View animated emitter curves in the Keyframe Editor

View animated emitter curves in the Keyframe Editor

You can also animate emitter or cell parameters using keyframes. When you do so, a curve describing that animation is available in the Keyframe Editor. The selected object determines which curves appear in the Keyframe Editor (when Animated is selected from the pop-up menu in the top-left corner of the Keyframe Editor). For more information about animating with keyframes, see Keyframing overview.

Display keyframed emitter or cell curves

  • Display keyframed emitter curves: With the Keyframe Editor open (press Command-8 if it’s not already open), select an emitter in the Layers list to display animated emitter parameters such as Position and Rotation (in the Properties Inspector) or Emission Angle and Range.

  • Display keyframed cell curves: With the Keyframe Editor open (press Command-8 if it’s not already open), select a cell in the Layers list to display animated parameters such as Birth Rate or Angle.

    Note: To manually send an animated parameter to the Keyframe Editor, click an animated parameter’s Animation menu (the downward arrow that appears when you place the pointer over the right side of a parameter row in the Inspector), then choose Show In Keyframe Editor.

    Inspector showing Show In Keyframe Editor command in Animation menu

    The parameter is displayed in the Keyframe Editor in a new, untitled curve set.

    Untitled curve set in the Timeline, showing parameters sent from Inspector

    For more information about keyframe curves, see Display the Keyframe Editor.