You can set the following
preferences in the Time Slider category of the Preferences window.
Time Slider
- Playback start/end
-
Specifies playback range start and end times. The
playback start and end times specify the Time Slider playback
range. The playback range is always within the animation range.
You can also specify the time units. See
Edit animation preferences.
- Animation start/end
-
Specifies animation range start and end times. The
animation start and end times specify the Range Slider range. The
playback range always stays within the animation range, so changing the
animation start and end times can also change the playback start
and end times. Default animation start time is 0.00. Default animation
end time is 40.00. You can also specify the time units. See
Edit animation preferences.
- Height
-
Specifies
the Time Slider height (the vertical space
it occupies). Increasing the height is especially useful when you
are working with sound. Double or quadruple the height for a better
display of sound waveforms. Click 1x (normal height), 2x (double
height), or 4x (quadruple height). Default is 1x.
- Key ticks
-
Specifies
how the line markers that indicate keys appear on the Time
Slider. Click None, Active,
or Channel Box. Default is Active.
- None
-
Specifies that key ticks
are not displayed. Selecting None is useful if you have a lot of
keys and want to improve workspace selection performance.
- Active
-
Specifies that key ticks
are displayed, with associated keys available for selection and editing.
- Channel Box
-
Specifies that key ticks
appear only for the currently selected channels in the Channel
Box. This is useful if you are using the Time
Slider to edit keys on particular channels of an animated object.
- Key tick size
-
Change the thickness
of ticks that represent keyframes in the Maya Time
Slider. Key thickness is measured in pixels. The minimum key
thickness is 1 pixel and the maximum is 63 pixels.
- Options
-
Options include Timecode and Snapping.
- Timecode
-
When on, Maya displays
the current time in video standard timecode. The current time is displayed
next to the Current Time Indicator in the Time Slider. Default
is off.
- Snapping
-
When on, Maya steps through
animation times by integer values, snapping to the nearest integer.
Default is on. If working with sound or small time ranges, you can
turn off Snapping for smoother scrubbing.
Playback
- Update view
-
If your workspace layout includes several views (for
example, selected from Panels > Layouts), you
can improve performance by having the scene play in only the currently
active view. Click Active or All.
Default is Active.
- Active
-
Scene plays only in the
current, active view.
- All
-
Scene plays in all the
workspace views.
- Looping
-
Specifies
what happens when the scene plays forward and then reaches the playback
end time (or if playing backwards, the playback start time). Click Once, Oscillate,
or Continuous. Default is Continuous.
- Once
-
Specifies that the scene
plays once and then stops.
- Oscillate
-
Specifies that the scene
plays forwards (or backwards) and then plays backwards (or forwards)
until you stop playback.
- Continuous
-
Specifies the scene plays
forward to the playback end time (or plays backward to the playback start
time) and then begins again at the playback start time (or playback
end time) until you stop playback.
- Playback speed
-
Specifies the speed at which your scene plays. Select Play
Every Frame, Real-time (24 fps), Half (12
fps), Twice (48 fps), or Other.
Default is Play Every Frame.
You can also specify
the playback time units. See
Edit animation preferences.
- Play every frame
-
When selected, all the
frames in your scene play, updating each before displaying the next.
The speed depends on how long it takes your workstation to compute
and draw each frame. You can specify the playback frame increment
in the Playback by field. For example, a Playback value of 2.0 will
cause only every other frame to play.
- Real-time
-
When selected, your scene
plays in real-time or 24 frames per second (fps). Maya may not display
all frames, depending on your workstation’s capabilities, the scene’s complexity,
and the display mode (for example, wireframe or smooth shading).
- Half
-
When selected, your scene
plays at half the speed of real-time or 12 frames per second (fps).
- Twice
-
When selected, your scene
plays at twice the speed of real-time or 48 frames per second (fps).
- Other
-
When selected, your scene
plays at the custom playback speed set in the Other Speed field.
- Other Speed
-
Specifies a custom playback
speed (in frames per second) for your scene. For example, if you specify
an Other Speed value of 72, then your scene’s animation will play
back at 72 fps. This field is only available when you select Other from
the Playback Speed drop-down list.
- Playback by
-
Specifies playback increments if Playback
speed is set to Play Every Frame.
For example, if you enter 4, Maya will play only every fourth frame (or
time). Default is 1.000. You can also specify the playback time
units.
- Max Playback Speed
-
Max
Playback Speed clamps the playback speed of your scene’s
animation by specifing the speed that your scene’s animation playback is
not allowed to exceed. This is useful when working with
scenes that have fluctuating levels of heavy CPU activity, such
as a scene with a complex particle effect.
- Free
-
Specifies no Max
Playback Speed.
- Real-time (24 fps)
-
Specifies that the overall
playback speed of your scene’s animation is as fast as possible,
but it does not exceed 24 fps.
- Half (12 fps)
-
Specifies that the overall
playback speed of your scene’s animation is as fast as possible,
but it does not exceed 12 fps.
- Twice (48 fps)
-
Specifies that the overall
playback speed of your scene’s animation is as fast as possible,
but it does not exceed 48 fps.