Timeline preview

The Timeline at the bottom of the preview drives every effect in the scene under one shared playhead. You can play, pause, step, seek, loop and restart the whole scene, and — the subject of this page — move and rotate effects along the timeline.

Preview background color

The preview toolbar has a Background color button — a small color swatch that shows the preview's current background color. Click it to open a color picker; the preview updates live as you adjust the color, and pressing Cancel restores the previous one. The color is remembered per effect — each effect keeps its own background — and is saved with the effect and restored the next time you open it. New effects start with a black background.

Moving an effect

Select an effect in the preview and drag its gizmo (or type into the Position / Rotation fields in the Properties panel, or use the toolbar's Make Zero Position / Make Zero Rotation buttons — all go through the same path). The effect re-simulates live from the new pose and follows the gizmo on screen. What happens to that pose over time depends on one transport toggle.

Record Effect Orientation

Next to Step Forward on the timeline transport is a record-dot toggle, Record Effect Orientation. It has two modes.

On — record the motion (default)

While the toggle is on, moving an effect records its pose onto the timeline at the current frame:

• A moving drag records a path; holding still records a single pose.
• Seek or loop back and the effect replays exactly that recorded movement, with the gizmo following along.
• Drag it again on a later pass and the recording is overwritten from that point forward.
• Each effect records independently — moving one never disturbs another.
• The recorded motion is saved with the project and survives close/reopen and undo/redo.

Off — steady position

While the toggle is off, moving an effect instead sets one constant position for it, with no recording:

• The pose you set stays put across seek, restart and loop — it is simply where the effect sits from now on.
• You can move effects while the timeline is playing (the Position / Rotation fields stay editable during playback, not only while paused).
• Moving one effect never disturbs another.

Switching modes

You can flip the toggle at any time, even during playback — the effect keeps running, it does not restart.

• Turning it off (entering steady mode) clears any motion you had recorded, leaving each effect at its base position. This is a single undo step.
• Turning it back on starts recording fresh.

If you move an effect in steady mode and then seek, loop or restart back to before that move, the preview rebuilds the run up to your cursor — a brief "catching up" pause, the same as seeking backwards normally — so the effect shows correctly at its steady position throughout. Seeking or looping to a point after the move behaves like any normal seek.