1.2.7. Playing an Animation

 

After adding frames to the time-line, the animation can be played by clicking the Play button in the player controls. Stop the animation by clicking the Stop button to continue editing your animation.

 

If an existing frame is being edited, by clicking on a frame in the time-line, then the animation will begin playing from that frame instead of from the beginning.

 

When an animation is playing, you will see the animation as it will appear when exported. The figures will not have handles and the area outside the dotted box containing the animation area will not display anything.

 

The canvas zoom will reset to 100% while playing if Reset Zoom While Playing is enabled in the View menu. It will return to its previous state when the animation is stopped.

 

 

  Play the animation from the beginning or from the frame being edited. Shortcut 'P'.

      Preview the current frame being edited by clicking the Play button while holding the Ctrl key, or using shortcut Ctrl+P. The <> keys can be used to step through frames while in preview mode.

 

  Stop playing the animation and return to the current frame being edited. Shortcut 'S'. Clicking anywhere on the editing canvas will also have the same effect.

 

  Loop the animation when playing so that it starts playing from the beginning when it reaches the end. If unselected, the player will stop when it reaches the end of the animation and the screen will return to the current frame being edited. When selected, the Stop button must be clicked to stop the player.

 

  Set the playing speed of the animation. The frame rate in frames per second (fps) can be seen by hovering the cursor over the bar or when changing the value. The value ranges from 7 fps (slow playing) to 33.3 fps (fast playing). When exporting an animation as an animated Gif or AVI video, this value will be used to set the frame rate of the exported file. The value persists after closing and reopening the program.

 

The value can be changed in small increments by using the arrow keys after clicking the control.

 

A good tip for making good animations is to make the movement of figures smooth by making small movement between frames so that you can set the frame rate quite high. The default value is 12 fps since this results in fairly smooth movement without requiring very small movements and a large number of frames. If using inbetweening then the playing speed can be set higher without the need to create very small movements between frames.