Adding & Editing Keyframes
Keyframes are the core of CloudMonet's animation system. A keyframe records the state of an object's properties at a specific point in time. Add keyframes at different time positions and CloudMonet smoothly interpolates between them.
Adding your first keyframe
Place the scrubber at your starting point
Drag the scrubber in the timeline to the time where you want the animation to begin. For most graphics, this is frame 0 — the very start.
Select an object
Click the object on the canvas you want to animate.
Set the initial state
Position the object where (or how) it should look at this moment — move it, resize it, set its opacity, etc.
A keyframe is automatically recorded at the scrubber position.
Move the scrubber to the end point
Drag the scrubber to where you want the animation to finish — for example, 1 second later.
Set the final state
Adjust the object again — move it to its final position, change its opacity to 100%, etc.
Another keyframe is recorded. The object will now animate smoothly between the two states.
A simple and powerful pattern: at frame 0, set opacity to 0. At 0.5 seconds, set opacity to 1. That's a fade-in. Add a keyframe at 4 seconds, then at 5 seconds set opacity back to 0 — now you have a fade-in, hold, and fade-out.
What you can keyframe
These properties can be keyframed:
- Position (X, Y) — move objects across the canvas
- Size (Width, Height) — grow or shrink objects
- Scale (X, Y) — grow or shrink around the anchor point
- Angle — spin or tilt objects
- Opacity — fade in and out
Colours (fill, stroke) and stroke width are set in the Properties panel but aren't animatable — they hold whatever value you give them for the whole clip.
Editing a keyframe
Move the scrubber to the exact time of the keyframe you want to change, then adjust the property in the canvas or Properties panel — the edit is written to whatever keyframe already exists at that time.
Clicking a keyframe marker selects it (and its object) but doesn't move the scrubber there. If the scrubber isn't at the same time as the keyframe, editing a property creates a new keyframe wherever the scrubber is, instead of changing the one you clicked.
Moving a keyframe
Drag any keyframe marker left or right along its track to change its timing without changing the property values.
Deleting a keyframe
Double-click or right-click a keyframe marker to delete it immediately — there's no confirmation or context menu.
Don't use the Delete/Backspace key for this — with a keyframe selected, it deletes the object the keyframe belongs to, not just the keyframe.
Deleting a keyframe removes the recorded state at that point in time. The object will interpolate directly between the remaining keyframes, which may change the animation.
Locked keyframes
Keyframes inside a preset animation's IN or OUT window (see Animation Types — Text and Animation Types — Shapes & Images) are shown grayed out and can't be dragged or deleted — they're regenerated from the preset's settings. To edit them directly, switch that slot from its preset to Custom first.