Movement and animation questions

Hey guys, just a few problems I have. First, is there a way to have a sprite move with instant acceleration to its top speed without having to just adjust its X and/or Y value? And second, I guess I just don't really understand much of the animation editor. What are sub-animations and animations with different angles?

Ok FIRSTLY:

The movement, i'm guessing thats 8-dir movement? You can go to acceleration speed and say 9999 instead of 1200.

SECONDLY:
Animation angles are for platformers mostly (i think) so that if you go left in platformer the character will face left etc.