Animating groups

Groups are animated in the timeline in much the same way that individual objects are. The following rules apply:

• With a group, you are limited to animating only properties that can logically be applied to the entire group, such as position and rotation.
• You can animate the individual objects that comprise the group.
• If objects in the group are animated, their individual animations run along with the group animation. For example, letters in a title could rotate individually while the whole title moves around the screen.
• Instead of being listed individually as part of the composition, individual objects within a group are listed as subheadings under the grouped object. Clicking the group's triangle displays the individual objects that make up the group, as well as the properties of the group. Therefore, even if you don't want to animate a group, grouping objects is an excellent way to organize the Timeline window.

To group objects in the timeline:

1. Select all objects that you want included in the group.
2. Do one of the following:
• Choose Object > Group.
• Click the Group button in the Timeline window.

To animate a group:

1. Select the group in either the Composition window or the Timeline window.

By default, groups are named "Group of x objects." As with objects, you can rename groups.

2. Expand the group to see the Transform and Object Attribute headings for the group, and for each object within the group.
3. Animate any group property, or expand an object heading and animate an object or layer property.