Help with Rotation

[MarkJenkins]

I can't find any description of how the rotation feature works. Nothing. I've figured (by stumbling about) out how to start rotation, and change its speed, but not direction. Why isn't there a brief explanation of how the rotation features work?  Any help would be appreciated.

 

Mark Jenkins

[rcf-jr]

Hi Mark,

Maybe I can help a little. The ROTATION feature is just like all the others. You can use it to make changes manually to an object or you can use it to, create keyframes, animate an object over time. Lets look at the buttons and numbers for that animation first.

< ◇ > Rotation 0x 0.0°

< is used to move the time marker to the next left established animation, keyframe, point

◇ is used to turn on or off an animation point - turn a frame into a keyframe or turn a keyframe back to a frame

> is used to move the time marker to the next right established animation, keyframe, point

Rotation is used to select that feature and the corresponding object will light up in the Objects Panel and the Composition Panel

          * if you rotate an object in the canvas panel, the Rotation will turn Blue for that corresponding object. Makes things easy to associate and find.

0x is used to view what is set, or set the number of complete rotations of 360° - 2x will make the object rotate 360° 2 times, or 720°

0.0° is used to view what is set, or set the degrees of rotation from 0° thru 359° (if you enter 360° it will show 0.0° and 0x will change to 1x"

To use the Rotation in the manual mode just mouse click on the value you want to change and drag the value positive(clockwise rotation) or negative(counter clockwise rotation), or you can mouse click on the value you want to change and use the keyboard to type in the value. If a negative value is to be entered using the keyboard, use the "-" sign first. The degrees of rotation can except a fractional degree.

If you manually rotate an object in the canvas panel by using the "ctrl" + mouse click and drag, you will see the corresponding numbers change on the Rotation line.

To animate a rotation over time you are using the diamond key "◇" to select where on the time line you want a "key"frame for the rotation. Simply move the time marker to the point you want the animation to start, click on the diamond key "◇" creating a keyframe, adjust or enter the rotation value you want the object to start at. Then move the time marker to the point you want to mark as the next point, keyframe, and adjust or enter the rotation value you want the object to rotate to. 

You can have the object rotate a full 360° several times between two keyframes by using the 0x.You can use positive numbers for clockwise rotation or negative numbers for counter clockwise rotation. Enter the number of turns using the mouse and click and drag, mouse click and use the keyboard, or ctrl + mouse to drag the object around until it counts up to the number of turns you require. 

If you are on a keyframe that you want to delete you can use the diamond key "◇" to deselect the key frame or select it using your mouse and hit the delete key on your keyboard. You can use your mouse to move these points (keyframes), by just clicking and dragging them along the time line.

Once you have several keyframes made you can go from one keyframe to another keyframe by using the "<" and  ">" buttons. You can use as many keyframes as there are frames. So the possibilities are mindboggling.

I hope you find this information useful. If you have any more questions on this, please let me know, and I will try to help.

Happy Animating.

P.S. I am not responsible for any errors or typing mistakes. But if you find any issues please let me know and I will make the correction.