User Guide > Animation Paths > Animating a Layer

Animating a Layer

This section describes the basics of animating a layer.

Animate Pro’s wide range of features let you produce accurate trajectories. However, before doing this, you must learn the basics of animating a layer by creating a simple motion, and practice everything you learn in this lesson.

In this topic, you will find out about the two key elements in creating a motion:

Animate Mode
Animating a Layer
Enabling Playback

When you enable this mode when you animate layers, Animate Pro will apply a transformation to the current frame. Otherwise, a transformation is applied on the entire layer instead of only the current frame.

To enable the Animate Mode:

1. In the Tools toolbar, click the Animate Mode button.

Follow these steps to perform a basic layer animation.

To animate a layer:

1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform tool or press [Shift] + [T].
2. In the Transform Tool Properties view, make sure that the Peg Selection Mode is deselected.
3. In the Tools toolbar, click the Animate Mode button.
4. In the Timeline view, go to the first frame.

5. In the Camera view, select the element to animate and move it to its first position.

6. In the Timeline view, go to the frame on which you want to set the second position.

Refer to Displaying a Path in the Camera View to learn how to display the trajectory.
7. Play back your animation.

To see your motion animations in the Top, Side or Perspective views while you play back, you must turn on the Playback option.

To enable the Playback option:

From the top menu, select Play > Enable Playback > Top View, or Side View or Perspective View.

Related Topics 

Motion and Stop-motion Keyframes