Hmmm… did the original “scene time-IPO” go away in 2.6? If so, to what extent, and what’s still here?
Sounds odd, but I actually would like to create the “cat-chow-chow-chow commercial” effect.
(If you really want to know … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-ffUY5-w6c.)
I’d like to play with forward-and-backward time simultaneously for everything in the shot, i.e. globally. Nothing fancy-pants here, just a cheap and cheesy effect. 
Where, if anywhere, is the ability to do that nowadays?
… guess so, huh?
i do not know if it will help . In sequence editor you can key frame the backwards check box.
Under FPS, in the Render context, there is a feature called Time Remapping. I have not played with it, but maybe you could leverage it?
FPS? (he said, stupidly) … Yeah, that sure does sound promising.
Yeah, I know that I can wacka-wacka it in the video editor, but in this particular case it sure would be convenient to shoot one forward-marching strip of film in which I can slow down the key action, play it forward, play it slowly back, and play it forward again. A key point of this show is to illustrate this particular moment; this particular movement of a mechanical object. In the past, the Time IPO was perfect for this. And, y’know, “in Animato, ‘everything can be animated.’” Keep thinking it must be right there in front of my nose.
You can use the evaluation time of the object to control absolute shape keys. In the attached blend file I have added a mesh circle and added a shape key. Then deselect relative and with the basis key selected add a keyframe at frame 1 to Evaluation Time; go to frame 100, change Evaluation time to 100 and add a keyframe. This will give the equivalent (I think) of the Time curve in 2.4. Go to frame 1 and add another shape key (Key 1), this will be the start shape. Go to frame 20 (or whatever) and add another keyframe (Key 2) and change the shape of the object in edit mode. In Oject mode add a keyframe to Evaluation time. Go to frame 40 (or whatever) and add a shape key by clicking on the black arrow and selecting New shape from Mix (add any subsequent key shapes this way). Change the shape in edit mode and add a keyframe to Evaluation time (Key 3). Now if you run the animation the object changes shape. If you add another keyframe on the f-curve for Key (at frame 80 in this case and move it to the same y-position as frame 20 the animation will go back to the shape of Key 2.
Not sure if that is clear but it seems to work.
Absolute_shapekeys.blend (448 KB)