Create keyframes and a time track

There are five basic steps to create an animation through time.
They are:
1) Create Keyframes and a Time Track
2) Set the Time Track Properties
3) Set the Keyframe interval and time units
4) Preview and set the Time Text properties
5) Play the animation.

In this segment you'll see how to create keyframes and a time track.

The procedure for creating an animation through time is the same in ArcMap, ArcScene, and ArcGlobe, and the layer’s data source can be a netCDF file, a raster catalog, or a feature class.

Animations consist of tracks. Tracks are bound to objects (such as layers, the map view [ArcMap], the camera [ArcScene and ArcGlobe], or the scene [ArcScene]) whose properties can be animated. You can create an animation that navigates through a scene or globe or pans and zooms around a map by creating a camera or a map view track, respectively. You can create an animation that alters layer properties, such as transparency or visibility, by creating a layer track. Scene properties, such as the background, can be animated by creating a scene track. Data (in the form of feature class, netCDF, or raster catalog layers) can be animated through time in ArcMap, ArcScene, or ArcGlobe by creating a time layer track. All that is required is a time field in the attribute table, or a time dimension for netCDF layers. The ‘Building animations’ section of the ArcGIS Desktop Help explains how to create the various track types for use in an animation.

Tracks are composed of keyframes, which are a snapshot of the object’s properties at a certain time during the animation. For time layer tracks, each keyframe stores a time, and the interval (such as 10) and units (such as years) that will be applied between that keyframe and the next one. To create a time layer track, you’ll first create an empty track and create the keyframes that it will store.

To begin creating keyframes, click Animation and click Create Keyframe. Click the Type drop-down list and click Time Layer as the type of track you’ll create to store the keyframes.

Next, click the Source object drop-down list and click the layer that will be the source data for the time track. In this case it is the County Population layer. Click New to create a new time layer track with a default name. You’ll rename the track later.

All that is required to create an animation through time is a start and an end keyframe (though multiple keyframes can be created if you want to animate, for example, hourly time stamps for the first half of an animation and daily time stamps for the second half). Later in this exercise, you’ll learn how to set the time for each keyframe, between which time stamps will display based on the interval and units that you’ll specify.

Type “Start Time” for the name of the first keyframe you’ll create within the time layer track, and click Create once to create this keyframe. The dialog box does not change after you click create. Be careful to only click Create once. It is easy to unintentionally create multiple keyframes. If you clicked Create more than once, close this dialog box, click Animation, and click Clear Animation. Then start again.

Type “End Time” for the name of the second keyframe you’ll create within the time layer track, then click Create to create the second keyframe. Close the create animation keyframe dialog box.

Next, open the Animation Manager, by clicking the Animation drop-down arrow and clicking Animation Manager. Click the Tracks tab to see the new track you've created. You can change the default name of the time track to something more descriptive. In this example it is changed from "Time Layer track 1" to "USA Pop Change".