How to control time duration of animation keyframes in Arc GIS Pro 2.5.
Hi Dave,
If I understand correctly, you want to see 5 years of earthquake data (displayed in a static way, for a few seconds), and then step forward in one step to the next 5 years (for a few seconds), for all your data? If so, there are two ways that come to mind.
[1] Set the time transition type to "Stepped" (screenshot below) for each of your keyframes. This will move the time component for the map immediately to the time of the end keyframe. One extra tip - this means that the time duration for Keyframe 1 will show for 1/30th of a second before it moves to the duration time of Keyframe 2. You can add a 'hold' to the first keyframe (or just duplicate it using Append Front) to ensure it gets included properly in the video.
[2] Export the video with a very slow frame-rate that matches your keyframe interval. For example, if you want to show each 5-year span for 2 seconds (and the spacing for all keyframes are the same), then you can export a video at 0.5 frames/second and it will only capture the images for your actual keyframes. It also has the advantage of making smaller video files. This technique won't work if the camera / view extent is moving.
Hope one of the above techniques works for you!
-Nathan.
Hi Nathan; Sorry to be a little bit late on the reply, but; Thanks much for the suggestions, they are already a big help. This is looking a whole lot better. Your initial summary of what it is I am trying to do is exactly correct. It is performing as I hoped. I haven't exported to any format yet as there are some little details I am still struggling with.
Detail 1: I set all the frames to stepped as you suggested. However I had to do it with the keyframe list. Clicking on the stepped selection in the keyframe as you illustrated just would not take, i.e. change the selection. Don't know what is going on there, but the pulldown keyframe list in the ribbon worked. Except for the first two keyframes. Somehow they are set to mixed and apparently can't be changed. I have attached a screen capture (hope it can be read) to try and illustrate. I would try your suggestion as to the "hold" on Keyframe 1, but not sure how to change it, and also not sure then on Keyframe 2.
Detail 2: Not really pertaining to my original inquiry, I know. But, getting the overlay features to behave is quite cantankerous. I have a function for the "endTime" of each Keyframe, but it pretty much does what it wants. In pic #2, you can see it got set to 12/31/2018. Where that is coming from is unknown as the last datapoint in the XYTable is 1/1/2017 as is shown in the ribbon above. 
This is a cool project. I am doing this to continue familiarity with Pro after doing the MOOC course.
Thanks; Dave
Hi Dave,
Glad you're working through this project (and thanks for doing the MOOC). 
Here is some general info that might help explain what you're seeing regarding Detail 1:
- 'Transitions' are stored in the 'To-Keyframe' (think of them as "how do I get to this end state")
- This means that Keyframe-1 doesn't have a transition at all (per your top screenshot)
- Which is why 'Transition' is grayed out in the UI (for that selected keyframe)
- Extra mini-note - animations don't run in Layout views (unless you activate the frame)
- I would recommend staying in the Map view exclusively when making an animation
- Transitions have sub-components: camera; time; range; layer
- Camera -> how the camera moves; Time -> how the time-slider moves; etc
- Transition sub-components can use different types of math for calculating how the value/s change
- EG: The camera-movement-transition can be 'Linear' (for straight line flight path)
- EG: The time-transition can be 'Stepped' (for a 'leap' to the next time)
- The top screenshot in my previous post shows how to change just the time sub-component
- The icon for the 'circle' shows in the Timeline Pane is for the camera transition subtype (only)
- And if your extent never changes, it won't matter what the transition type is for this component
- That is, don't worry about the displayed transition type for your animation
- The 'mixed mode' you're seeing is an advanced option, where you can change individual properties within a sub-component (eg: the 'X' coordinate of the camera can transition using 'Linear', while the 'Y' and 'Z' coordinates could transition using 'Fixed curve'). I'll expand a bit on how you (probably) got to this state a bit further down. It's pretty advanced animating, and not something you're likely to need to do on purpose.
- And if your extent never changes, it won't matter what the transition type is for this component
So... on a practical level... the only transition sub-component you need to ensure is Stepped is 'Time'.
And the best way to do that for all the keyframes is to: select all keyframes in the Timeline pane (the one at the bottom of the view); click on one of the...
Regarding the 'mixed mode' result -> this was probably the result of changing the 'Transition' type in the Animation Properties pane (the one that appears on the side of the view) without selecting an entire section of properties. It's easiest to understand visually (per below) - for your use case, you want to select an entire section (per the right side) before you set the Transition type. I suspect you accidentally selected-and-edited a sub-component of the camera (per the left side).
The above info on mixed-mode just an FYI. None of this matters for an animation where the camera doesn't move. To get all the icons back to a single type (if you wanted to), select all the keyframes in the Timeline pane, click one of the icons, expand Camera, and pick a transition type (eg: Stepped).
Phew. Well, that was more info than I expected to put in for detail 1. Hopefully it's helpful for general knowledge.
Regarding Detail 2, I think you just need to update the Time extent for the last keyframe. It's possible / likely that the time-slider state was just captured incorrectly -> eg: with the std 5-year span, instead of the custom span needed for the final (non-5-yr) extent of the data.
Steps:
- Select the last keyframe (in the Animation Timeline pane)
- In the Time ribbon, update the 'Current Time' extent of the time-slider (screenshot below) as needed
- Note that the 'Full Extent' properties are basically data metadata, and are not used in the animation
- In the Animation ribbon, update the selected keyframe by clicking the 'Update' button in the Edit group
Tip: double-click on the second-last keyframe, and then again on the last-keyframe to zoom to a refreshed view of it -> the dynamic text should be updated to the new 'end' time value.
Hope this gets you to where you need to be!
Thanks, Nathan.
