2009

Table Of Contents
The Time Slider displays the playback range and keys youve set for a
selected object. Keys are displayed as red lines. The box at the right of
the Time Slider lets you set the current frame (time) of the animation.
The Playback Controls control animation playback. You may recognize
the conventional buttons for play and rewind (return to the start time).
The stop button appears only when the animation is playing. To find
out which operation a button represents, hold the mouse pointer over
it.
The Animation Preferences button displays a window for setting
animation preference settings such as the playback speed.
The Range Slider controls the range of frames that play when you click
the play button.
The above items will have more relevance as you work through this lesson.
After you complete this lesson, experiment with these items to learn more
what they do.
The playback range is currently set at a range of 1 to 24. At a default
playback rate of 24 frames per second, the scene can play for one second.
Because youll animate the ball for a few more seconds than this, you
need to lengthen the playback range.
2 In the Playback End Time box (see above), enter 72.
A frame rate of 24 frames per second (fps) is the frame rate used for motion
picture film. For video, the frame rate can be 30 fps (NTSC) or 25 fps
(PAL) depending on the format being used.
With a playback range of 1 to 72, youll be able to create three seconds
of animation. (72 frames divided by 24 frames per second = 3 seconds.)
This is enough time for the short animation youll create in this lesson.
Setting keyframes
In the following steps, you use keyframes to set the starting and ending
positions of the balls movement.
188 | Chapter 6 Animation