Newbie's basic keyframe question

[jamesinturvey]

Apologies in advance for what is probably a spectacularly obvious question, but I'm really confused here. I'm a graphic designer trying to turn a layered Photoshop file into an animation, and I'm getting stuck at what is probably a really basic first hurdle 😞

I understand the basics of Animate, in files created by an external expert I can move stuff around, do the tweens I want, export successfully etc. The only thing I can't work out is how to turn my layers on and off when I want.

When I import my Photoshop file, all the layers are present and correct, and all of them are visible. By default, the timeline starts with every layer as a (black circle) keyframe. However, I don't want all of the layers on at the beginning, and some need to come on and off a various points later. So I convert all the unwanted layers' keyframes to blank keyframes to turn them off at the start. But then if I try to insert a keyframe at the point I want them to come on, this new keyframe is also blank, and seemingly won't convert to a normal keyframe. So basically I can't turn my layers on again when I want.

I've done a lot of Googling and also watched the Adobe tutorial about keyframes but I'm obviously missing something really basic that everyone else knows and I don't! Can anyone help please?

Thanks,

James

[johnminshall]

Hi,

If I read you right I think you can just click on the keyframe to select it and drag it to where you want it to start appearing in the timeline.

If you convert it to a blank keyframe then you are effectively removing the object form that instance in the timeline.

[robdillon]

If you put a blank key frame in place of a filled key frame then you are removing the content of that key frame. To change when that content shows up in the timeline just select the keyframe and drag it to a new location in the timeline.

Good luck, with practice you’ll get used to working with the timeline.

[ClayUUID · Accepted solution]

Your mistake is thinking of a layer as equivalent to its initial content. It's not. A layer can contain hundreds of completely different things, separated by keyframes. That's what keyframes are, not just in Animate, but in all animation going back almost a century-- a frame where what's shown changes.

[jamesinturvey]

Thanks everyone for your input. I think the problem lies in my (lack of) understanding how Animate works – I'm used to doing fairly basic animated GIFs in Photoshop where you simply turn layers on and off and create simple tween transitions, so I'm finding it very difficult to get my head round layers holding lots of different things, especially at this time on a Friday afternoon! I guess I'll try again with a fresh brain on Monday ... or get the specialist back in 🙂