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CINEMA 4D R11 Quickstart –Animation
9. Quick Tutorial – Animation
With but a few exceptions CINEMA 4D lets you animate every attribute of an object. This means you can alter
any attribute in the Attribute Manager over time, whether it’s an object’s Y-coordinates, the color of a light or
the strength of an explosion object. By animating different attributes you can easily add complex animation
effects and visually attractive scenes.
Let’s look at a “quick & easy“ example just to demonstrate the basic principles of animation.
Begin by opening a new (empty) scene. Create a cube (Objects / Primitive / Cube).
You will see a turquoise slider at the bottom of the editor window next to which the frame (time) is shown.
This is known as the time slider. By moving this slider you can jump to a different point (time) in the animation,
similar to fast-forwarding or rewinding a film. You can also use the turquoise arrows to the right of the slider
to play the film at a predetermined speed.
Further to the right you will see the “record“ button (the red button furthest to the left with
the key icon). You can use this button to record certain object attributes. Use the buttons to the
right of the record button to set these attributes. With these buttons you can “key“ (record)
the position, size, rotation, attribute and / or point-level-animation of an object at any given time in the
animation.
Make sure the time slider is to the left, on 0. Deactivate all symbols to the right of the red buttons, except the
first (position), and click on the record button.
We have now told the cube that it should stay at its position of 0 / 0 / 0 starting at time / frame 0. In other
words, we have generated a key that contains the information on the position of the cube at time / frame 0. We
will tell you later what exactly a keyframe is. Where can you find this ominous key? It’s located in CINEMA 4D’s
“timeline“. The timeline is where you can change the position of the keys on the timeline, change the values
they contain, delete them, set new keys and much more.
Switch to CINEMA 4D’s animation layout (Window / Layout / Animation).
Take a look at the timeline at the bottom of your screen. You will see the cube along with a “track“ for its
position. This track contains three “sequences“ (one for every recorded coordinate) with a light blue box at
time / frame 0 – a key.