Animating with the Channel Editor > Animation > Creating Animations >
Setting Keyframes Automatically

The following procedure illustrates the animation workflow by describing how to set keyframes automatically for the saturation channel in the Colour Corrector. Subsequent procedures illustrate how to create animations in Paint and Action, respectively.

If you find that the enabled Auto Key button is not visible enough, you can set it to Coloured in the Auto Key Look box in the General section of the Preferences menu.

To animate saturation in the Colour Corrector:

1. In the Colour Corrector menu, enable Auto Key.

   When Auto Key is enabled, a keyframe is set automatically each time you change a value at any frame.

2. In the timebar, position the clip at the first frame.
3. In the channel hierarchy, click beside the Master folder.
   TipPress Alt and click to expand the folder and all subfolders. When several folders are expanded at once, it can be hard to match animation curves with their corresponding channel in the channel hierarchy. Collapse folders you are not using to isolate the channel you want to edit by clicking . See Displaying Channels.
4. Select the saturation channel and double-click the value.
5. Enter 200.
6. In the timebar, position the clip at frame 30.
7. In the Channel Editor, double-click saturation and enter 0.

   The second keyframe is set. The channel name and curve are highlighted.

   You have created an animation that reduces the saturation over 30 frames.

8. In the Animation controls, click Frame Chn.

   The Frame Channel button adjusts the zoom factor in the Animation Curve window so that the selected curve is displayed completely. In this way, you can see the full shape of the curve from the first keyframe to the last keyframe.

9. Preview the result by clicking Process.
10. Modify values, animation curves, and interpolation to refine the animation until you are satisfied with the result. See Editing Keyframes and Setting Interpolation.
11. If you are animating several channels in the Colour Corrector, you can adjust the timing of the animations. See Controlling the Speed of Objects.
12. If you intend to create keying and compositing animations, save the current setup in the Colour Corrector and reload it later in Batch.

    In Batch, use the Universal Channel Editor to synchronize animations among Colour Corrector, Keyer, Action, and other nodes. See Synchronizing Animations.

To animate the size and colour of a brush stroke in Paint:

1. Click Paint, and then click AutoPaint.

   The AutoPaint menu appears.

   (a) AutoPaint button(b) AutoPaint Mode box(c) Record button

2. Set the following options:
   - From the AutoPaint Mode box, select User. See Using AutoPaint.
   - Set brush attributes. See Brush Attributes.
3. Enable Record.

   The Record button records the brush strokes. See Recording Brush Strokes.

4. Create brush strokes by painting on the clip.

   Once you are finished recording the brush strokes, you are ready to animate the brush and brush stroke attributes.

5. Click below the timebar to stop recording.

   Record is disabled and you are in Play mode.

6. Enable Animation.

   (a) Animation button(b) Swipe bar

7. Swipe the bar at the bottom of the Paint menu to display the Channel Editor.
8. In the animation menu, make sure that Auto Key is enabled.
9. Move the positioner to the first frame.
10. In the channel hierarchy, open the Brush folder and set the following channel values:
    - Set the Size channel to 1.
    - Set the Colour g (green) channel to 12.
11. Move the positioner to frame 7 and set the following channel values:
    - Set the Size channel to 50.
    - Set the Colour g (green) channel to 98.
12. Move the positioner to frame 11 and set the following channel values:
    - Set the Size channel to 66.
    - Set the Colour g (green) channel to 100.
    - Set the Colour b (blue) channel to 48.
13. Move the positioner to frame 30 and set the following channel values:
    - Set the Size channel to 118.
    - Set the Colour g (green) channel to 17.
14. Click Process and then play the clip to view the result of the animated brush stroke.

To animate the transparency of media in Action:

1. In Action, load a front, back, and matte clip.
2. Add a surface for the media.
3. In the Action menu, enable Auto Key.

   When Auto Key is enabled, a keyframe is set automatically each time you change a value at any frame.

4. Move the positioner to frame 1.
5. Click Object to display the Image menu.
6. Enter 0.0% in the Transparency field.
7. Move the positioner to frame 10 and set the transparency to 16%.
8. Move the positioner to frame 20 and set the transparency to 40%.
9. Move the positioner to frame 30 and set the transparency to 100%.
10. Click Animation and open the image x folder, where x is an integer representing the image.
11. Select the transparency channel.

    Keyframe indicators appear as blue bars in the timebar.

12. Click Process and then play the clip to view the result of the animated media transparency.
13. If necessary, edit the timing of the keyframes in the Track Editor to make sure all of the different animations occur in proper sync. In a viewport, press F5 until the Track Editor appears, or select Tracks from the Channel View box.

    (a) Selected Channel(b) Keyframes can be dragged in time