Motion
The timeline, actions, tracks and clips; behaviors that give an object life; responses to a tap; cameras, shots and audio.
A scene has a length, in seconds, and everything that moves is described against it. The timeline is the panel at the bottom of the studio; open it with T.
Open in Puni and choose a scene to use its timeline.
#Actions, tracks and clips
An action is a piece of motion: keys on properties such as position, rotation, scale or a module property, with an ease between them. A track belongs to one object. A clip places an action on a track at a start time, with a duration, a weight, a repeat count, and how it blends with other clips.
- Select an object.
- Right-click the object, or empty canvas with it selected, and choose a motion preset: Enter, Float, Shake, Spin, Leave, Settle or Nudge.
- Drag the clip to move it. Select it to trim its edges. Hold Shift to turn snapping off.
The playhead answers to Space, the arrow keys step frames, Home and End jump to the ends.
#Behaviors
A behavior is motion that follows the object rather than the timeline. In the inspector, under Behavior, choose a kind, press Add, then set Feel, from 0 (calm) to 1 (springy).
| Behavior | What it does |
|---|---|
| Idle | Breathes on its own clock |
| Blink | Closes objects named like eyes |
| Tap | Squashes when tapped |
| Hop | Jumps when tapped |
| Appear | Pops in at the start |
| Wobble | Sways |
Behaviors compile to ordinary actions and clips, so undo, export and the command line see nothing new.
#Responses
A clip can wait for a tap instead of a time. Set Start on to Tap an object and choose the Tap object. On the share page a viewer taps the object and the clip plays on its own clock, whether or not the timeline is running.
#Procedural motion
Some actions are computed rather than keyed: Settle, Turntable, Impulse, Float and Shake take a few numbers, and Simulate records a rigid body dropped on the stage as an action you can trim like any other.
#Cameras and shots
The Scene tab lists cameras. Save view keeps the current framing as a camera; a shot puts a camera on the timeline for a span, with a transition into the next. The share page plays shots; the studio previews them with Shot preview in the camera menu, and the share page has a Scene camera / Free camera toggle.
#Audio
Press Import audio in the timeline controls and choose a WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC, M4A or AAC file. A clip carries its start, offset, duration, gain and mute, and films made with the local renderer mix it at 48 kHz.
Read Materials and light next.
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