Cool 3D Production Studio will calculate the movement of the graphic between keyframes. It will automatically move the object frame by frame from the initial keyframe to the orientation and position of the next keyframe and so on. The trick is to set the keyframes such that you get the movement that you want. The keyframe values that have been presented here were arrived at by considerable trial and tweaking.

Another method of setting attribute values is available. You can use the mouse to grab the object in the project window and move it where you want for a given keyframe. As you move the object, the X, Y and Z values in the Location toolbar will automatically be adjusted to reflect where the object currently is located in the 3D space. This is easier to use than entering the values manually but it does take a little getting used to.

We can preview the animation by clicking on the Play button in the Navigation toolbar (Figure 50). This will cause the animation to be rendered in the project window so that you can get an idea of how it looks. If you turn on the "Use Smart Rendering" option (Figure 51), subsequent previews will play back at near the frames per second speed. However, once you make a change to the project, it will have to be re-rendered.