Animation Think about your animation like a series of still images, projected one by one, at 60 frame per second (FPS) speed. On each frame, the object is placed on a different position. For example, at the frame 1 the object stands on the X coordinate 10, then at the frame 2 on the X coordinate 20, at the frame 3 on the X coordinate 30, and so forth. When you play the animation you will see your object moving along the X axis from the point 10 to the point 30. This could be manually done when the frames are so few, but it turns into a very long and boring task for e.g. 1000 frames. Moreover, it comes so evident that at the frame 15 the object will be at the X coordinate 15. So the computer can save your time creating all the frames in between the first frame and the last frame. Thus all you need is to define the position of the object at the first frame and the position of the object at the last frame. These 2 frames are called Key Frames. Basically, and in simple words, you will create a new key frame whenever your object changes direction and/or speed.
Create an animation
	• Let's start from scratch and create a new Kinemac file with the command File/New.
	• Go to the Sprites window and move the time marker to the frame zero or press the ⌘⇦.
	• Create a new cube by selecting the menu item Object/3D/Cube. You will see a white square on the Stage window and a Sprite labeled Cube on the Sprites window. The sprite starts at the frame zero and its duration is 800 ticks (1 second is 60 ticks, therefore 800 ticks are 13.3 seconds). You can change the unit of measurement from "Ticks" to "Seconds" on the Preferences panel.
• Now, hold down the Control key then two-fingers-swipe onto your trackpad to rotate the scene. To select the Cube, click on the Cube itself on the Stage window or click on the orange Cube-Sprite on the Sprites window below.
• Press ⌘-K or click on both the Position and Rotation keyframe buttons on the Inspector panel to create 6 keyframes on the Positions x, y, z and the Rotations x, y, z. Don't change these values so the Cube, at the frame zero, will stay at the Position X = 0, Y = 0, Z = 0 and at the Rotation X = 0, Y = 0, Z = 0. • Go to the frame 100 by clicking on the Sprite rules over to the "100 ticks" label. You can hold down the ⌘ key while clicking or dragging to snap the clicked point to the "10-ticks" values. Furthermore you can go to a given frame by selecting the menu item "Animation/Go to frame…".
• Press again ⌘-K or click on both the Position and Rotation keyframe buttons on the Inspector panel to create 6 keyframes on the Positions x, y, z and the Rotations x, y, z. Then set the Position Z = -1000 and the Rotation X = -360°. You can move the selected cube even using the trackpad. Hold down the Fn⌥ keys then two-fingers-swipe up and down to change the Z position. You can rotate the selected cube even using the trackpad. Hold down the Fn⌃⇧ keys then two-fingers-swipe up and down to change the X rotation. If you two-fingers-swipe left and right you will change the Y rotation. • Now go to the frame Zero by pressing the ⌘⇦ then press the spacebar to play the animation. The cube will move back along the Z axis and will rotate around the X axis. Easy and smooth! True?
Add a keyframe more • Now stop the animation by pressing the spacebar and press the ⌘⇦ to go again to the frame zero. • Select the menu item "Sprites/Copy Frame Values", go to the frame 200 then select the menu item "Sprites/Paste Frame Values". You have created a new key frame on the frame 200 with the same values of the key frame on the frame zero. • Now go to the frame Zero by pressing the ⌘⇦ then press the spacebar to play the animation. As you can see now the cube goes away along the Z axis and rotates around X then it goes back to its original position/rotation. Easy?
Modify the animation You can modify the animation changing the positions and rotations of the cube on a given key frame. Firstly you have to move the time marker to a key frame point, then move and rotate your object to the new position either on the Stage and on the Inspector panel. Please note that you have to BE SURE that the time marker is really placed on a key frame before you modify the positions and the rotations of the cube. Instead of manually placing the time marker on a key frame point clicking on the Sprites rule, we'd rather suggest you to "jump" from a key frame to the next key frame of a selected sprite by pressing the ⇥ key. Press ⇧⇥ to go to the previous key frame. If you modify the position or the rotation of the cube when the time marker is not on a key frame point, you will be modifying its position and rotation along the whole duration of the sprite.
Move a key frame earlier or later You can vary the position of a key frame along the ruler view of the Sprites window by dragging the key frame icon to the left or to the right side along the sprites rule. This way you will modify (speed up or slow down) the animation of that sprite. For example, if your object has 2 key frames, one at the frame 0 and one at the frame 120, if you move the key frame from the frame 120 to the frame 60, you’ll move the positions and rotations associated to that key frame to the frame 60. Therefore the animation between the frame zero and the frame 60 will run twice faster. The object will do that animation in one seconds (60 frames) instead of two seconds (120 frames). To learn more, check the Sprites page.