Overview

Requirements

• The entity you want to animate has been added to a Track View sequence.
• The sequence that contains the entity is selected and on a layer you can edit.
  
• The Record button is pressed.
  

To check which layer a sequence is on, use the Select Objects tool. Type in the name of the sequence and it will show up as an entity (type: "Sequence").

Note: Entities on hidden or frozen layers won't be found by this search. If you can't find the sequence entity this way, unhide and unfreeze all layers.

If the above requirements are fulfilled, you can use the following methods to create or edit position and rotation keys.

Manipulating the Gizmo

Simply use the gizmo to position and rotate the object. This will automatically write keys at the current position of the slider.

Editing Key Values in Track View

Double-clicking a key will display the Key Properties dialogue. You can either enter a new value here or use the buttons to increase/decrease the value.
Double-clicking at an empty spot will create a new key (Its value will be determined by the position/rotation the entity has at this point in time.)

The advantage of this method is that some of the requirements above don't apply: The entity doesn't need to be selected, and the Record button also doesn't need to be pressed. It also is the only method that allows to set rotation to values beyond 360° or -360° (to set the following keys, you can also use the other methods again).
The disadvantage is that you can't change the used coordinate system (see the note below).

Note: Track View keys will always use the World coordinate system if the object hasn't been linked; and the Local coordinate system for linked objects.

Editing Key Values in the Main Window

Use the XYZ property fields at the bottom of the main perspective window. Similar to editing the keys in Track View directly, but for this method the coordinate system can be changed.

Editing Keys by Moving the Viewport (Camera Only)

Refer to Animating the Camera by Moving the Viewport.

Hint: Setting In/Out Tangents to Auto

The in/out tangents for each key are set to 0 by default. This results in an animation that won't have an even movement speed, as the entity will slow down and then accelerate again at each key.

To fix this problem, you'll have to set the in/out tangents to "Auto":

• Open the Curve Editor in Track View (either press "R" for the larger version or "B" for both Curve Editor and Dope Sheet in the same window).
• Select the tracks where the curve needs to be adjusted. (Hold CTRL to select multiple tracks.)
• Drag a selection box around all the keys you want to change. Zoom out with the mouse wheel so that you don't miss any curves.
• Click the Set In/Out Tangents to Auto-button.