■ ZMovie 273- Next we will shift the position of the keyframes on the timeline to affect the speed of
playback. First move the last frame closer to the middle of the timeline. This compresses
all the animation and speeds it up. Click-drag the last keyframe to the middle of the time-
line. Play back the animation and you will see the speed has increased. - Finally, we will copy the three keyframes we have and paste them back later into the
timeline. Shift-click-select each of the three keyframes and then, still holding Shift, click
the point on the timeline you want to paste them in. ZBrush will ask if you are sure you
want to paste the keys; click Yes. Pasting the frames after the originals will create a loop-
ing effect in the animation. At the end of the first set, the animation will return to the
start position and continue through the sequence in a seamless playback. Play the anima-
tion to see this in action.
Fine-Tuning Animation
Setting keyframes is the first step in creating an animation, but you will undoubtedly want
more control over your motion. You have already seen how placing keyframes close together
can speed up the action. Now we will look at various ways of fine-tuning the animation,
including ease-in and ease-out. Easing in and out is an animation concept where a motion
starts slow and comes up to speed (easing in); easing out is slowing down to a stop. This tech-
nique helps create a more appealing and natural motion rather than having objects simply
start and stop moving with no increase or decrease in velocity. Let’s take a look at how this
process works:
- First we will look at how to zoom in on the timeline. You zoom in when you need
to scoot keyframes a few frames in one direction or another. This kind of precision
movement can be tricky when looking at the full view. Move to the start of the time-
line (Figure 8.11). - Double-click a keyframe (or single-click a selected keyframe) to zoom into the view.
Notice that you now have another timeline along the top that allows you to scrub the
slider and see the animation. Notice as you move through the timeline your slider has
two numbers. The number on the left is the frame number; the number on the right is
the number of seconds into the animation at that point on the timeline (Figure 8.12).
While you are zoomed in, it is much easier to move keyframes in single-frame incre-
ments, giving you exact placement and timing in your animation.
Figure 8.11 The start of the timeline in full view
Figure 8.12 The timeline zoomed in