Editing animations

Ultra Fractal provides various ways to edit and change your animations after you have initially created them. Often you will use the Timeline tool window, which also reveals the structure of your animation. But you can also directly work with animation keys by right-clicking on animated parameters, which opens a menu with animation-related commands. This can be useful for small changes.

		To insert a new key at the current frame, right-click a parameter and click Insert Key.
		To delete a key at the current frame, right-click a parameter and click Delete Key. Use the Timeline tool window to delete multiple keys at once.
		To jump to the first key before the current frame, right-click a parameter and click Previous Key.
		To jump to the first key after the current frame, right-click a parameter and click Next Key.

Note that the Previous Key and Next Key commands in the right-click menu for a parameter jump to the previous and next keys for that parameter only. To jump to the previous and next keys in the entire animation, use the global commands in the animation bar or on the Animation menu instead.

A powerful way to make global changes to an animation is to copy and paste parts of it, using the Copy and Paste commands found everywhere in Ultra Fractal. You can copy locations, transformations, formulas, coloring settings, gradients, layers, and even entire fractals. The behavior of the Copy and Paste commands depends on whether or not Animate mode is on.

		Animate mode on		Animate mode off
		Copies the settings at the current frame to the Clipboard, without any animation keys.		Copies the settings for the entire frame range to the Clipboard, including all animation keys.
		Copies settings from the Clipboard, inserting animation keys when necessary, just as if you entered all values manually. You must turn off Animate mode before pasting settings with animation keys (copied when Animate mode is off).		Copies settings from the Clipboard, overwriting any animation keys. If the settings on the Clipboard have no animation keys (copied with Animate mode on, or from a non-animated fractal), any existing animation keys will be removed.

Remember: if Animate mode is on, your actions only affect the current frame; if Animate mode is off, your actions are applied to the entire fractal.

Next: Timeline