An animation can be created by creating a series of frames, where each frame differs slightly from the previous.

 

  After moving and editing your figures from their previous positions, click the 'Add Frame' button to add it to the time-line. The underlined A means that the 'A' keyboard key can be used as a shortcut/hotkey. The keyboard spacebar can also be used as a shortcut.

 

 

The time-line, showing a selected frame and the right-click popup menu

 

The time-line shows all the frames in the animation at the top of the main window. The scroll bar underneath the frames can be used to view any part of the animation if the number of frames exceeds the width of the window. The position of the time-line can be moved in one frame increments by clicking the arrows at either end of the time-line or using the keyboard arrow keys when the scroll bar has focus.

 

The area to the left of the time-line frames shows the number of the frame being edited or added and the repeat number.

 

Hovering the cursor over the Frame number text will show the time of the current selected frame in the animation based on the current frame rate.

 

Repeat:

The value entered in the Repeat edit box determines how many times the frame should be repeated when played. This can be used to create pauses in the animation without having to create identical consecutive frames.

 

 

Editing Frames

 

Frames in the time-line can be edited by clicking on them. The main editing area will then show the edited frame. After editing the frame the changes can be stored by clicking the 'Add Frame' button or by selecting another frame in the time-line to edit. If you edit a frame and do not want to keep the changes, then you can discard the changes by clicking the same frame in the time-line that was being edited (this action cannot be undone).

 

  The < and > keyboard keys can be used to step the frame being edited left or right from the current frame being edited. This is equivalent to clicking a frame to the left or right of the current frame being edited and can therefore be combined with the Ctrl and Shift keys to select multiple frames, as described below.

 

 

Selected Frame Controls

 

Frames can be selected by clicking on them in the same way as editing a frame. Selected frames are displayed with a blue border.

 

  Multiple frames can be selected by using the Ctrl or Shift keys in the same way as selecting multiple files in Windows Explorer. Click a frame while holding the Ctrl key to switch the frame between selected and unselected. Click a frame while holding the Shift key to select all frames between the clicked frame and the previous frame clicked.

 

The background image or frame repeat value can be set for multiple frames by selecting the frames as described above, setting the background or repeat value for the last frame that was clicked and then storing the changes by clicking the 'Add Frame' button or by selecting another frame in the time-line to edit.

 

The three buttons to the left of the time-line frames allow you to delete or copy the selected frames or paste previously copied frames. The delete and copy buttons will only be enabled when at least one frame is selected.

 

 

Delete Selected Frames

Click the delete button to delete all selected frames. This action cannot be undone and so a warning message will appear to ask if you want to delete the selected frames or cancel.

 

 

Copy Selected Frames

Click the copy button to copy the selected frames to the Windows clipboard. The frames can then be pasted to the end of the animation or inserted between frames in the time-line.

 

 

Paste Copied Frames

Click the paste button to paste previously copied frames to the end of the animation. The frames can have been copied from the current animation or from another animation. This button will only be enabled if the Windows clipboard contains Pivot Animator frames. Frames can be pasted from an animation with different dimensions, but if background images are used they will either be cropped or padded out. Backgrounds and figure types from the pasted frames will be merged with those in the existing animation to avoid duplicates where possible.

 

 

Right Click Frame Controls

 

Right clicking any frame in the time-line displays a pop-up menu, which provides operations that will be applied to the clicked frame.

 

 

Insert

Click the insert button to insert a new frame in-front of the frame that was clicked. The new frame will be an exact copy of the frame immediately before the frame that was clicked - unless the first frame was clicked, in which case the new frame will be a copy of the clicked frame. After inserting a frame, the new inserted frame will be selected for editing.

 

 

Paste Insert

Click the paste insert button to paste previously copied frames immediately before the clicked frame. In all other ways, this is the same as the 'Paste Copied Frames' button described above.

 

 

Delete

Click the delete button to delete the clicked frame. This action cannot be undone and so a warning message will appear to ask if you want to delete the frame or cancel.

 

 

Previewing a Frame

 

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Sometimes it can be useful to view the current frame without handles to see what it would look like, but without playing the animation so that you can inspect the frame carefully. This can be done by holding the Ctrl key while clicking the play button. Stop previewing by clicking the Stop button or by clicking anywhere on the editing canvas.