Turning the Time Slider Display On and Off

Use the time slider to play back animation and view specific frames within an animation. You can also use it to change the frame range of animation playback, the frame rate, and to go to the next and previous frame or keyframe. If you are not working on animation, you should toggle it off to make your desktop less cluttered. Turning off time slider updates during playback (see Animation > Playback options > Optimization Options) may also improve playblast performance rate by up to 200%.

How to Use

Create an animation using any combination of the animation tools (for example, Anim > Set motion, or Animation > Set Keyframe, Auto keyframe, or Action window). Then select Animation > Tgl time slider to open the Time Slider bar.

Time Slider

The time slider provides a group of controls to let you easily play back an animation or view a specific frame within an animation.

The slider area represents the current animation range. You can specify a start and end frame for the current animation range using the Start/End options, or you can view the current range of all animation on all objects using the Min/Max options.

The individual controls are described below. Note that all frame times must lie in the range -160,000.00 to +160,000.00, inclusive.

Current Time Bar

The thick vertical bar represents the current time.

You can change the current time by clicking and dragging on this bar. Notice how the views of the model are updated dynamically as you move the bar.

Current Time Field

The first number to the right of the time bar indicates the current time. You can change the current frame by clicking on the number and typing a new frame time. The current time bar will be moved automatically to that time.

Current time is also displayed in the current application window, as well as the Action window.

Start/End, Min/Max

You can specify the range of animation the time slider should display by selecting the Start/End or Min/Max popup menu items to the left of the time slider.

This is useful if you have a long animation, and only want to view a segment of it.

If you select Start/End, the Start and End values are editable. You can change these values to alter the range of animation that will be viewed in a playback.

If you select Min/Max, the Min and Max values are the minimum and maximum values over which all current animation is defined.

Tips

• If any channels are animated by one or more timewarp curves, or if there are particles present, it may be difficult to determine the range of the animation in that channel. The Min/Max range for all animation may be smaller than expected. You can select the Start/End menu item and define your own range of animation to play back.

• The settings for Start/End (as well as the sync rate and by value) can be saved using Preferences > Save options, and restored using Preferences > Restore options.

• Using the right mouse button to move the current time bar will set the current frame, but it does not update the animation for that frame. This lets you modify an object, then set the frame, and then keyframe at the current time.

by

This field defines the time between frames. When you invoke a playback, or use the next frame or previous frame button, the by value determines how much to increment or decrement the current frame to reach the next or previous frame.

fps (Sync Rate)

This value specifies how many frames per second (fps or frame rate) should be displayed when playing back an animation. Frames are evenly spaced between the Max and Min values and by the current By value.

For example, if the range is 1 to 200, and the by value is 5, a sync rate of 24 fps attempts to display frames 1, 6, 11 to frame 116 in one second. If it cannot display all 24 of those frames in one second, it may skip some in order to reach frame 116 by the time one second has elapsed (for instance, if it can only manage to display three views in one second, it may show frames 36 and 71 and 116).

If set to 0, the animation plays back all frames as fast as it can.

Preview Buttons

first frame

Changes the current time to the Min time.

frame backward

Goes to the previous frame. The previous frame is the current frame less the by value.

keyframe backward

Goes to the previous keyframe. The previous keyframe is the first keyframe found for all active objects prior to the current frame.

play backward

Plays the animation in reverse.

stop

For best performance during playback, close all unnecessary windows.

Stops the playback.If the playback is using the Play Blast window, the first click pauses the animation so you can use the other play buttons. The second click stops the playback.

play forward

Plays back the animation starting from the current frame.

keyframe forward

Goes to the next keyframe. The next keyframe is the first keyframe found for all active objects following the current frame.

frame forward

Goes to the next frame. The next frame is the current frame plus the by value.

last frame

Changes the current time to the Max time or End time, depending on current time slider settings.