Start an animation from chat or a quick-start motion
Describe the animation in chat, or start an empty one and build it from the Layers panel and the toolbar.
✦ Course · Intermediate
Animate layers and 3D rigs in the Animation editor
Start from chat or a preset, keyframe position, scale, opacity and colour on the timeline, pose a 3D rig, then export video, frames and the project.
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By the end you will have a keyframed teaser with eased motion, a posed 3D rig and exported copies of both to share.
Add motion with presets, chat and keyframes Shape timing with easing on the timeline Pose a 3D rig and export each format
6 min
Add motion with presets, auto-animate and chat
Add ready-made motion to one layer or to all of them from the More menu, or ask chat for it.
Keyframe position, scale and rotation by hand
Arm a property's stopwatch and change it at another frame, or press K to key everything that's animated at the playhead.
Animate opacity and colour, then shape the timing
Fade and recolour a layer, then choose how each move eases from one key to the next.
Pose a 3D rig with bones and keyframes
Pose the practice rig or your own character bone by bone in 3D rig, and key each pose in time.
Export a video, a frame or the whole project
Pick a format in Export / Download and keep a Scene JSON copy, the one format there that carries the 3D rig.
Edit the animation on your phone
Open the same animation in the phone's Animation Editor and reshape it by touch for a 9:16 story.
What each lesson covers
The course, lesson by lesson.
Start an animation from chat or a quick-start motion
Describe the animation in chat, or start an empty one and build it from the Layers panel and the toolbar.
This course uses the Animation editor in the desktop workspace on a computer, with a last lesson on the phone. Type Animate and describe what should move, and Oppermind drafts a short animation, usually two to six layers with staggered entrances. It opens paused on the first frame. To start empty, choose New editor beside the tabs and pick Animation before you open any other animation. You get a 960×540 stage at 30 fps, 3 seconds long, with twelve quick-start motions in the Layers panel, each adding a shape that plays that motion. Drag on the stage with Rectangle · R, Ellipse · O, Polygon · P, Star or Text · T to draw a layer, and use Insert image for a picture. Double-click a layer's name to rename it. The top of the list is the front of the stage. The desktop has no stage-size control, so ask chat, for example Set the comp to 1080x1080. Layers keep their pixel positions and can end up off-centre.
Practice. Start with an empty animation. Click Pop in the quick-start grid, draw a Text · T layer beside it and rename both layers. Then ask chat to animate a short title card for something you're working on, and press Play · Space when it opens.
Animate a 3-second teaser for Wattle & Rye's spring menu, with the words Spring menu sliding in from the left and a gold star badge popping in after it.
Add motion with presets, auto-animate and chat
Add ready-made motion to one layer or to all of them from the More menu, or ask chat for it.
The More menu lists twelve Quick motion presets, from Fade in and Fly in L to Wiggle, Shake and Float. Each one keys the selected layer starting at the playhead, so move the playhead first if the motion should start later. Auto-animate gives every visible layer the same entrance, Fade, Rise or Pop, starting 0.15 seconds apart, or closer if they wouldn't fit, and only then lengthens the animation. Both write ordinary keyframes you can change on the timeline. Right-click in the editor for Reverse animation, which flips the selected layer's keys so an entrance becomes an exit, and Clear animation, which removes them. The link at the foot of the menu only shows a hint, so type requests in the composer while its editing chip shows the animation's name. Chat changes join the same undo history, and Undo steps back through them. When the editor turns a change down, the reply or a notice gives the reason. Check the stage after each request as well.
Practice. Select one layer, move the playhead to 1 second and choose Pop. Undo it and try Rise under Auto-animate instead. Undo again, hide Background with its eye so it stays still, then ask chat to make everything rise in one after another. Show Background again and compare the two results.
Select Badge, click frame 30 on the ruler, open More and choose Pop under Quick motion presets. Then hide Background and type in chat: Make everything rise in one after another.
Keyframe position, scale and rotation by hand
Arm a property's stopwatch and change it at another frame, or press K to key everything that's animated at the playhead.
Select a layer and the timeline shows its rows, Position X, Position Y, Scale, Rotation and Opacity, each level with its diamonds and showing its value at the playhead. Click a row's stopwatch to key its current value at the playhead. From then on that property is animated, so a change at any other frame adds a keyframe there, whether you type in the properties panel, drag up or down on a field, or drag the layer on the stage. Press K, or click Key, to key every animated property at the playhead, or Position X and Y if nothing is animated yet. Click an amber diamond to select it, drag it along the row to change its timing, and press Delete to remove it. Ctrl+C or Cmd+C copies selected keys and Ctrl+V or Cmd+V pastes them at the playhead. Ctrl+Z undoes and Ctrl+Y redoes, or Cmd+Z and Cmd+Y on a Mac. These shortcuts don't work while you're typing in a field.
Practice. Select a text layer with no motion yet, go to frame 0 and click the Position X stopwatch. Move to frame 24 and drag the layer across the stage. Add Scale keys the same way, drag the second Scale diamond to frame 30 and play it back. Press Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z to undo the drag, then Ctrl+Y or Cmd+Y to bring it back.
With Title selected at frame 0, right-click and choose Clear animation so every stopwatch starts unarmed. Click the stopwatches for Position X, Position Y, Scale and Opacity, then type Pos X 320, Pos Y 260 and Scale 80 and set the Opacity slider to 0. At frame 18 set it to 100. At frame 24 type Pos X 480, Pos Y 230 and Scale 100. Click frame 60 on the ruler and press K.
Animate opacity and colour, then shape the timing
Fade and recolour a layer, then choose how each move eases from one key to the next.
Opacity has a slider in Transform and its own stopwatch on the timeline. Fill colour works the same way from the stopwatch beside Fill in Appearance. Once it's armed, a Fill colour row appears on the timeline and its diamonds show the colour at each key. Easing sets how a value travels from one key to the next. Select a key and pick a tile under Keyframe easing, or use the same seven in the More menu: Linear, In, Out, Inout, Hold, Bounce and Elastic. The easing on a key shapes the move that starts there, and with no key selected your choice applies to every key on the layer. Hold keeps a value until the next key. With three or more position keys, tick Curved motion path for a smooth route. In the transport, Dur sets the length and Loop replays it. A new FPS moves every key, Fill colour included, so its timing in seconds stays put.
Practice. Arm Fill on the badge and change its colour 30 frames later. Click one of its Scale diamonds and try Bounce, then Elastic. Set Dur to 4 and play it with Loop on. Then set FPS to 60 and see the second Fill key move to twice its frame number, and set it back to 30.
Select Badge, move to frame 45 and click the stopwatch beside Fill. Move to frame 75 and pick a pink in Fill. Then click the Scale diamond at frame 41 and choose Bounce under Keyframe easing.
Pose a 3D rig with bones and keyframes
Pose the practice rig or your own character bone by bone in 3D rig, and key each pose in time.
3D rig in the toolbar swaps the 2D stage for a 3D viewport, and 2D layers brings the stage back. It starts with a practice rig, a blue tube with bones Joint_0 to Joint_3. Drag to orbit and scroll to zoom. Pick a bone in Bone, choose Rotation (degrees), Position (model units) or Scale in Transform, and type X, Y and Z. Key pose saves that bone's pose at the time on the time slider, and Delete pose removes it. Seconds sets the track length. Import rig GLB loads your own character from a self-contained GLB up to 8 MB, with a skinned mesh, embedded textures and no more than 5,000 nodes. Clip lists Pose track and the file's own clips, which play as they are, and bones can only be posed and keyed on Pose track. Export animated GLB saves the mesh, the skeleton, the imported clips and your Pose track, and PNG saves the view as a still. The rig and its poses save with the animation.
Practice. Open 3D rig and pick Joint_1. At 0 seconds press Key pose with Z at 0. Move to 1 second, set Z to 35 and press Key pose again, then press Play and watch the tube bend.
In 3D rig, choose Bone Joint_1 and Transform Rotation (degrees). Move the time slider to 1.00s, type 35 in Z and press Key pose.
Export a video, a frame or the whole project
Pick a format in Export / Download and keep a Scene JSON copy, the one format there that carries the 3D rig.
Export / Download lists four formats. WebM · video records in real time, so a 3-second teaser takes 3 seconds. The desktop records WebM only, and MP4 means converting the file in another tool. GIF · animated encodes every frame, and if the GIF encoder can't load you get a WebM or a prompt to use WebM. PNG · current frame saves the playhead's frame. WebM and GIF record the 2D stage only. The 3D rig needs Export animated GLB. Scene JSON · re-importable saves the layers, keyframes, easing, colour tracks and the 3D rig with its poses in Oppermind's own format, which isn't a Lottie file. Import file brings one back, rig included, and saves it over the open animation. Undo can't bring the old one back, so export that first. Edits save by themselves, with a toast if a save fails. Click Save before you close the tab. The pill left of Undo reads Saved only once the server has accepted it, or Save failed if it hasn't.
Practice. Export a PNG · current frame at the moment the badge lands, a WebM · video of the whole teaser and a Scene JSON copy. Import that Scene JSON with Import file, which swaps the teaser for the same teaser, and check that the layers and the rig pose from lesson 5 come back. Then click Save and read the pill.
Move the playhead to frame 60 and choose PNG · current frame. Then choose WebM · video, and last of all Scene JSON · re-importable.
Edit the animation on your phone
Open the same animation in the phone's Animation Editor and reshape it by touch for a 9:16 story.
The phone's Animation Editor opens from Open editor on an animation's chat card, or from Animation Editor under Create New..., and Open saved lists every animation you've saved. Pinch to zoom the stage and drag with two fingers to pan. With Select and move on, drag a layer with one finger, and if its position is animated the drag adds a keyframe at the playhead. The Edit tab has a diamond beside each property to animate it, with minus and plus steppers. The Motion tab, also opened by Motion presets in the toolbar, has the twelve presets and Animate every layer with Fade, Rise and Pop. The Scene tab sets Size, where 9:16 gives a 540×960 frame and moves the layers to match, plus Frame rate, Length (seconds) and Background. Export offers Video (MP4 or WebM), which depends on your phone's browser, PNG frame, GLB 3D rig and motion, and Project JSON. The phone has no GIF export, no JSON import and no outline or curved-path controls.
Practice. Open the teaser on your phone and export the 16:9 video first, because Size changes this animation rather than making a copy. Then pinch in on the badge, nudge the title with one finger, choose 9:16 in Scene and play it through.
On the phone, open Scene and choose 9:16. Then select Title, open Motion and tap Drop in.
Keep going
Make the learning stick
Start with one real piece of work.
Open Oppermind beside the lesson, apply each step, and leave with something you can use.