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As an artist, why should I use Timeline instead of normal animations?

Discussion in 'Timeline' started by ShaunUnity, Feb 8, 2019.

  1. ShaunUnity

    ShaunUnity

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    So I've had my eye on Timeline since it came out. I've watched several videos about it where people make simple animations, activate objects and blend cinemachine cameras.

    Am I missing something? Can't I already do all those things with the normal animation system? In an animation you can move stuff and activate stuff. Cinemachine cameras blend themselves, so that's already covered.

    There seems to be special things you can do with code... but I'm an artist so that doesn't really help me. So what am I missing? Everyone is touting Timeline as this great boon to artists. But it just seems like a different way do doing things. Why is it better? Right now I feel like Unity should have just made the animation window a little more organized instead of building something completely new.

    Thank you

    Shaun
     
  2. gekidoslayer

    gekidoslayer

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2016
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    depends what you are looking to do.

    One way to look at is that an animation is applied to a specific object - a character or prop.

    However a Timeline sequence is not just for animation sequencing, it allows you to sequence anything that happens in Unity - so if you want a light to animate, an effect to play, and audio clip to happen at a particular frame or moment in time, then you can either write a ton of code to activate this stuff, OR you can use Timeline to sequence everything.

    Being able to setup interactions in a game, or a cutscene or whatever else you might imagine - and be able to preview them via Timeline in the editor - make it 1000% worth looking into.

    Particularly coming from an artist's perspective, this put so much more back in your control, instead of having to wait for a programmer to bring your art to life, you suddenly have the ability to setup things yourself.

    The fact that you can do everything from a small triggered sequence all the way up to productions like Adam or Baymax Dreams (and beyond) without writing any code is exactly why Timeline exists.
     
  3. ShaunUnity

    ShaunUnity

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    "so if you want a light to animate, an effect to play, and audio clip to happen at a particular frame or moment in time"

    So, I'm not trying to be argumentative for the sake of argument. But this could all happen with a normal animation. Put an animation on a game object. Parent a light, a particle effect, and and audio clip to that game object and you could animate all the parameters from the regular animation window.

    Why is timeline better? Again, I'm not trying to be difficult. I want to understand which tool I should be using and why.

    Thank you for your response.
     
  4. thierry_unity

    thierry_unity

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    Jun 10, 2015
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    Let's say,
    the most simple use case for timeline is to build cinematics, you still do all your animation through the animation window but afterward if you want to create a sequence that combine different animations and audio clips, it will be more easier to do it through a timeline.

    But like Mike said, Timeline isn't only for that usecase. We made in the past a in-game weather system using timeline.
    We are also allowing the user to build his own tracks and clips. So, if you would like to animate or trigger really specific stuff, you could probably do it through timeline too.

    Recording basic game object animation is possible with timeline, but if you still want more precise work I still suggest you use the animation window to edit that clip.
     
  5. lweil056

    lweil056

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    I've started looking at using timeline as an alternative to doing technical animations in Maya/After Effects.

    Can timeline allow me to fade out objects without code?
     
  6. ShaunUnity

    ShaunUnity

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    Depends how you want it to fade out. You could animate the alpha in a material in the animation window and make that a clip in Timeline.
     
  7. lweil056

    lweil056

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    Is it possible to fade out the alpha of the Standard material (where my textures are plugged into)? I looked and didn't see an option to keyframe it.
     
  8. Lars-Steenhoff

    Lars-Steenhoff

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    I think there was support for animating colors in the unity 4 classic animation, but at some point this was set to read only because unity wanted to move away from that animation system to machina, I could be wrong about this.
     
  9. ShaunUnity

    ShaunUnity

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    Select your object. Go to the Animation window and create a new animation. Hit record and manipulate the color of the Albedo. (You can still change colors when you have a texture in the slot. Don't forget to make sure the rendering mode of the material is set to Fade or Transparent.) Then pull your new animation into the Timeline. If you want the object to completely fade out you will have to animate the Metallic/Smoothness to 0 as well.
     
  10. lweil056

    lweil056

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    After writing my last post I realized that this won't work if I want to fade out an object that is sharing the same material with other objects.

    I guess the next question to ask if how to I fade out an object without doing it via material on the timeline? Using keyframes and not code if possible.
     
    Lars-Steenhoff likes this.
  11. ShaunUnity

    ShaunUnity

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    As long as your other objects don't share the same Animator it will work. Git it a shot.
     
  12. lweil056

    lweil056

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    Ok, not to sound daft but how would I achieve this?
     
  13. ShaunUnity

    ShaunUnity

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    If you follow the steps I outlined it should happen. Only the object you record will get and Animator attached.
     
  14. lweil056

    lweil056

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    I got it! It was first only going to black because I was manipulating the albedo color and not the alpha slider in the color wheel.

    Thank you sir!
     
  15. lweil056

    lweil056

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    Ok. One thing. If I change the material from Opaque to Fade or transparent, it works but all the other objects sharing that material (but not the animator) are also changed as well. I tried keyframing the modes but it doesn't work.