Animating an Effect
In some cases, you may want to have the intensity, color, or another parameter of an effect animated. For example, you may want an object to fade in or out, which would require making its transparency level animated so that it increases or decreases as your scene goes. You can animate an effect's parameters by creating a function curve for its parameter. You can then add keyframes to the function and set them to different values, hence making your effect's parameter change value as your scene plays out. To do this, you will need to use the Layer Properties view.
- Add an effect node to the Node view by doing one of the following:
- Right-click in the Node view and select Insert > desired effect.
- Drag a node from the Node Library view to the Node view.
- Connect the effect between the drawing element on which you want to apply the effect and a composite node. You can do this by manually unplugging your existing connections and creating the right connections, or you can simply hold Alt as you drag your effect node over the connection between the drawing and the composite to automatically insert it in the connection.
The effect also appears in the Timeline view.
- Create the function curve by doing one of the following:
- Double-click on the effect layer to display the effect properties. Click the Function button of the parameter you want to animate and create a function curve.
- In the Timeline view, expand the effect layer's parameters by clicking the Collapse/Expand button. Then click the Function button of the parameter you want to animate and create a function curve.
- In the Timeline view, go to the frame on which you want to start animating the effect.
- In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add Keyframe button.
- In the Value field of the parameter you want to animate, enter the keyframe value. If your keyframes are stop-motion keyframes, in the Timeline view, select the new keyframes. Right-click and select Set Motion Keyframe.
- Repeat these steps until your effect's animation is complete.