Parenting and Hierarchy Animation

Any element can be assigned a parent element. Once parented, the child's transforms are computed relative to the parent's transforms. When the parent moves, rotates, or scales, the child moves with it automatically.

Setting a parent:

• -In the Properties Panel, the "Parent" dropdown lists all elements in the current sequence
• -Or: In the Layer Panel, drag the child element onto the parent element (a nesting indicator appears)

Removing a parent: Set the Parent to "None" in the dropdown.

A Null Object is an invisible, non-rendering element that exists solely as an animation target for parenting.

Creating a Null: Insert -> Null Object or Ctrl+Shift+N

Null objects are displayed as a small crosshair on the canvas in design mode but are invisible in export.

Use cases for nulls:

• -Shared pivot — parent multiple elements to a null and rotate/scale the null to affect all children from a single control point
• -Camera simulation — parent all scene elements to a null and animate the null's position/scale to simulate a virtual camera moving through the scene
• -Rigging anchor — create complex multi-joint animation rigs without exposing visible pivot geometry

When a parent is animated:

• -The child's position is interpreted as an offset from the parent's current position at every frame
• -If the child also has its own position animation, the child moves relative to the parent's moving origin

Example:

• -Parent null moves from X=0 to X=500 over 60 frames
• -Child circle has its own animation from X=0 to X=100 over 30 frames
• -The child's rendered position at frame 60 is (500+100, 0) = (600, 0)

Freeze Transform bakes the current effect of a parent's transform into the child as local values, then removes the parent relationship.

Animation -> Freeze Transform

Use when you want to "lock in" a hierarchical result and then work independently from the parent.