Animation
The Animation panel is VIZid's single workspace for keyframing and playback. It combines a dope sheet and a curve editor in one resizable dock, and it hosts the transport controls, the sequence band, and the Motion Stack view.
Opening the Animation panel
Open the panel from View ▸ Animation, or through a workspace button if your current workspace includes it.
In the default (minimal) window layout, most View menu panel toggles are disabled. Choose View ▸ Unlock Advanced UI first to enable them.
The panel can be floated to a second monitor. It cannot dock into the side columns — it occupies the horizontal area above or below the viewport.
Panel layout
The panel changes its layout to fit its available height:
- Tall form — the filter row appears on its own line between the transport row and the sequence band.
- Short form — the filter row collapses; a Filters button appears in the transport row to open them in a popover.
- Wide form — when the transport controls and the filter row fit side by side, the filter row moves into the left group of the transport row rather than stacking below it.
At very small heights, the sequence band collapses to a one-line summary.
Transport row
The transport row runs across the full width of the panel. Controls that cannot fit at the current width drop into a More actions overflow menu at the right end. Record, the play group, and the frame box never drop. The Render… button drops last.
| Control | Shortcut | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Go to work-area in | Home | Jumps to the work-area in point |
| Step back 1 frame | Left / Shift+Left (10 frames) | Moves the playhead back |
| Play / Pause | Space | Toggles playback; icon switches between play and pause |
| Step forward 1 frame | Right / Shift+Right (10 frames) | Moves the playhead forward |
| Go to work-area out | End | Jumps to the work-area out point |
| Loop | — | Loops playback within the work area |
| Ping-pong | — | Reverses direction at each end of the work area |
| Record | Ctrl+Shift+R (see note) | Arms auto-keying; icon turns red when recording is on |
| Viewport motion blur | — | On a renderer that carries per-frame motion, playback is blurred. Otherwise the blur applies to the settle frame when playback stops. The viewport badge shows which mode is in use. |
| Frame box | — | Current frame; type a number or drag to scrub |
| Key selected channels | — | Keys all selected channels at the playhead |
| Key the viewport camera | — | Keys the viewport camera's position at the playhead |
| Clear all keys | — | Clears every Position, Rotation and Scale key on the selected parts (locked parts are skipped). Undo with Ctrl+Z. |
| Rate readout | — | Shows "achieved X / Y fps" while playing, and "caching n/N …" while cached playback fills. The first item to drop from the transport at narrow widths. |
| Render… | — | Opens the Render Output panel |
Note on Record and Ctrl+Shift+R: With the Animation panel focused, Ctrl+Shift+R opens the range popover. Everywhere else it toggles Edit ▸ Record (auto-key). Both registrations are active simultaneously.
When Comps are enabled (the default), the transport shows a comp selector drop-down from the first comp. It lists all comps, then + New comp, Duplicate comp, and Open Comps panel…. See Compositions.
Range and rate popover
Click the range chip (for example 1–96 · work 1–96 · 24 fps) to open the range and rate popover. With the Animation panel focused, Ctrl+Shift+R also opens it:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| First frame | Render range start |
| Last frame | Render range end |
| Frame rate | 1–240 fps |
| Loop from | Work-area in (also set with the I shortcut) |
| Loop to | Work-area out (also set with the O shortcut) |
The panel shows the note: Playback loops the work area. A final render always uses the render range.
Build cached playback
Cached playback renders preview frames once and reuses them during playback. The first pass can be slower than the timeline frame rate; subsequent playback uses the frames already stored in RAM or on disk.
- Set the work area to the range you want to preview and turn on Loop.
- Open the Render Settings panel from Render ▸ Render Settings or View ▸ Render Settings (choose View ▸ Unlock Advanced UI first if the View entry is greyed out). Select Cached Playback to set preview quality, Cache store, Cache folder and Disk budget. See Cached Playback settings.
- Make sure Render ▸ Use Cached Playback is checked (it is on by default), then press Play in the Animation panel.
- Let the first pass fill. The rate readout shows caching n/N … while frames are being prepared; review the following loops to judge timing.
Choose Render ▸ Clear Cached Playback to discard stored preview frames; the status bar reads Cached playback cleared. Changing a render setting already discards the cached frames, and Rebuild cache in Render Settings discards them on demand; play the work area again to refill. Turning Use Cached Playback off clears the cache and returns playback to live rendering. If the disk folder cannot be used, the status bar reads Disk cache unavailable — using RAM and frames are kept in memory.
During live playback through a dissolve, the viewport shows a line such as Dissolve: 2 cameras · 1 environments · 2 renders per frame on frames that need a second render and have no cached picture yet. Turn on cached playback and let those frames fill to review the mix. The line is a status message, not a button.
Filter row
| Control | Shortcut | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Search | Ctrl+F; Esc clears | Filters channels by name; multiple words narrow by AND |
| Invert | — | Shows channels that do NOT match the search |
| Domain pills Pt Cm Li Mt Ev Pn Rn Fx Cp Lk | Alt+1 | Each pill toggles a domain; Alt-click isolates one domain and saves the previous mask |
| Reset domain filters | — | Resets the domain filters |
| sel | Ctrl+Alt+S | Shows only channels of the selected objects; on by default |
| anim | U | Shows only animated channels; turn off to browse and add channels; on by default |
| Show all channels | — | Includes channels that cannot be keyed; blocked rows appear dimmed |
| Collapse all | Ctrl+Shift+Left | Collapses all rows |
| Expand all | Ctrl+Shift+Right | Expands all rows |
| Linked Curves | — | On by default; shows one line for compatible linked channels — easing and handles edit them together in the curve view |
| Absolute / Stacked / Normalized | 1 / 2 / 3 | Cycles curve display mode: 1 = Absolute, 2 = Stacked, 3 = Normalized |
| Sequence | — | Opens the Sequence cut menu; see Sequence band |
Domain pill full names (shown as tooltips): Pt = Parts, Cm = Cameras, Li = Lights, Mt = Materials, Ev = Environment, Pn = Studio pins, Rn = Render events, Fx = Effects, Cp = Comps, Lk = Looks. A pill is dimmed when its domain is present but has no animated channels. Only domains present in this document are shown.
Viewing modes
Click Sheet or Curves to switch views. Switching does not change the current selection.
| Mode | Shortcut | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Sheet | Tab | Key diamonds on a time ruler; best for timing and bulk operations |
| Curves | Tab (toggles) | Editable Bezier curves with handles; best for value shaping |
| Split | Ctrl+\ | Sheet above, curves below; one channel tree serves both |
Sequence band
The Sequence band appears above the channel rows. It provides three tracks — CAM, ENV, and LAYER — for camera cuts, environment changes, and layer switches over time. See Sequence band.
Animation clip bars
The clip band appears when the document contains animation keys grouped into a clip with a non-zero duration, such as a clip authored by an animation wizard. Each bar spans that clip's keys; a document without these clips has no clip band.
- Drag the body to move the clip's own keys together in time.
- Drag either edge to stretch or compress the timing of those keys, keeping the opposite edge fixed. This retimes the animation; it does not trim away its beginning or end.
- Hold Ctrl while dragging to bypass snapping.
Keys added independently inside the same time span are not part of the clip and are not moved by its bar. A clip covering more than one animation domain uses a neutral tint; a single-domain clip uses that domain's colour. Each bar is labelled with its clip name (for example turntable-1). The marks inside the bar show the keys on the clip's channels within its span; keys added by hand are shown but are not moved by the bar.
AE composition bars use different edge behaviour: they trim the visible composition range. See AE timeline bars.
Motion Stack
When any channel carries a Motion Stack generator, the channel tree adds wider rows for the stack slots. The stack layers procedural motion on top of keyframes non-destructively. See Motion Stack.
Footer strip
The footer shows, left to right: a readout of the current selection, a muted-channels chip, a hidden-rows line, quick-ease buttons (Linear, In, Out, In/Out), a key type chip, Keys…, Ease… for the selected segment's easing, and fx for motion effects on the selected segment.
If the footer readout shows Select editable animation channels to key., none of the rows selected in the channel tree can be keyed at the playhead. Select a channel row (not only a part in the viewport). A row is skipped if it is locked, cannot be animated, is linked to another composition, or already has a key owned at that frame. Turn off anim to find channels that have no keys yet.
Reading the panel
- Muted-channels chip — a count of channels stored but not evaluated; click to see which ones.
- Hidden-rows line — shown when one or more rows are hidden by the filter or a row-level hide.
- Blocked rows — respawn-tier channels that cannot be keyed appear dimmed with the reason in the row tooltip.
Keyboard shortcuts
The following shortcuts work only while the Animation panel is focused:
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| S | Set key on all keyable channels of the selected object |
| Shift+S | Set key on the channels selected in the tree only |
| K | Add every visible key at the frames of the selected keys (a column); does nothing when no key is selected |
| Ctrl+K | Select every visible key at the playhead — replaces the current selection |
| A | Select all keys |
| Alt+A | Deselect all keys |
| Esc | Clear the selection |
| Del or X | Delete selected keys |
| , | Previous key |
| . | Next key |
| Alt+, | Nudge selected keys −1 frame |
| Alt+. | Nudge selected keys +1 frame |
| Shift+Alt+, | Nudge selected keys −10 frames |
| Shift+Alt+. | Nudge selected keys +10 frames |
| E | Open the ease picker |
| F | Fit selected keys |
| Shift+F | Fit all curves |
| M | Mute selected rows |
| Shift+M | Lock selected rows |
| B / L / H | Set key type: Bezier / Linear / Hold |
| Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y | Undo / Redo |
| I / O | Set work-area in / out |
| Tab | Toggle Sheet / Curves |
| Ctrl+\ | Split view |
| Home | Go to work-area in |
| End | Go to work-area out |
Behaviour notes
- Inspectors freeze during playback. The Object, Material, and other side panels stop updating while the timeline plays. They resume when you pause.
- Record is off by default. When you switch Record off, the status bar reads Record off — animated parts are read-only in the viewport.