Keyframing in the viewer

You will start keyframing videos in the inspector and then adjust them directly in the viewer. Let’s use the example of the F16, including the dip and flip at the center, and add another keyframe.

Adding new keyframes

With the Option key held down, click on the red path in the viewer. Several things will happen. First, the playhead in the timeline will jump to a new position that represents where you clicked in the path. Then, a yellow diamond will appear on the red line where you clicked. The diamond can be dragged to a new position. On either side of the yellow diamond, you will see Bezier adjustment handles, as shown in Figure 13.19:

Figure 13.19: New keyframe added with the Option key held

With that, you have seen how to add keyframes. Now, let’s look at how to make them appear as more realistic movements.

Selecting linear or smooth curves

The Bezier adjustment handles can be used to rotate the image, but more importantly, when you right-click on the yellow diamond, you have options to select Linear or Smooth curves from the previous and next keyframes. You can choose Delete Point or Lock Point so that it can’t be accidentally moved or disabled and it doesn’t affect the curve but is left there in case you need to reactivate it later:

Figure 13.20: Choosing Linear or Smooth curves

Whenever you click on a diamond on the red path, the image will jump to that position in both the timeline and the viewer:

Figure 13.21: Multiple keyframes

You can use the direct controls in the viewer popup or, as you will see in the next section, use the Transform or Crop control.