Animating Lights

All light have properties, such as color, that can be animated. Each position on the animation slider is a key-frame time. You may change the properties of a light at each key-frame time on the slider. When the animation is played, 3DCrafter will interpolate between these key-frames.

Light properties are changed by selecting a light and choosing the Component Properties tab on the Properties and Information window.

Basic key-frame functions are provided on the animation toolbar. 3DCrafter Pro users can also use the animation timeline for more advanced key-frame functions.

Button-Animation-OperationKeyFrame-None.gif (921 bytes) will be in a "pushed" state whenever the light you are animating is at an interpolated position rather than a key-frame position. If not "pushed", you can click on this to cause the current animation time to use an interpolated position rather than a key-frame position.

Button-Animation-OperationKeyFrame-Standard.gif (926 bytes) will be in a "pushed" state whenever the light you are animating is at a key-frame position. If not "pushed", you can click on this to cause the current light's properties to become a fixed non-interpolated position.

Button-Animation-OperationKeyFrame-Path.gif (926 bytes) will be in a "pushed" state whenever the light you are animating is at a path origin, or sub-path origin key-frame position. If not "pushed", you can click on this to cause the current key-frame position to be the beginning of a sub-path.

Button-Animation-OperationKeyFrame-Repeat.gif (916 bytes) creates a repeating animation. All key-frames for the selected light will be repeated continuously. Note that the key-frame for the current time will be set to equal the first key-frame in the animation in order to create a continuous animation.