Animating locations

Although you can do much more with animation in Ultra Fractal, the most obvious thing to animate is 

the location of the fractal to create zoom movies. The location is controlled by five parameters on 

the Location tab of the 

Layer Properties

 tool window: Center, Magnification, Rotation Angle, Stretch, 

and Skew Angle.

To animate the location, first set 

Animate mode

 to on and move the time slider to the frame 

where you want to create 

animation keys

, as described in 

Creating animations

.

Use the same zooming, panning, and rotation features that you would normally use (see 

Normal mode

 and 

Select mode

). They work the same as when Animate mode is off, except 

that only the current frame is modified, instead of the entire range of frames. 

If you use 

Select mode

, Ultra Fractal always inserts keys at the current frame for all five location 

parameters, even when the value of the parameter has not been changed. For example, if you just 

zoom in without stretching or skewing, keys for Stretch and Skew will also be inserted although their 

values have stayed the same. If you do not want this, use 

Normal mode

 instead.

Of course, you can also animate the location by changing one of the location parameters directly 

while Animate mode is on. You can also edit the corner coordinate parameters in the lower half of 

the Location tab, but this just indirectly changes the normal parameters in the upper half.

Always make sure whether 

Animate mode

 is on or off. If you zoom in while Animate mode is off, this 

will transform the entire animation, which usually is not what you want.

The behavior of the Copy, Paste, and Reset buttons in the Location tab behave depends on 

whether or not Animate mode is on, providing flexible ways to copy and clear animation keys. See 

also 

Editing animations

.

  Animate mode on

  Animate mode off

Copies the location at the current frame to 

Copies the location for the entire frame range 

the Clipboard, without any animation keys.

to the Clipboard, including all animation keys.

Sets the current location to the location on 

Sets the current location to the location on 

the Clipboard, overwriting any animation 

the Clipboard, inserting animation keys 

keys.

when necessary, just as if you entered 

those values manually.

If the location on the Clipboard has no 

  animation keys (copied with Animate mode 

You must turn off Animate mode before 

on, or from a non animated fractal), any 

pasting locations with animation keys 

animation keys in the current location will be 

(copied when Animate mode is off).

removed.

Resets the location at the current frame to 

the default location for the current fractal 

Clears all animation keys and resets the 

  formula, inserting animation keys when 

  location to the default location for the current 

necessary.

fractal formula.

Next: 

Animating parameters

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