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Create an animation
Think about your animation like a series of still images, projected one by one, at 60 frame per second speed. To animate an object you would just assign to the object a different position for each frame.
For example at the frame 1 the object is at the X coordinate 10, then at the frame 2 it is at the X coordinate 20, at the frame 3 it is at the X coordinate 30, and so forth. When you play the animation you will see your object moving along the X axis from the point 10 to the point 30.
This could be quickly done when the frames are so few, but it becomes long and boring for e.g. 1000 frames. Moreover, it comes so evident that at the frame 9 the object will be at the X coordinate 90. So the computer can save your time creating all the frames in between the first frame and the last frame. Thus all you need is to define the position of the object at the first frame, and the position of the object at the last frame. These 2 frames are called key frames. Basically, and in simple words, you will create a new key frame whenever your object change its motion direction and speed. We will see later how to define a rounded path with more accuracy later in this chapter.

Let's start from scratch and create a new Kinemac file with the command File:New.

• Go to the Sprite window and move the time marker to the time point zero.
• Create a new cube calling the menu item Object:3D:Cube. Now you will see a white square in the Stage window (it's the cube not yet rotated) and a sprite labeled "Cube" (the orange rectangle here below) in the Sprite window. The sprite starts at the time point zero and it's 800 ticks long (duration - 60 ticks correspond to 1 second of animation). To know more about the Sprites please consult the Sprites window page.




Even if you now play the animation, the cube will not move because it has not key frames. So now we will create the key frames describing the animation of the cube. For example let's say that in your animation your cube moves from:
the top left to the top right, then to the bottom right, then to the bottom left, then to the top left corner.
 

So you have to define 5 key frame points, one for each main position your cube will have during the animation.
Kinemac will automatically interpolate and create the animation between these 5 points (called "key frames").


• Define the key frame 1
You have to create the first key frame at the beginning of the sprite (in our case it's at the zero time point) and define the x, y, and z positions and the the x, y and z rotations.

• Move the time marker to the time point 0 (zero), as shown in the picture aside.
• Go to the Inspector panel and click on the key frame button  "Position".
• Click on the key frame button "Rotation" too (see picture below).


After the click on the "Position" and "Rotation" buttons, you will see, that the gray icons  in the Inspector panel will turn to the "on" state  (orange). This means that at the time point zero the sprite "Cube" has 6 key frames (3 positions and 3 rotations). On the ruler view of the Sprite window you will see a key frame icon  at the zero time point, as shown in the picture aside. Anyway, the Sprite window tells you that the selected sprite has "some" key frame (at least one) on a given time point, but it doesn't tell you which parameters have a key frame (e.g. it could be the rotation Y or the position Z or both). To know which parameters have a key frame at a given time point you have to look at the Inspector panel. Every time you move the time marker in the Sprite window, the Inspector panel will tell you whether a that time point the selected object has a key frame  on a given parameter or not  .


After you created the 6 key frames, you have to define the position and the rotation of the cube for the key frames just created. In the Stage window, click on the cube and drag it to the top-left corner. Then drag the cube holding down the Control key in order to rotate it. You have just defined the positions and rotations of the cube at the first key frame. You can even enter the value of the 6 parameters in the Inspector fields. Now we have to define the other key frames.

• Define the key frame 2
• Move the time marker to the time point 200.
• Repeat the tasks described above: go to the Inspector panel and click on the key frame button "Position", then click on the key frame button "Rotation". Then in the Stage window, click on the cube and drag it to the top-right corner. Then drag the cube holding down the Control key in order to rotate it.


• Define the key frame 3
• Move the time marker to the time point 400.
• Repeat the tasks described above: go to the Inspector panel and click on the key frame button "Position", then click on the key frame button "Rotation". Then in the Stage window, click on the cube and drag it to the bottom-right corner. Then drag the cube holding down the Control key in order to rotate it.


• Define the key frame 4
• Move the time marker to the time point 600.
• Repeat the tasks described above: go to the Inspector panel and click on the key frame button "Position", then click on the key frame button "Rotation". Then in the Stage window, click on the cube and drag it to the bottom-left corner. Then drag the cube holding down the Control key in order to rotate it.



• Define the key frame 5
• Move the time marker to the time point 800.
• Repeat the tasks described above: go to the Inspector panel and click on the key frame button "Position", then click on the key frame button "Rotation". Then in the Stage window, click on the cube and drag it to the top-left corner. Then drag the cube holding down the Control key in order to rotate it.





• Play the animation
Now you will see 5 key frame points on the ruler view of the Sprite window (when the sprite cube is selected).
You can now press the space-bar key to play/stop the animation or call the item menu "Animation:Play". You can also press "Command *" to play the animation in a full screen. Press again "Command *" or Escape to return to the small Stage window.




• Modify the animation
You can modify the animation changing the positions and rotations of the cube on a given key frame. Firstly you have to move the time marker to that key frame point, then on the Stage window move and rotate your object to the new position. You can also vary the positions and rotations of the cube changing the values of the fields in the Inspector panel.

Please note that you have to BE SURE that the time marker is really placed on a key frame point when you modify the positions and the rotations of the cube on that key frame point. Instead of manually placing the time marker on a key frame point, we always suggest to "jump" from a key frame point to the next key frame point pressing the key TAB. Press SHIFT-TAB to go to the previous key frame point. If you modify the position or the rotation of the cube when the time marker is not on a key frame point you will be modifying its position and rotation along the whole duration of the sprite. This could be useful if you have e.g. a static text placed on the top of the Stage and you decide to move the text box to the bottom of the Stage for the whole duration of the sprite.


• Change the time point of a key frame
You can vary the time point of a key frame dragging the key frame icon  to the left or to the right side in the ruler view of the Sprite window. This way you will modify the animation of that sprite. For example, if you move a key frame from the point 110 to the point 60, you move the positions and rotations associated to that key frame to the time point 60. Therefore the animation between the point zero and the point 60 will run faster.



• Remove a key frame
When you see an orange key frame icon  in the Inspector panel (that key frame exists at that time point), you can click on it holding down the Option key to remove that key frame. Hold down the Option and Command keys to remove all the keyframes of that parameter from the sprite. Hold down Control, Option and Command keys to remove all the keyframes of all the parameters from the sprite.


In the Sprite window instead, you can remove "all" the key frames from a given time point simply dragging the key frame icon  out of the ruler view holding down the Command key.















• What's behind the Key Frames
We suggest to open the Bezier window (double click on the sprite "Cube") and see what happens when you modify the positions and the rotation of the cube. Try these tasks when the Bezier window is open:

  • Set the time marker to the time point 100 (on the key frame), then on the Stage window, translate and rotate the cube. You will see in the Bezier Window that the key frame points of each curve will move up and down, changing the value of the positions and rotation of the cube in that time point.
  • Set the time marker to the time point 250 (where there is not any keyframe), then on the Stage window, translate the cube. You will see in the Bezier window that the whole curves describing the translations (red, green and blue) will translate up and down, changing the value of the positions of the cube along the whole duration of the sprite cube.
  • In the Sprite window or in the Bezier window, drag horizontally a key frame icon in the ruler view (e.g. the 2nd keyframe at the time point 100).

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