Active Camera

Active Camera chooses which camera the animation looks through at each moment. With it you can:

• Switch between cameras: each block makes one camera active for its stretch of time, and only one camera can be active at a time.
• Add transitions: chain blocks for different cameras to switch views with a cut, a move, or a fade. See Switching cameras.
• Skip it when you have one camera: when a sequence has no Active Camera blocks, playback uses the first camera in the Cameras panel.

Playback looks through the active camera in three places:

• In the editor: while See through active camera is on in the playback controls of the Timeline panel.
• In the Player: while Camera follow is on.
• In exports: in video and GIF exports when Camera is set to Active camera.

Creating it

Adds a block that makes the selected camera the active camera.

• Operation:
  1. Select one camera on the board.
  2. In Animation mode, choose Active Camera in the Actions panel.
• Result: a selected block starts at the playhead with a duration of 0 seconds. Drag its end handle in the Timeline panel or enter a Duration in the Attributes panel to set how long the camera stays active.

The active camera block in the Timeline panel

In the Timeline panel:

• Shares the top track: Active Camera blocks sit on one dedicated track at the top of the timeline.
• Matches the camera's color: each block uses its camera's color, with a semitransparent bar and camera-shaped handles.
• Never overlaps: Active Camera blocks cannot overlap, even when they target different cameras. Dragging one block onto another snaps it to the neighbor's edge.
• Marks transitions on the bar: when Enter or Exit has a transition duration above 0s, a vertical line inside the block marks where the transition ends or begins. Drag that line to change the transition duration:
  • Fade: the bar tapers to a point at the block's edge.
  • Move: the bar narrows to a band between the line and the block's edge.
• Hide camera tracks: filters camera blocks out of the Timeline panel, including the Active Camera track.
  • Off: camera tracks always show, even while other shapes are selected. This is the default.
  • On: camera tracks are hidden, except those of a selected camera.

Attributes

An Active Camera block's settings are in the Active Camera section of the Attributes panel:

• Camera: the camera the block makes active, chosen from the cameras on the board.
• Time: when the block starts and ends, in seconds. Each field is outlined while the playhead sits on that time.
• Duration: how long the camera stays active, in seconds.
• Enter and Exit: how the view transitions in at the start of the block and out at its end. Each side has a style (Fade or Move) and a duration in seconds:
  • 0s, the default: turns off that side's transition so it cuts immediately.
  • Runs inside the block: both transitions fit within the block, so their combined duration cannot exceed Duration.
  • Easing: when a side is set to Move with a duration above 0s, an easing picker (Cubic by default) appears below it. See Easing.

See Switching cameras for how Cut, Move, and Fade work.

Switching cameras

Chain Active Camera blocks for different cameras to move the view from one area of the board to the next:

• Set the transition on the two blocks: the outgoing block's Exit and the incoming block's Enter control the switch between two cameras. During animation playback, these block settings replace the manual transition in Camera settings.
• Avoid uncovered stretches: where no Active Camera block covers the timeline, no camera is active. While the view follows the active camera, playback skips those gaps: the playhead jumps to the next block, and at the end of the last block playback stops or loops.

Cut

A cut switches immediately from one camera to the next, with no intermediate frames. Leave the outgoing block's Exit duration and the incoming block's Enter duration at 0s.

Move

A move pans and zooms the view across the board from one camera to the next.

• Needs: an earlier block (for Enter) or a later block (for Exit) that targets a different camera.
• Duration: choose Move and set a duration above 0s on the outgoing block's Exit, the incoming block's Enter, or both. When both sides use Move, their durations combine into one continuous trip across the switch.
• Easing: sets how the move speeds up and slows down (Cubic by default):
  • Move on both blocks: the outgoing block's Exit easing controls how the view speeds up as it leaves the first camera, and the incoming block's Enter easing controls how it slows down as it arrives at the second camera.
  • Move on one block only: that block's easing applies to both the start and the end of the trip.

Fade

A fade brings a camera view in from the board background or fades it out to that background. It never cross-dissolves two cameras directly into each other:

• Enter: choose Fade and set a duration above 0s to fade the camera in from the board background at the start of the block.
• Exit: choose Fade and set a duration above 0s to fade the camera out to the board background at the end of the block.

Actions

With an Active Camera block selected, the Actions panel shows:

• Delete: removes the block. See Deleting animation.
• Cut, Copy, and Paste: move or copy the block to another time or sequence. See Cut, copy, and paste blocks.
• Reassign: chooses another camera for the block. See Reassign targets.

Active Camera blocks choose which camera is active at each moment, so they do not take block pauses.