Animation palette overview

In Photoshop, the Animation palette (Window > Animation) appears in frame mode, showing a thumbnail of each frame in your animation. Use the tools at the bottom of the palette to navigate through the frames, set looping options, add and delete frames, and preview the animation.

The Animation palette menu contains additional commands for editing frames or timeline durations, and for configuring the palette display. Click the palette menu icon to view available commands.

Animation palette (frame mode)

A: Selects the first frame
B: Selects the previous frame
C: Plays animation
D: Selects the next frame
E: Tweens animation frames
F: Duplicates selected frames
G: Deletes selected frames
H: Converts to timeline mode (Photoshop Extended only)
I: Animation palette menu

In Photoshop Extended, you can use the Animation palette in either frame mode or timeline mode. Timeline mode shows the frame duration and animation properties for document layers. Use the tools at the bottom of the palette to navigate through frames, zoom the time display in or out, toggle onion skin mode, delete keyframes, and preview the video. You can use controls on the timeline itself to adjust frame duration for a layer, set keyframes for layer properties, and designate a section of the video as the working area.

Animation palette (timeline mode)

A: Zoom out
B: Zoom slider
C: Zoom in
D: Toggle onion skins
E: Delete keyframes
F: Convert to frame animation

In timeline mode, the Animation palette displays each layer in a Photoshop Extended document (except the background layer) and is synchronized with the Layers palette. Whenever a layer is added, deleted, renamed, grouped, duplicated, or assigned a color, the changes are updated in both palettes.

Note: When animated layers are grouped as a Smart Object, the animation information from the Animation palette is stored in the Smart Object. See also About Smart Objects.

For a video on the timeline mode, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0023.

Frame mode controls

In frame mode, the Animation palette includes the following controls:

Looping Options: Sets the number of times an animation plays when exported as an animated GIF file.
Frame Delay Time: Sets the duration of a frame during playback.
Tween Animation Frames: Adds a series of frames between two existing frames, varying the layer properties evenly between the new frames.
Duplicate Selected Frames: Adds a frame to the animation by duplicating the selected frame in the Animation palette.
Convert To Timeline Animation (Photoshop Extended): Converts a frame animation to timeline animation using keyframes to animate layer properties.

Timeline mode controls (Photoshop Extended)

In timeline mode, the Animation palette includes the following features and controls:

Cached Frames Indicator: Displays a green bar to indicate the frames that are cached for playback.
Comments Track: Choose Edit Timeline Comment from the Palette menu to insert a comment at the current time. Comments appear as icons in the comments track, and are displayed as tool tips when the pointer is moved over the icon.
Convert To Frame Animation: Converts a timeline animation using keyframes to frame animation.
Timecode Or Frame Number Display: Shows the timecode or frame number (depending on palette options) for the current frame.
Current-Time Indicator: Drag the current-time indicator to navigate frames or change the current time or frame.
Global Lighting Track: Displays keyframes where you set and change the master lighting angle for layer effects such as Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, and Bevel and Emboss.
Keyframe Navigators: Arrow buttons to the left of a track label move the current-time indicator to the previous or next keyframe from its current position. Click the center button to add or delete a keyframe at the current time.
Layer Duration Bar: Specifies a layer’s place in time within a video or animation. To move the layer to another place in time, drag the bar. To trim (adjust the duration of) a layer, drag either end of the bar.
Altered Video Track: For video layers, displays a keyframe icon for each frame that has been altered. To jump to altered frames, use keyframe navigators to the left of the track label.
Time Ruler: Measures duration (or frame count) horizontally, according to the document’s duration and frame rate. (Choose Document Settings from the Palette menu to change duration or frame rate.) Tick marks and numbers appear along the ruler and change in spacing with the zoom setting of the timeline.
Time-Vary Stop Watch: Enables or disables keyframing for a layer property. Select this option to insert a keyframe and enable keyframing for a layer property. Deselect to remove all keyframes and disable keyframing for a layer property.
Animation Palette Options: Opens the Animation palette menu, which includes functions affecting keyframes, layers, panel appearance, onion skinning, and document settings.
Work Area Indicators: Drag the blue tab at either end of the topmost track to mark the specific portion of the animation or video that you want to preview or export.

Change thumbnail size

In the Animation palette, you can change the size of the thumbnails that represent each frame or layer.

Choose Palette Options from the Animation palette menu.
Do one of the following:
- Select a size option.
- (Photoshop Extended) In timeline mode, select None to display only layer names.

Switch timeline units (Photoshop Extended)

In Photoshop Extended, you can display the Animation palette timeline in either frame number or timecode units.

To select units to display, choose Palette Options from the Animation palette menu and select Frame Numbers or Timecode.
To toggle between units, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the current-time display in the upper-left corner of the timeline.

Show or hide layer properties in the timeline (Photoshop Extended)

In Photoshop Extended, as you add layers to a document, they appear as tracks in the timeline. Expand layer tracks to show layer properties that can be animated.

To show or hide layer properties, click the triangle to the left of the layer name.

For a video on the timeline mode, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0023.

Show or hide layers in the timeline (Photoshop Extended)

In Photoshop Extended, all document layers appear in the timeline by default. To show only a subset of layers, first set them as favorites.

In timeline mode, select one or more layers from the Animation palette, then choose Show > Set Favorite Layers in the Animation palette menu.
To specify which layers are displayed, choose Show from the Animation palette menu, then select All Layers or Favorite Layers.

Navigate in the timeline (Photoshop Extended)

With the Animation palette in timeline mode, do any of the following:

Drag the current-time indicator .
Click a number or location in the time ruler where you want to position the current-time indicator.
Drag the current-time display (in the upper-left corner of the timeline).
Double-click the current-time display and enter a frame number or time in the Set Current Time dialog box.
Use the playback controls in the Animation palette.
Choose Go To in the Animation palette menu, and then choose a timeline option.

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