it covers
Transport and playback	Play, loop, ghosts, auto-key, the Key button, shift and stagger
Timeline settings	Duration, frame rate, speed, quantize, what the readout shows
Tracks and keys	Selecting, moving, copying and retiming keys
Interpolation	Hold, linear, cubic, elastic, and the curve
Graph editor	The same keys as curves of value over time
Work area	Playing and exporting part of a timeline

See also

• Timelines · Animation States
• Animations panel