You can open the Animation Editor window from the Window menu, or by pressing CTRL+T.
Animation settings
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Total length: The length in seconds of the animation. If this is set to zero then just a still image is being rendered, not an animation.
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FPS: The frames per second of the animation. The total number of frames in the animation will be total length * FPS.
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Exposure time: The exposure time of each frame. This is how long the 'virtual camera aperture' is open. Larger values will result in more motion blur for moving features.
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Exposure shape: Controls the shape of the graph of how open the 'virtual camera aperture' is with time. Uniform means the aperture opens and closes instantaneously. In practice this means motion-blurred features will have sharp beginnings and endings. Triangular means the aperture slowly opens and closes. In practice this means motion-blurred features will have softer beginnings and endings.
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Wrap animation: If checked, the animated parameter curves are forced to repeat. This means the end of the animation will match the beginning, allowing the animation to be looped without seams.
Timeline
The timeline controls allow you to play or pause animation preview playback, as well as jump to a certain frame or time in the animation.
Parameter curve editor
The parameter curve editor allows animation of almost any parameter in a Chaotica world.
To show something in the parameter curve editor, you must select a node in the world editor window.
If a parameter is animated (e.g. if it varies with time), the parameter will have a check in the checkbox beside its name. You can animate it by checking the box, or de-animate it by unchecking the box.
Click and drag a knot to move it. Click on the parameter curve to create a new knot. Press the delete key to delete a knot (Note that cannot delete knots if there are only 2 knots remaining). Double-click a knot to set the current time (as specified in the timeline) to the time of the knot.
Press and hold and the middle or right mouse button, and drag your mouse to pan the curve editor view around. Spin your mouse wheel to zoom in/out, or hold ALT+right mouse button and move the mouse up/down to zoom in/out.
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Left and right tension: The tension controls specify how a parameter curve meets a knot. A tension of zero means that the curve will smoothly pass through the knot without any sharp corners. A tension of 1 will 'pull' the curve towards the neighbouring knot, resulting in a sharp corner. Tension values in between will mix the two effects.
A knot with left and right tension = 0
A knot with left tension = 1. Note the sharp corner.