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The Timeline System

The master timeline, the playhead, tracks, lanes, keyframes and the AUTO key system.

What the Timeline Is

The timeline strip sits at the bottom of the screen. It is a continuous time axis (default 60 seconds) with a ruler along the top. Every item in your scene has its own track — a row showing that item's keyframes. The playhead (orange line) marks the current time.

You can change the total length by clicking the time box (e.g. 60 s) next to the TIMELINE label and typing a new number.

Tracks and Lanes

Each item's track can contain up to four lanes of keys:

Lane What its keys do Who has it
MovementPosition at a second — the item is at that spot at that timeEveryone
ActionA player performs an animation (wave, kick, shout…) when the playhead passes the keyPlayers
GraphicTurns the movement arrow on/off for a window of timeEveryone
AttachmentAttaches the item to a player (or detaches it)Ball, Zones
VisualZone appearance windows — shape, radius, colour, vertex linksZones

Key Buttons

Each track has small buttons (with icons) that add a key at the current playhead second:

  • Key Movement — records the item's current position as a movement key.
  • Key Action — opens a menu of animations; picking one adds an action key.
  • Key Graphic — toggles the movement arrow on/off from this second.
  • Key Attachment — attaches the ball/zone to a player you then click.
  • Key Visual — captures the zone's current look into a new visual window.

Working With Keys

  • Add — use the key buttons, or (with AUTO on) just move the item at the playhead second.
  • Move — drag a key diamond left/right to change its time. The key snaps freely, so you can place it at any second.
  • Delete — double-click a key to remove it.
  • Between keys — click the segment (the space between two movement keys) to open the movement-style editor: Straight, Curve Left/Right with a bend amount, and (ball only) an arch height.

Playhead & Scrub

  • Click anywhere on the ruler to jump the playhead there.
  • Drag on the ruler to scrub through time — everything on the pitch animates live.
  • Scrolling over the ruler also scrubs the playhead.
  • Scrolling over the track list scrolls the list vertically.

AUTO Key

The AUTO ON toggle at the top of the timeline is on by default. When it is on, every time you move an item (click-to-move or drag), the app records a movement key at the rounded playhead second automatically. This is the fastest way to build an animation: move the playhead, move a player, repeat.

Tip: Turn AUTO off when you want to reposition items without creating keys — for example while sketching a formation before animating it.

Undo & Redo

The two buttons at the bottom-left of the viewport undo and redo every change your scene can go through: placing, moving or removing items, adding / moving / deleting keyframes, attachments, zone visual windows, arrow colours, actions, timeline length — everything.

  • Undo (↶) — step back through your changes. Keyboard: Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z.
  • Redo (↷) — step forward again. Keyboard: Ctrl+Shift+Z / Cmd+Shift+Z (or Ctrl+Y).
  • Buttons are dimmed when there is nothing to undo or redo.
  • Up to 20 steps of history are kept.
Tip: Dragging an item counts as one undo step — undo jumps back to where the item was before you picked it up, not through every pixel of the drag. The same applies to slider drags (bend, arch, radius…) and keyframe drags on the timeline.

Playing the Timeline

Press the play button (or Space) to play from the playhead. The playhead advances, all items move along their interpolated paths, and action keys trigger their animations as the playhead crosses them. Press play again or Space to pause. Any manual timeline interaction (scrubbing, dragging a key) stops playback.