Understanding animation terminology

All objects in a LiveMotion composition have certain properties, such as position, rotation, scale, and color, that you can change over time to create animation. For example, an object may move, rotate, appear, disappear, change size, change color, or interact with other objects or with users over time. Here are some basic concepts to help you understand how objects are animated with LiveMotion.

Timeline window

Displays all the objects in a composition, and the animation events associated with each object in terms of time. (The Composition window displays all objects in terms of their spatial relationship.)

Duration bar

A representation of an object's lifespan, or duration. For example, the duration bar for a composition specifies how long the entire composition lasts as an animation. In addition, each object in a composition has its own duration bar. The length of the duration bar represents how long the object lasts, while the bar's starting and ending points indicate when the object appears in and disappears from the animation. By default, the duration of all newly created objects matches the duration of the composition.

Animation frames

Often simply called a "frame," represents a point in time. For example, if an animation is set to display at a rate of 10 frames per second, each second would be divided into 10 frames when the animation was exported. While editing, LiveMotion allows you to vary the frame rate (that is, the number of frames between keyframes without changing the timing of an animation.) For example, a 1-second animation set to 10 frames per second would remain 1 second if the frame rate were changed to 20 frames per second; it would simply have twice as many increments (frames) between keyframes.

Keyframes

Marks the point in time where you specify a value for an object property or for a behavior to occur. Typical animations (those that don't use scripts and event handlers) using keyframes require at least two keyframes. LiveMotion creates animation between keyframes by tweening--blending property values from one keyframe to the next. A keyframe contains information on the type and speed of change between the adjacent intermediate values. The closer the keyframes are, the faster the change occurs.

You can change properties with or without setting keyframes. However, if you do not set keyframes, or if you set only one keyframe, changes you make to the property value remain in effect for the duration of the animation.

Stopwatch

Each object property has an associated Stopwatch button that you click to begin the animation process. Once the stopwatch is active for a specific property, LiveMotion automatically sets new keyframes whenever you change the current time and property value. When the stopwatch is inactive, no keyframes are present. If you type a value for a property while the stopwatch is inactive, the value remains in effect for the duration of the object. And if you click an active stopwatch, LiveMotion removes all keyframes for the property associated with that stopwatch.

Scripts

LiveMotion 2 replaces LiveMotion 1's limited set of behaviors with scripts. Scripts are instructions that are executed in LiveMotion's preview mode or in the Flash player when exported to SWF. Scripts can create animation (for example, by changing the x and y coordinates of an object over time) and enable animations that would be difficult or impossible to achieve with keyframes alone (for example, randomized movement and objects that react to the user's mouse movements). Scripts can be attached to the timeline using the scripts track, or they can be attached to individual movie clip objects.

Much more information on scripting in LiveMotion is available in the Adobe LiveMotion 2.0 Scripting Guide. The LiveMotion 1.0 behaviors remain grouped in the LiveMotion script editor.

Movie clips

An animation that plays independently of the main animation. For example, you can create a logo that revolves continuously, even when the main animation stops. The ability to nest smaller, self-contained animations within larger animations is one of the most powerful and flexible animation features within LiveMotion. Each movie clip has its own duration bar.

If you're familiar with LiveMotion 1, note that time-independent groups have been renamed movie clips. If you're familiar with movie clips in Macromedia® Flash™, note that in LiveMotion, movie clips can have multiple states (created via the States palette), each of which functions as an independent timeline.