🔸Keyframes

Changing values over time

A keyframe defines a specific time and value within an animation channel, displayed as a diamond shape that's highlighted in yellow when selected, as shown below. When not selected, keyframes are the same color as their channel.

Double-click the channel name to select all of its keyframes.

Although not shown in the track view, each keyframe is a point on an animation curve which can be linear, quadratic, Bezier, or non-interpolating. For more about animation curve interpolations and editing keyframes, see the Graph View

Navigating Keyframes

Double-click on any keyframe to select it and jump to its time.

Each channel that supports keyframes displays small arrows next to the channel name which advance to the previous or next keyframe on the channel. This moves the playhead to the next (or previous) keyframe and selects it.

If no keyframe is following/preceding the current one, then the respective arrow is greyed out and clicking on it does nothing. If no keyframes have been set on the channel at all, then both arrows are greyed out. This is helpful to see at a glance whether there are more keyframes before and after the current time.

Hold the Shift key with the Page Up or Page Down keys (normally used for advancing frames) to advance to the previous or next keyframe, relative to the current/last selected keyframe. You can also hold the Shift key while clicking on the frame advance buttons in the play controls #goto-next-frame

Is Keyframe Set?

Anytime the playhead is directly on a keyframe, the diamond shape between the arrows lights up orange. This lets you know that a keyframe is set at the current time.

Time Tolerance

Keyframe time is based on floating point precision by default but if users wish to, timing in Timeflow can be quantized to specific increments of time. Most commonly this would be used to match the Timeflow framerate so that only 1 keyframe can be set per frame, though it could also be used to aid in stop motion or as an invisible grid. This setting can be customized in the Preferences

Add Keyframe On Selected Channels

Use the keyboard shortcut K to set a keyframe at the current time for all selected channels.

This sets a keyframe at the current time on all selected channels in the Timeflow view. This only works on channels that support keyframing.

Show Keyframe Values

The values of keyframes may be optionally displayed by toggling the 'Show Keyframe Values' button in the tool bar.

To always display keyframe values for selected channels, independent of the view setting, right-click on a channel name and select 'Always Show Values'.

Editing Keyframes

The Values Column

This shows the current value of the property being animated on each channel. This is the live real time value from the object and is very helpful for adding and editing keyframes.

Toggle the Values Column by clicking the arrow in the upper right corner of the Object Panel.

Whenever the playhead is in on a keyframe, its value can be edited in the values column. If on the other hand the playhead is not on a keyframe, changing the value sets a new keyframe. You can also click and drag on the colon ( : ) on the left side of each field to set the value as a hidden slider.

For more details, see the Values Column

The Info Panel

Unlike the values column which only shows the current time, the Info Panel (displayed in the lower left) shows the current selection, allowing you to modify the values of any keyframes selected.

Locking Keyframes

Click the lock icon next to the time and/or value field of keyframes to prevent them from being modified. Locking the time of a keyframe prevents it from being moved horizontally (in time), whereas locking the value prevents moving it vertically in the graph.

Locked keyframes can still be selected, but cannot be changed until unlocked again.

Enabling / Disabling Keyframes

Keyframes and tracks each have their own enable state. This makes it possible to turn off specific parts of an animation without deleting it. This can be useful in production to try out variations or to isolate specific behaviors.

Disabled keyframes are drawn in grey and ignored in the channel interpolation but can still be selected and worked with normally.

Disabled keyframes are completely ignored in animations as if they don't exist, but can still be selected and moved and re-enabled as desired.

Selected keyframes can also be enabled and disabled using the keyboard shortcut 0. That is the number 0 on either the keyboard or number pad. This toggles the enabled state for keyframes selected.

For keyframe snapping options, see #grid-and-snap

Advanced Editing Features

There are several additional tools and shortcuts for editing keyframes.

Keyframe Nudging

With selected keyframes...

• Move 1 frame forward or backward in time by pressing the Left Arrow or Right Arrow.

• In the graph view, move keyframes up or down using the Up Arrow and Down Arrow. This modifies keyframe values in increments based on the current view scale. Zoom in to make smaller adjustments, and zoom out to make larger adjustments.

• Hold the Shift key to move in increments of 10.

• Hold the Alt key while pressing the arrows keys to move in grid increments, based on the #grid-divisions.

Axis Lock

In the Graph View, hold the Shift key while dragging keyframes to lock the movement horizontally or vertically. This locks the keyframe values when dragging horizontally, or the keyframe time when dragging vertically.

Micro Adjustments

Make fine adjustments to keyframe values without having to zoom in. When dragging keyframes, hold the Alt + Shift + Control keys to make small changes to the keyframe values. Time is unchanged when using this modifier, which can be added before or after dragging begins. By default this applies values at 1/10th normal scale, which can be configured in the Preferences.

Tolerance Settings

Timeflow uses floating point precision by default which allows keyframes to be set in between frames using microseconds. This can be customized in the Preferences to use a specific interval or frame rate.