It’s easy to alter the start time of clips to synchronize the action between clips. For example, the aircraft rises as it travels forward because the Travel_Forward and Aircraft_Rise clips overlap in time. If you position the clips on their respective tracks so that one clip’s action occurs in the Trax timeline before or after the other, the motion occurs separately.

In this section, you learn how to reposition the clips so that the aircraft takes off before it travels forward in X, and then have the aircraft land at the end of the sequence.

To change the position of a clip in a track

1. In the Trax Editor, position the mouse cursor over top of the Travel_Forward clip.

   When the mouse cursor is over top of a clip in the Trax Editor, the cursor icon changes to a Move cursor , indicating that you can drag the clip to either side or up and down between tracks.

2. Drag the Travel_Forward clip horizontally to the right in its track until the Frame In reads 60 as shown below.

   

3. Click play on the Time Slider playback controls to play back the animation.

   

   The aircraft takes off vertically, then travels to the right, and lands while it is still travelling to the right. Because the two clips (Travel_Forward and Aircraft_Rise) are positioned one after the other, the actions occur in a series versus simultaneously.

4. Click stop on the Time Slider’s playback control.
5. Click-drag the Aircraft_Lower clip horizontally to the right until the beginning of the clip matches the end of the Travel_Forward clip on the track above it. (Frame In = 299)

   If the view of the clips appears limited, select View > Frame All in the Trax Editor to resize the view to encompass the clips.

   

   You also need to modify the Playback End Time because the animation timeline is longer as a result of repositioning the clips.

6. In the Range Slider, set the Playback End Time to 360.
7. Click play on the playback controls to play back the animation.

   

   The aircraft takes off vertically, then travels to the right, and then lands vertically once the Travel_Forward clip’s motion is complete. Because the three clips are positioned end to end in relation to the timeline, the animation occurs as a series of separate events.

8. Click stop on the playback controls.