The Simple timeline

The Simple timeline shows your animation as a row of cards, one per frame, like Pivot. After this page you can add frames, make a frame last longer, make the move between frames smooth, and copy, paste and delete frames.

Frames, cards and inbetweens

To open it, click Simple at the left of the timeline header (new projects start in Advanced). You then see the frame bar on the left and the cards on the right.

• A card shows the whole stage at the start of a frame, with its number underneath. The current card has a blue outline.
• The bar under a card shows how long that frame lasts. A longer bar is a longer frame.
• Inbetweens are the extra video frames a card lasts. 0 inbetweens is one video frame; 9 inbetweens is ten. At 24 frames per second, 9 inbetweens is 0.42 seconds.
• The frame bar says where you are and how long it lasts, for example Frame 2 of 5 · holds 0.42 s, and the length of the whole animation (2.0 s in all).

A new project is ten frames long: one card that holds for 9 inbetweens.

Try it

This is the app’s Simple timeline with a new project. The tasks follow the steps on this page.

Add a frame

1. Click the card you want to continue from. It gets a blue outline.
2. Press A, or click + Add frame in the timeline header. A copy of that frame appears right after it, and it becomes the current card.
3. Pose the figures on the stage. The new card changes; the one before keeps its pose.

Look at the bars after you add a frame: the new frame takes over the old frame’s length, and the frame you copied drops to 0 inbetweens. In a new project, frame 1 had 9 inbetweens; after A, frame 1 has 0 and frame 2 has 9. The animation is one frame longer.

Make a frame last longer

1. Select the card. To change several, click the first and Shift-click the last.
2. Drag the end of the bar under the card: right for longer, left for shorter. It changes in whole inbetweens, and the card shows the number while you drag (for example 2 · 5 inbetweens). Press Esc before letting go to cancel.
3. Or use Inbetweens in the frame bar: − and + change every selected card by one; typing a number sets them all to it. Shift+A adds one to each selected card.

Every frame after it moves along, so the animation gets longer or shorter. A card can hold from 0 to 65,534 inbetweens.

Make the move smooth

With Constant easing (the default), a frame holds its pose for all its inbetweens, then snaps to the next card. That’s the classic stick-animation look. Any other easing uses the inbetweens to move toward the next card instead.

1. Select the card where the move starts (the move goes from this card to the next).
2. Choose a mode in Easing in the frame bar, or double-click the card to open the easing popover. Auto is a good start.
3. Play with Space. The frame now glides into the next one.

The easing popover can also shape a custom Bezier curve; drag its handles and click Apply. When the selected cards use different modes, the frame bar says Mixed. See Easing for what each mode does.

Select, copy, paste and delete frames

Copy takes the whole scene of the selected frames, with their inbetweens and easing. Paste inserts them at the selected card and pushes the later frames along. Delete removes the frames and their time. Right-click a card for the same commands and Change easing….

Frames you copy can be pasted into another project too.

Edit several frames together

1. Select two or more cards (click one, Shift-click another).
2. Turn on Edit together in the frame bar. It stays grey until two cards are selected.
3. Make the change on the stage, for example drag Blue’s orange dot to move him. Every selected frame gets the same change.

Use it to move a whole action to another spot, or to fix the same arm in every frame of a hold. Selecting a single card again turns it off.

Layers in the Simple timeline

The Layer button at the bottom of the frame bar opens the Layers list: each layer with its colour, eye and lock, and New layer at the bottom. Click a layer to choose where new figures go. The eye hides a layer, the lock protects it.

Every edit in Simple (adding, timing, deleting frames) changes all layers together, Camera and Scene included. If one layer is locked, those edits stop and the app tells you; unlock it, or switch to the Advanced timeline to change just some layers. See Layers.

When to switch to Advanced

Click Advanced in the header at any time; nothing is lost. Switch when one character should wait while another moves: Simple can only change the whole scene at once, and Advanced gives each layer its own keys. A key on any layer also starts a new card in Simple, so a card can appear where only one character changes.

Questions

Next