Animation Tab

The Animation Timeline is located in the bottom expandable Animation tab. It provides an easy way to create animations inside Envision. The Animation Timeline enables you to do the following:

The Show Keys dialog is available when you click the Keyframe settings () button.

Translation – Toggles on and off the keyframe controls for camera transition.

Exposure – Toggles on and off the keyframe controls for animated camera exposure.

Aperture – Toggles on and off the keyframe controls for animated camera aperture.

Focal Distance – Toggles on and off the keyframe controls for animated camera focal distance.

The following option is available when you click on a keyframe ():

Delete keyframe – Deletes the selected keyframe.

The following options are available when you click on a clip:

Isolate clip – Isolates the selected clip by temporary disabling the other clips in the track.

Delete clip – Deletes the selected clip from the track. Shortcut: Del

Go to start of clip – Moves the slider to the start of the selected camera clip.

Go to end of clip – Moves the slider to the end of the selected camera clip.

The following options are available when you click on a sound clip:

Duplicate clip – Duplicates the selected clip from the track.

Delete clip – Deletes the selected clip from the track. Shortcut: Del

The following options are available when you click on a Scene variation in the track:

Hold for – Specifies how long the selected Scene variation remains active before transitioning to the next keyframe. It is measured in seconds.

Transition duration – Specifies the time (in seconds) taken to transition between the current Scene variation and the next one. A longer duration creates a slower, smoother transition, while a shorter duration results in a faster shift.

Transition – Specifies the type of interpolation between Scene variations. The choice of transition affects how smoothly or dynamically the change occurs.

Linear – Applies a straight-line transition with a constant speed, creating a uniform change between the variations without acceleration or deceleration.

Ease out – Starts the transition at full speed and then gradually slows down as it approaches the end point, creating a more natural finish to the animation.

Ease in – Starts the transition slowly, gradually accelerating to full speed.

Ease in and out – Combines the Ease In and Ease Out types. The transition starts slowly, accelerates in the middle, and then slows down again toward the end. This is the smoothest and most natural-looking transition style.

Bouncy – Adds a bounce effect to the transition. The animation overshoots the target slightly and then oscillates before settling at the final value.

Ordering – Allows rule-based ordering of the objects to be animated in a transition.

None – Rule-based ordering is disabled.

Axis – Ordering along one of the World axes (X, Y or Z) with a control for positive or negative direction.

Radial – Ordering along one of the World axes (X, Y or Z) with a control for positive or negative direction.

Spherical – Bounding box centered 3D spherical ordering with a control for inwards or outwards direction.

Spiral – Bounding box centered spiral ordering, projected in the XY plane, with a control for clockwise or counter clockwise direction.

Name – Name based ordering with an ascending/descending control.

List – Opens a list with all the objects to be animated.

Ordering point – Applicable when Ordering is based on world space (Axis, Radial, Spherical, Spiral). This parameter defines which part of the object's bounding box is used to initiate its transition. The order in which the objects are going to start moving is based on the distance to the object bounding box's.

Center - Тhe center of the bounding box.

Closest - Тhe closest end of the bounding box.

Farthest - Тhe farthest end of the bounding box.

Axis – Specifies the World axis when Axis Ordering is selected.

Inverted – Reverses the order defined by the Ordering settings. This is useful for reversing the direction in which objects follow the Axis or Spiral ordering, or, in the case of Named ordering, for example, to start with objects named with "Z" and then move backward up the alphabetical order.

Override unit – World-space-based ordering uses a default granularity setting that determines how close objects must be to move sequentially. The Override unit option allows you to adjust this by specifying a custom Unit size below.

Unit size – Specifies how big the difference in distance between objects has to be, so that separate objects move sequentially.

Secondary ordering – This is applicable only when a world-space ordering is selected. Since the objects are positioned in a 3Д space, there can be multiple objects satisfying the Ordering, so setting a Secondary ordering allows for finer control over the transition effect. The following options are available:

X/Y/Z – Uses the same rule to sort objects along an axis as the Ordering parameter.

Size – Uses the object bounding box's size to define the order in which objects transition.

Example: Consider the following example, selecting Axis Ordering along the X axis will start moving objects with position farthest away from the world center in the negative X direction, and then move gradually towards objects farthest away in the positive X direction. If there are several objects with the same value for their X coordinate, specifying a Secondary ordering Z would transition the objects that are lower (with negative Z coordinates) first, followed by the objects that are higher, and then continue down the X coordinate ordering.

Override secondary unit –  Allows you to adjust the default granularity setting that determines how close objects must be to move sequentially by specifying a custom Unit size below. Used when there is a Secondary ordering.

Secondary unit size – Specifies how big the difference in distance between objects has to be, so that separate objects move sequentially. Used when there is a Secondary ordering.

Secondary inverted – Reverses the order defined by the Secondary ordering settings. This is useful for reversing the direction in which objects follow the Axis or Spiral ordering, or, in the case of Named ordering, for example, to start with objects named with "Z" and then move backward up the alphabetical order.

Time between – Specifies the time interval between the animation of each object.

Finish together – Specifies how close to the end of the transition each object's ending keyframe is.

Grouping – Allows grouping of objects based on certain criteria. The order in which groups are animated respects the Transition order type based on the group bounding box’s center. The following grouping is available: 

None – There is no grouping.

By material – Objects with similar materials are grouped.

By instance – Instanced objects form a group.

By name – Objects with similar names are grouped. Similar name means matching the first part of the name using numerical suffixes as index where possible.

Group time between – Specifies the time interval between the animation of each group.

Randomness – Adds randomization of the selected order rule. When set at 100%, objects are selected completely at random. When set to 0%, objects are selected exactly as according to the rule. Values in between produce a blend of randomized and rule ordering.

The following options are available when you click on an Environment variation in the track:

Hold for – Specifies how long the selected Environment variation remains active before transitioning to the next keyframe. It is measured in seconds.

Transition duration – Specifies the time (in seconds) taken to transition between the current Environment variation and the next one. A longer duration creates a slower, smoother transition, while a shorter duration results in a faster shift.

Transition – Specifies the type of interpolation between Environment variations. The choice of transition affects how smoothly or dynamically the change occurs.

Linear – Applies a straight-line transition with a constant speed, creating a uniform change between the variations without acceleration or deceleration.

Ease out – Starts the transition at full speed and then gradually slows down as it approaches the end point, creating a more natural finish to the animation.

Ease in – Starts the transition slowly, gradually accelerating to full speed.

Ease in and out – Combines the Ease In and Ease Out types. The transition starts slowly, accelerates in the middle, and then slows down again toward the end. This is the smoothest and most natural-looking transition style.

Bouncy – Adds a bounce effect to the transition. The animation overshoots the target slightly and then oscillates before settling at the final value.