To Play All Animations in a Director from the Start of the Time-line

1. Select the required Director.

2. Either

   • Click the Start Animation button in the Time-line Editor.

   • When the Stage is active, pressing Enter starts any animations on the selected director(s) from the first frame. Pressing Space pauses or resumes play-out.

   • Click the Start Animation of Selected Layers button from the Director Control Panel.

To Play Multiple or All Animations in a Scene

When working with a scene that contains more than one director, the current director is always selected by default in the scene editor preview window. To preview all animations in a multi-director scene, all directors can be started simultaneously:

1. Open the Director Control Panel.

2. Click the All button, or hold Shift+Click to select the range of directors. Holding Ctrl and clicking allows for selecting individual directors instead of a range.

   

3. To start the animation(s), either

   • Click the Start button in the Time-line Editor.

   • Click the Play layer button in the Director Control Panel.

   • Click the Start animation of selected layers button in the Director Control Panel. This also starts the selected animations in the other layers, if they are available.

   • When the Stage is active, pressing Enter starts any animations on the selected director(s) from the first frame. Pressing Space pauses or resumes play-out.

To Play an Animation in Reverse

1. In the Time-line Editor, click the (Reverse Play) button.

2. Either:

   • Click the Start button in the Time-line Editor.

   • Click the Play layer button in the Director Control Panel.

   • Click the Start animation of selected layers button in the Director Control Panel. This also starts the selected animations in the other layers, if they are available.

   • Press Shift+Enter when the Stage is active

To Stop a Director

1. Select one or more Directors.

2. Either:

• In the Time-line Editor, right-click the Stop button.

• Click the Stop button from the Director Editor.

• Press Space while the Stage is active.

To Stop an Animation

In the Time-line Editor, click the Stop button. It is also possible to add one or more stop points to a Director, so that each time the time-line reaches a certain frame, the animations stop automatically.

To Stop All Animations

1. Enable the Director Control Panel

2. Select all directors and all layers.

3. Click the Stop animation of selected layers button. This stops all animations in all layers.

To Continue an Animation

1. Select the required Director.

2. Either:

• Click the Continue Animation button in the Time-line Editor

• While in the Stage, press Space.

• Click the Continue Animation button in the Director Editor.

To Jump to Start of an Animation

1. Select the required Director.

2. Click the Go to Start button in the Time-line Editor, or press Ctrl+Home.

To Jump to the End of an Animation

1. Select the required Director.

2. Click the Go to End button in the Time-line Editor, or press Ctrl+End.

To Delay Animations in a Director with Offsets

1. Enable the Director Editor and select the required Director.

2. In the Director editor, set the Offset value (in fields). It is also possible to move the Director, including all its animations, horizontally along the time-line in the Time-line Editor. This does not add the offset value.

Scale Animations

Scaling a Director is the easiest way to change the total running time of the animations in the Director. Scaling is done proportionally and includes all Sub-Directors.

To Scale Animations in a Director

Drag the start or the end point of a Director in the Dopesheet Editor. It is not possible to drag the start point beyond the offset value.

To Scale a Region within a Director

1. Mark a region within a director.

2. Drag the green start or end point of the marked region.