Pre and Post Extrapolation in Timeline

Objective: Control your animations using extrapolations!

What is extrapolation? If you click on a clip in the Timeline in the inspector, you will see Animation Extrapolation. This is basically what the animation clip is going to do prior to you actually running it. By default, it is set to hold.

If you have space between two clips and you play your animation you will see that the animation just holds while its waiting to get to the next clip.

If you were to shorten the clip and set the Post extrapolation to none you will see it snap back to the beginning.

We also have the ability to loop. With this selected the animation clip will loop until it reaches the next clip where it will snap to the next animation.

Another option is Ping Pong. This will play the clip, and when it gets to the end it will play the clip in reverse until it hits the next clip on the Timeline.

Finally we have the continue button. If you trim your clip, if there is empty space between clips it will continue to play the first sequence until it reaches the end where it will hold until it reaching the next clip.

Now you know how to add pre and post extrapolations. Use these to further flesh out your animations on your Timeline. Don’t be afraid to experiment and I’ll see you in the next tutorial!