Importing Animated Files | Twinmotion Documentation

You can import files that contain animated objects into Twinmotion. You can set the properties for animated files, including the speed of the animation, the length of the delay before the animation sequence starts, and the start and end points of the animation sequence.

This page explains how to import animated files into Twinmotion. For a general overview of the animation feature in Twinmotion, refer to Animation Overview.

The Animation feature in Twinmotion is in Early Access.

Importing Animated Files Into Twinmotion

Open the Import dock by clicking Import in the Footer.
In the Import dock, click the Import ( + ) icon.
Click the Animation tab, then click Open.
In the Import window, navigate to the folder that contains the animated file you want to import.
If you want to import multiple animated files at the same time, make sure to save them in the same folder so you can select them all at once.
Select the animated file and click Open.
In the Import window, under Options, select the importing options. For more information about the options, refer to Import Options.
If you plan on using the Lumen global illumination rendering mode, we recommend that you scale your 3D model in the Import options window using the Uniform scale factor setting, instead of scaling your model in the Viewport after the import. Selecting the scale before you import the file allows Lumen to generate a Surface Cache of the material properties and create Cards for each mesh. For more information on Lumen, refer to Lumen Global Illumination.
Click Import. The import process starts, and the animated file is imported into Twinmotion.
Click to enlarge.
Once the animated file is imported, you can create videos, sequences, as well as images and panoramas that show a specific part of the animation.
For information on how to create videos, refer to Creating Videos.
For information on how to create sequences, refer to Creating Sequences.
For information on how to create images and panoramas, refer to Creating Images and Panoramas.

Working with Animated Files

The animated files that you import into Twinmotion appear in the Import dock.

Animated file in the Import dock.

From the Import dock you can do the following:

Select all imported objects in the file.
Reimport an animated file.
Reset animated files to their original transform settings.
Delete animated files.

Option	Description
Select all imported objects	Selects the animated object in the Viewport and the entire contents of the imported file in the Scene graph.
File settings	Reimports the file while giving you the option to select different import settings.
Reset transform on selection	Returns selected objects in the imported file to their original position, rotation, scale, and size.
Delete	Deletes the animated file from the Import dock, the Viewport, and the Scene graph.

Changing the Properties of Animated Files

When you select an animated object in the Viewport or Scene graph, the settings you can modify appear in the Properties panel. These properties are applied to the animated object as a whole, at the root (Container) level in the Scene graph, and are applied to all the subparts of the animated object. The subparts of animated objects cannot have different properties than their parent objects.

When you import an animated file into Twinmotion you can use the same imported instance in all the media you create and specify distinct properties for the animated file in each media. For example, if you import an animated file and use it in both a video and a sequence, in the video you can set the Play mode to Once and in the sequence you can set the Play mode to Infinite.

Option	Description
Enable	If enabled, the animation plays using one of the options in the Play mode. By default, animations are enabled.
Play mode	Controls how the animation plays. By default, animations play continuously. Options: Once: The animation plays only once. Loop: The animation plays the number of times you specify in the Loop multiplier, then stops. Infinite: The animation plays continuously.
Speed	Sets the speed of an animation. You can override the maximum value. Options: 1% to 300%
Start delay	Determines the length of the delay, in seconds, before the animation starts playing. You can override the maximum value. Options: 0 s to 30 s (seconds)
Animation range	Defines where in a sequence an animation starts and stops. Options: In: The amount of time, in percentage, before the animation starts. Out: The amount of time, in percentage, until the animation ends.
Animation	Select the animation sequence that you want to play, or select None to stop an animation sequence.