9.5.2

988 • CHAPTER 19
TIMELINE • 989
You can quickly select elements that are in the same area by dragging a selection rectangle over them.
Drag the mouse to drag out a rectangle and release the mouse button once all the elements you want
to select are inside the rectangle. If you Shift-drag instead, the elements inside the rectangle are added
to the selection. To remove elements from the selection using this method, Ctrl-Shift-drag instead.
Ctrl-Alt-click a key to select it and all of the object’s other keys that are at the same frame.
Ctrl-Shift-Alt-click a key to select it and all other keys that are at the same frame (including the keys
of other objects).
Selecting individual vector components
In the Timeline, a vector is a group of three closely related animation elements. For example, a position
vector is made up of X, Y and Z components; a color vector consists of R, G and B components, and
a rotation vector has components for H, P and B. By default, when you click a vector component, the
other two components are selected also. For example, if you click a Position.X key at frame 5, the
Position.Y and Position.Z keys at frame 5 are also selected, if present.
To select an individual component (track, sequence or key), either disable the Vector Selection option
on the Timeline’s Edit menu or Alt-click the component.
Using drag and drop to copy and move
CINEMA 4D enables you to move or copy elements within the Timeline quickly and easily using drag
and drop. As a basic guideline, to change from the standard move mode into copy mode, hold down
the Ctrl key while you drag and drop.
When using drag and drop in the Timeline, always check the mouse pointer. For example, the mouse
pointer shows a small ‘+’ sign when copy mode is active. Or if you drag the mouse pointer over a
forbidden area, the mouse pointer changes into a no-entry sign. If you drop while the no-entry sign
is shown, CINEMA 4D ignores the action, i.e. nothing happens.
As an alternative to drag and drop, you can move and copy elements using the Cut, Copy and Paste
commands from the Timeline’s Edit menu.