Timing

The examples below show a single tile in isolation — Duration, Frame count, and Easing are all properties of the tile's own cycle, and a full grid mid-stagger would only muddy that with the Time shift pattern layered on top.

Duration & Frame count

These two controls are shown separately in the sidebar, but they only make sense together: Duration is how long one full loop cycle takes, and Frame count is how many discrete steps that cycle is chopped into. Divide one by the other and you get ms/frame, shown live next to these controls — that's how long each individual frame is actually held on screen.

Duration — same number of frames, different speed

Holding frame count steady and changing duration changes how fast the animation feels, without changing how smooth it looks.

400ms (fast) 1440ms (baseline) 3000ms (slow)
Duration 400ms Duration 1440ms Duration 3000ms

Frame count — same duration, different smoothness

Holding duration steady and changing frame count changes how smooth (or chunky) the animation looks, without changing its overall speed.

6 frames (chunky) 24 frames (baseline) 60 frames (smooth)
6 frames 24 frames 60 frames

A useful way to think about it: Duration sets the pace, Frame count sets the resolution of that pace. More frames costs you nothing conceptually, but each additional frame is one more image if you're exporting a PNG sequence or sprite sheet — so there's a practical (not aesthetic) reason not to max it out by default.

Easing

What it does: the pacing curve within one loop — whether the animation starts slow and speeds up, starts fast and eases off, or moves at a flat, constant rate throughout. This is the same idea as easing curves in CSS or motion design tools.

Linear (constant speed) Ease In (starts slow, speeds up) Ease Out (starts fast, slows down) Ease In-Out (slow, fast, slow)
Linear Ease In Ease Out Ease In-Out

There are two additional curves in the picker (Ease In-Out Cubic and Ease In-Out Sine) that follow the same "slow, fast, slow" shape as Ease In-Out above, just with a slightly different feel to the transition — worth trying by eye rather than by description, since the difference is subtle.