Animate the camera and objects, and render a video

The timeline moves the camera and any group or component over time. You set keys (where something is at a given moment); ModelCraft moves it smoothly from key to key. Play it in the view, then render it to a video with the same sky, sun, materials and lamps as a rendered picture.

Open the timeline

Click Views in the Camera group, then Animation timeline. The timeline opens under the view: the controls along the top, then a Camera row and a row for each group or component that moves. The diamonds are keys; the red line is the playhead, the moment shown in the view.

Drag the slider (or click in a row) to move the playhead. Play plays from the playhead; Previous key and Next key jump between keys.

Move the camera

1. Move the playhead to where the shot starts (0 s), set up the view, and click Key camera.
2. Move the playhead later (say 4 s), orbit, pan or walk the view to the next position, and click Key camera again.
3. Add as many keys as you like, then Play.

The camera passes smoothly through every key and starts and ends at rest.

Move a group or component

1. Select the group or component (only whole groups and components move; make a group first).
2. At 0 s, click Key selected.
3. Move the playhead later, move, rotate or scale the group to where it should be, and click Key selected again.

It slides, turns and grows between its keys. Turns take the short way round.

Auto key saves step 3's click: while Auto key is on, a selected group or component you move, rotate or scale gets a key at the playhead by itself (and, the first time, a key at 0 s where it was).

Change keys

• Choose a key by clicking its diamond: the playhead goes to it.
• Move a key by dragging its diamond along its row, or with ←← and →→ (one frame; with ⇧Shift, ten).
• Delete with Delete key (the chosen key, or every key at the playhead) or fn DeleteDelete on a chosen diamond.
• How it moves on, for the chosen key: Smooth (a curve through the keys around it), Steady (a straight line at one speed), Slow in and out (comes to rest at this key) or Hold (stays put until the next key).
• Length (s) sets how long the animation is; a key set after the end makes it longer. To shorten it, move or delete the keys past the new end first.
• The × on a group's row stops animating it.

The timeline has its own Undo and Redo: the model's undo (⌘ZCtrl+Z) changes the model, not the keys. The animation is saved in the .modelcraft file. Closing the timeline puts moving groups back at their first pose.

Render the video

1. Click Render video on the timeline (or Export › Render video…).
2. Choose the Size, the Frame rate, the Quality of each frame and the File.
3. Click Render video. Each frame shows as it is made, with the time left.
4. When it is done, click Save video.

Stop (or EscEsc) ends early; Save video then keeps the frames already made as a shorter video.

The sky, sun, materials, lamps and brightness are the ones set in Render a picture…: set them there first, checking a still. Each frame is rendered on this computer; nothing is uploaded.

WebM plays in browsers and VLC, and video editors convert it. Videos use the fast renderer; the high-quality path-traced mode makes pictures only.

Things to know

• Only whole groups and components move. Faces, edges, the sun's time and the style do not change over time yet.
• Export animation under Scenes still records the view as it is on screen, in real time; Render video renders each frame with sky, shadows and materials.