Pre and Post Extrapolation of an Animation Clip in Timeline

Objective: To learn what Pre and Post Extrapolation of an Animation Clip is in Timeline.

Ping pong between animation clips in post extrapolation window

What is Pre and Post Extrapolation of an Animation Clip?

Pre extrapolation refers to the time before the clip starts to play and post extrapolation is the time after the clip has finished playing. You are able to allocate behaviours or instructions as to how you want the animation clip to act (pre and post clip).

The pre and post extrapolation sections of the clips

What Options Do We Have To Choose From?

Pre & post extrapolation options

Hold

The animation clip will hold (pause) until it reaches the next clip and starts to play:

Hold post extrapolation of clip

Loop

In terms of post extrapolation, when the clip finishes playing, it will continue looping until the next clip starts. However, it will also reset back to the starting position as seen below:

Loop post extrapolation of clip

Ping Pong

Ping Pong is a cool feature that will play the clip backwards when it reaches the end and is in the post extrapolation window. However, again as you will notice, when the new clip starts playing the sphere jumps to the starting location of that clip:

Ping Pong post extrapolation of clip

Continue

This setting will either ‘Hold’ or ‘Loop’ depending on the source assets settings. Currently, I don’t have ‘Loop’ turned on, so what we will see happen is it will continue to finish the clip until it gets to a point where it holds before playing the next clip:

Continue and hold post extrapolation clip

If we set the source asset to loop, it will now continue looping through instead of holding:

Setting our Animation Clip to Loop

Continue and loop post extrapolation clip

Useful Links
Timeline Animation Clip Pre and Post Extrapolation