Slipping Soft Effects

When animating a soft effect, you can change its timing directly on the timeline. Slip soft effects by any amount and see the image update as you make changes.

You can slip the timing of one soft effect, several soft effects on one segment, or all soft effects on multiple segments. Slipping soft effects can be done on either segments or gaps. The entire soft effect is slipped; you cannot slip selected keyframes or selected channels.

When you animate a soft effect, keyframes appear in blue on the segment. Keyframes are displayed for one soft effect at a time. If your timeline contains more than one soft effect, the keyframes of the currently selected soft effect are automatically displayed.

A soft effect can be slipped whether or not its keyframes are displayed as long as the soft effect is selected. You can change which soft effect's keyframes are displayed if you want to use them as a visual guide when slipping the effect.

To slip soft effects directly on the timeline:

Select the soft effects that you want to slip:
- To select all soft effects on specific segments, select the desired segments.
  The selected segments turn yellow.
- To select all soft effects on all segments, press / on the numeric keypad or click the element selection hot spot.
  All the segments turn yellow.
- To select specific soft effects on one segment, expand the segment and Ctrl-click the soft effect indicator of each effect you want to slip. Alternatively, select a timeline segment or move the focus point of the positioner over a segment and then press Ctrl and the associated hot key to select a particular soft effect. For example, press Ctrl+1 to select the Axis soft effect.
  The yellow square above the hot key number on the soft effect button turns yellow. As well, the soft effect indicator turns yellow.
NoteIf a segment contains only one soft effect, you do not have to select the soft effect as long as the focus point of the positioner is over the appropriate segment.
To change which soft effect's keyframes are displayed, click its soft effect button so that it is locked (it turns light grey and its letters are italicized when locked).
TipIf a soft effect button is locked and you want to display the keyframes of a soft effect on another segment, you must select that segment before selecting the soft effect.

The timeline segment displays the keyframes of the selected soft effect and the corresponding quick menu appears. If you do not see the keyframes, make sure that either the segment is selected or the focus point of the positioner is over the segment. Segment selection has priority over the location of the focus point.
Slip the selected soft effects by doing one of the following:
- Press Shift+ , (comma) and drag inside the segment in the direction in which you want to slip the soft effect.
- If you know the number of frames by which you want to slip the soft effect, enter the number in the numeric keypad, press Shift+, (comma) and then left arrow or right arrow, depending on the direction of the slip.
TipYou can undo any slip operation with the Slip Effect option in the Undo list.

The image in the image window updates interactively as you slip the selected soft effects and all values are updated in the corresponding soft effect editor. If you slip an effect outside of a segment, any visible keyframes turn white.

To navigate between keyframes on the timeline:

Display the quick menu for the appropriate soft effect.
With the Player showing, do any of the following:
- To jump to the previous keyframe, press Ctrl+Z or click the navigation control .
- To jump to the next keyframe, press Ctrl+X or click the navigation control .

Comment on this topic