How to Animate Objects and the Camera

In Harmony, you can animate objects by drawing them on their individual layer, then positioning them at different locations on different keyframes across the timeline, creating a motion path. The same principle can be applied to the scene's camera, since it is a layer itself.

Animating a Layer

You can create a motion path directly on layers (animated layers).

You can control and define a trajectory using several different parameters, including:

  • X, Y and Z positions (3D Path or Separate Positions)
  • Angle (rotation)
  • Skew
  • X and Y Scales

Harmony keeps track of the animation by storing each parameter of each layer in their own function curve. When you add a keyframe to a layer, a keyframe is created on each of these functions, and transformations done on a layer via the Camera view are translated into coordinates which are then stored in those functions. It is possible to edit these functions individually using the Function view, but that is rarely necessary, as Harmony provides easy-to-use tools for visually controlling trajectories and timing in the Camera and Timeline views.

Animating the Camera

A scene's camera can be manipulated and animated just like any other layer. It is listed in the Timeline view and you can use the same tools and selection modes to offset or animate it. However, the camera layer itself is static, which means it keeps the same position and angle throughout the whole scene. In order to be able to animate the camera, you need to connect it to a peg layer, which can be animated, and which will directly affect the position and angle of the camera.

You can animate your camera movements directly in the Camera view. Alternatively, you can use the Side or Top views, which can be especially useful when animating a camera in a multiplane scene, where each layer is positioned at a different distance from the camera.