Fig. 03: These l'il buttons at the bottom of the Library panel let you create any number of assets right in Anark Studio.

Timeline
Anark Studio's Timeline is set up much like any other timeline, with layers and keyframes and shy layers and all the other good junk you've come to expect these days (fig. 4). What's different about the concept of layers in Anark Studio is that each one is a fully-realized 3D environment. Basically, you can create any number of mini-worlds, each with their own camera, lighting, objects, interactivity, and so on, and rearrange each world as you would a regular ol' 2D layer (fig. 5). Of course, drag and drop is the order of the day, as you apply materials, rearrange objects and groups, and add behaviors simply by dragging and dropping on the nested layer elements in the Timeline (fig. 6).
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Fig. 04: Look familiar? It's the Timeline.


Fig. 05: Each layer in a scene is it's own self-contained 3D environment, complete with separate lights and cameras.


Fig. 06: Here, a Behavior is being dragged onto an object in the Timeline. As Irwin M. Fletcher once said, if this were at all legible you'd see what I mean.

But let's not forget why the Timeline is called the Timeline — after all, it is the place where you add keyframes to give your objects motion and set the overall duration of your project. It's not as refined as After Effects' timeline is, but it's workable and not too frustrating of a transition. The big difference here is that you can't manipulate an object's numeric properties directly in the Timeline — you have to go through the Inspector or drag in the Project window to do that, so it takes a little getting used to. However, you do have the velocity graphs and interpolation options that you might be comfy with, so that's a plus (fig. 7).


Fig. 07: You've got some nice, precise options for your animation in the Timeline.

One more thing I'll mention here is that although it's not obvious, Anark Studio's Timeline can nest other complete timelines in a feature that Anark calls Components (fig. 8). Components can include anything you can pack into the master Timeline (objects, animation, behaviors, etc.) in a way that will be not only familiar but very welcome to those used to Flash's Movie Clips model.


Fig. 08: A Component is marked by a special icon, along with an eject button to dump you back up to the main timeline.



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