Costume Timeline

The Costume timeline is the first timeline (teal colored horizontal bar) in the Keyframer and dictates the appearance of the Actor, i.e, what costume the Actor is wearing. If a Costume timeline is present the Actor is on stage and is performing some role.

Note: an Actor can exist without a Costume timeline, but it will be something like the Invisible Man. You won't see it in the Animator until it puts on a Costume. This is an effective way to make Actors disappear during animations; just delete their Costume timeline from the appropriate frames.

With the exception of Camera and Target type Actors, which have no detailed Costume parameters, settings are grouped in a dialog which appears when a timeline is created. The dialog shows the timeline extent, and other settings which will depend on the type of Actor.

Double clicking on the keyframe indicator at the end of a costume timeline shows a dialog box, with buttons to edit the settings for the Costume, delete it, cut it out, or copy it.

Edit - Brings up the Edit Settings dialog for the Actor. In the above example, Costume for the Model Actor, the Edit Model Dialog would appear.

Cancel - Dismisses the Costume timeline dialog.

Delete - Deleting a timeline removes it from the Keyframer.

Cut Out - Cutting out a costume timeline deletes the timeline and shifts all later movement timelines back in time to fill the gap.

Copy - Copying a costume timeline places a new timeline with the same settings and duration at the end of all the other costume timelines for this Actor. You can use this feature to 'leapfrog' costume copies in a repeating cycle for Morph or Robot Actor sequences.