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Animation Library Workshop

The Animation Library workshop lets you create simple animations quickly, using a library of pre-defined, generic animations.

Animations you create in the Animation Library are captured on the timeline.

To display this workshop, click Workshops > Publishing > Animation Library > .

Select an actor, then the animation to apply to it, and then click Create.

This page discusses:

See Also
About the Animation Library
Creating Pre-defined Animations

Templates

This area lets you specify which animation template to use for the selected actor or actors.

Command Name Description
Group Specifies the group of animation templates in which to select an animation. Pre-defined groups are Highlight and Motion. If some custom groups of animation templates are available in your animation library (on your Composer user profile), they are listed here. See Custom Animations.
Animation Specifies the animation to use (from the selected group of animation templates). For pre-defined groups, available animations are:
  • For the Highlight group: Enhance, Focus, Validated, Warning.
  • For the Motion group: Install, Remove, Roll, Screw, Unscrew, Untighten.
CreateCreates the animation for the selected actors. Make sure that you have edited the animation properties, if required, before clicking this button.
Update MotionUpdates the properties of a single animation block currently selected in the timeline.
Update SelectionUpdates the properties of a single animation block currently selected in the timeline. Use this command to add actors to, delete actors from, or replace actors in the step/pre-defined motion.

Properties

For each motion of the animation, you can define camera properties, and customize motion properties.

Camera Properties

You can create camera keys in animation blocks, at the start and end of the step. This is helpful to define the behavior of the camera throughout the step.

Notes:
  • You can update the camera properties of an existing animation block that has no camera keys, after selecting the corresponding step on the timeline.
  • Camera properties can be only be applied to a single animation block at once. These options are disabled when several steps are selected in the timeline.

Camera Centering ModeDescription
Auto CenteringInserts camera keys at the start and at the end of the step. Throughout the step, the camera remains centered according to the actors involved in the step, zooming in or out to take into account the entire motion. This ensures that the entire motion remains visible at all times throughout the step.

If you later modify the step in such a way that it has an impact on the camera, the camera keys will be updated accordingly.

Note: This mode only influences the zoom factor. The camera orientation does not change.
Manual CenteringInserts camera keys at the start and at the end of the step, based on the orientation and zoom factor of the camera on the viewport. Throughout the step, you are free to change this orientation and zoom factor.
None (No Centering)No camera keys are created.
Note: If you select this mode for a step with existing camera keys, they are removed.

Motion Properties

An animation is composed of different motions. This area lets you customize the properties of each motion of the selected animation. All motion properties have a start time, an end-time, and other parameters.

Note: The properties listed below are all existing properties. All motions have different properties, and therefore, the available properties depend on the animation you selected.

Motion Property Category Parameters (other than Start Time and End Time)
DisplayImage: Displays an image in the viewport, at a specified location.
  • Top: Distance of image from the top of the viewport
  • Left: Distance of image from the left of the viewport
  • Size: Image size (with locked aspect ratio)
  • Picture: Image path
DisplayText: Displays a text panel in the viewport, at a specified location.
  • Top: Distance of image from the top of the viewport
  • Left: Distance of image from the left of the viewport
  • Text: Text to display
  • Font Size: Size of the font to use for the text
  • Font Family: Family of the font to use for the text
  • Font Color: Color of the font to use for the text
  • Background Color: Color to use in the text background
Flash: Highlights selected actors.
  • Color: Color to use when flashing (can be set to Undefined)
  • Intensity: Intensity of the emission
  • Repetition: Number of times to flash
Rotate: Rotates selected actors.
  • Axis (X, Y, Z): Rotation axis. Instead of entering the values, you can click Pick to select the position in the viewport. You can use Alt to pick the center of an axis, and Shift to revert the picked axis.
  • Angle: Rotation angle
Scale: Re-scales selected actors from the pivot origin.
  • Scale Ratio: Scale ratio of selected actor
  • Repetition: Number of times to apply scale ratio to selected actor
Notes:

- The pivot definition must not be animated in the time. Define the pivot of the object at time 0, before the step.

- The step can be applied on a selection of actors. The selected actors must not have any parenting relation (otherwise, if a child actor and its parent actor are both animated by a Scale or Translate motion, the child actor will move twice, once throught its parent's motion, once through its own motion).

SetColor: Changes the color of the selected actors.
  • Color: Color of selected actor during animation (can be set to Undefined)
SetTransparency: Changes the opacity of the selected actors.
  • Transparency: Opacity of selected actor during animation
Transform: Moves the selected actors freely.
  • Position (X, Y, Z): Final position of selected actor. Instead of entering the values, you can click Pick to select the position in the viewport. You can use Alt to pick the center of an axis, and Shift to revert the picked axis.
Translate: Translates the selected actors.
  • Axis (X, Y, Z): Translation axis, that is the normalized vector along which the translation is applied.

    Click Pick Axis to select the axis in the 3D.

    Click Pick Point to select a point in the 3D. This calculates a vector in the world coordinate system, between this point and the origin of the pivot of the selected actor or actors.

    Notes:

    - If several actors are selected, and if all actors have the same origin, then the common pivot origin is used. Otherwise, the center of the bounding box is used.

    - The pivot definition must not be animated in the time. Define the pivot of the object at time 0, before the step.

    - The step can be applied on a selection of actors. The selected actors must not have any parenting relation (otherwise, if a child actor and its parent actor are both animated by a Scale or Translate motion, the child actor will move twice, once throught its parent's motion, once through its own motion).

  • Distance: Translation distance

Overview

Provides a graphical overview of the chronology of motions in the animation, and of the global duration of the animation.



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