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Parenting, paths, rigs and Controls.

Let relations do the repetitive work: a layer that follows a path, a train of cars behind an engine, a hand that moves with its arm. Everything here stays live, so changing the path or the leader changes everything that follows it.

Relations

A relation says what a layer's placement is relative to. Add one from the Add menu at the top of the layer's Transform section in the Inspector: Follow path, Attach to or Parent. Each relation is a row with what drives it, as a link that selects it, and:

  • Influence: how much the relation places the layer, from 0% to 100%. Values between blend, so animating Influence lets a letter peel off a path or a creature step out of a picture.
  • Change, to pick what drives it, and Remove, which takes the relation off and leaves the layer where it is.

The layer's own Position, Rotation and Scale stay editable on top of the relation, so a layer that follows a path can still wobble.

Follow a path

  1. Choose the Pen (G) and set Draws to Path in its Tool options.
  2. Draw the route.
  3. Select the layer that should travel, open Transform's Add menu and choose Follow path, then the Path.
  4. Key Progress from 0% to 100%. A whole flight is two or three keys, eased in the Graph.
Progress
How far along the Path the layer is, as a percentage of its length.
Orientation
None keeps the layer's own rotation, Along path turns it along the path, and Along path, banked leans it into the curves.
Keep upright
Mirrors left to right instead of turning upside down.
Face camera
Turns about the path so the layer never goes edge-on to the camera.
Offset
Distance from the path, to one side, in pixels.

Drag a point of the Path later and everything following it takes the new route. Cameras can follow a path too, for a smooth fly-through.

Parent

Choose Parent from Transform's Add menu and pick another layer: this layer then moves, turns and scales with it, like a hand with its arm. A parent is another layer on the same track as the object it places. A camera has no parent.

Attach to a tracker

Attach to makes the layer follow one of the composition's trackers, for a logo on a moving sign. Track the footage first; see Tracking.

Chains

  1. Select two or more layers in order, the leader first.
  2. Right-click and choose Make chain.
  3. In the chain's section, set Spacing, in pixels along the leader's trail or in frames behind it.

The others follow the leader's trail in the order you selected them, whatever moves the leader: keys, a path or a driver. That's a train behind its engine, or the segments of a dragon behind its head.

Mode
Follow the leader's trail, or move Along path when the leader follows one.
Orientation
Along motion turns members the way they travel; Keep own leaves their rotation alone. Keep upright and Face camera work as they do for Follow path.

Remove from chain lets a member go: it stays where it is and no longer follows.

Rigs and poses

  1. Select the parts of a character or a mechanism, on the Stage or the Timeline, right-click and choose Assemble rig.
  2. The rig's section lists its Parts. Each part's pivot is its Anchor.
  3. Pose the parts, then press Save pose. It keeps the parts' positions, rotations, scales and Anchors at the playhead as a new pose at 100%.

Under Poses, Neutral is the base pose, and each pose you save has a Weight you can key. Blend poses by keying their weights against each other: a hand that opens, a face that smiles.

Bend with the Puppet tool

  1. Select a picture layer and choose the Puppet tool (P).
  2. Choose a Mesh detail, Coarse, Medium or Fine, and Create mesh. More detail bends more smoothly and takes more work to animate.
  3. With Add pins, click to place pins. One pin moves the whole layer; add another to hold a part in place, then drag to bend.
  4. Switch to Move pins and drag them at different times to animate the bend.

Preserve region keeps an area stiff, such as a face. Show mesh, Rebuild mesh and Remove mesh are in the tool's options.

Controls

Controls is a tab beside the Inspector. It holds the handful of values that make a piece your own, in named sets, so you can change a template without digging through its layers. Ape publishes a few with each composition it builds, and you can add your own with Expose or edit control in any property row's menu.

  • A control is a route to a real property or a real pair of keys, so a change there is an ordinary edit with an ordinary undo.
  • Loop this set replays the set's time while you tune, and pressing it again gives your range back. Loop this move does the same for one move.
  • A control's menu opens its real keys in the Timeline's Graph, and Show in Inspector opens the real property.
  • Ask Ape about this set… opens Ape with the set attached, and Ask Ape about this control… with one control.
  • If a control's source was deleted or something else now drives it, the control keeps its place and says in a sentence what you can do.
  • Remove takes a control off the panel and changes nothing else.

Change the feel of a move

A feel row shapes one move between two keys. Its chips are Hold, Linear, Ease in, Ease out, Ease in/out, Smooth through and Overshoot, and Custom turns the curve into handles you can drag. Hold, for instance, holds and then jumps at the end; Overshoot goes about 10% past the end and settles back.