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Workflow improvements suggestion

Discussion in 'Timeline' started by vamky, Jul 18, 2017.

  1. vamky

    vamky

    Joined:
    Aug 9, 2014
    Posts:
    70
    Hi

    After some happy hours with timeline, I think there are some much needed workflow improvements:
    1. track type display: able to display what kind of track it is somewhere on the UI, text or icon with toggle.

    2. track group/folder: able to group some tracks together, with collapse and expand option.

    3. composite/random tracks: some way to organize similar tracks, like play following tracks in sequence or randomly. I know you can do this with simple scripting but build in function still has the benefit of improving workflow.

    4. track solo/mute toggle button.

    5. able to preview animator controlled objects in editor mode:
    In the commercial project I am currently working on, there are lots of VFX are done by using animator to control a group of children meshes and particles. This is a very common vfx practice in Asia mobile market. it will be very nice to be able to preview such objects in editor mode.

    6. able to move an animated property of a animation track to another new animation track.
    When using timeline with UI elements, if you try to animate position and scale in the same track, you will find out that the scale in curve editor is a straight line because on UI the position numbers are much higher than scale and possibly the rest of property you might want to animate. It will make life easier if you can move one of the animated property to another track.

    that's all I can think of now

    : )
     
    Last edited: Jul 18, 2017
    vamky, Jul 18, 2017
    #1

  2. Christine_R

    Christine_R

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Feb 15, 2017
    Posts:
    9
    Hi Vamky
    Thank you for your post. Please see comments below.

    1.Track type display. Track types are currently shown using a colour swatch and icon type. (ie, blue for animation, green for activation, yellow for audio, etc) Are you wishing that a name like "Animation", "Audio" etc was visible on the track?
    upload_2017-7-18_14-17-55.png

    2. Track group/folder. You can get a track group folder from the Add menu visible under the play controls.
    All types of tracks can be moved or added to the group. Groups are collapse/expandable.
    upload_2017-7-18_14-22-54.png

    3. We've taken note of your request.

    4. track solo/mute toggle button. We don't have the ability to solo a track yet, but you can mute or lock any number of track tracks trough their menu icon at the far right of the track header or by using the "L" for lock and "M" for mute hotkeys.
    upload_2017-7-18_14-26-53.png

    5. Not sure what you mean here, could you explain further please?

    6. Able to move an animated property of a animation track to another new animation track.
    It's possible to bind an object to multiple Animation tracks, so in your example, if you wish to animate position and scale separately, you can do so by animating your position on an animation track, then drag/bind the same object to a second animation track to animate scaling separately.
    If your track already contains both animations, the quickest way to separate them would be to duplicate your animated track (by selecting the track header and right-click-> duplicate or Cmd+D) and then delete the properties you don't want from each animation clips on the two tracks.

    Thank you for your feedback!
    Christine
     

    Attached Files:

    Christine_R, Jul 18, 2017
    #2
    vamky likes this.

  3. vamky

    vamky

    Joined:
    Aug 9, 2014
    Posts:
    70
    First of all thank you for replying!

    1. Ah I wasn't paying enough attention, sorry for this.
    2. I actually never used the add button, do you think it would be better if we can select multiple track then have a right click option of "make group"?

    4. Yes I know there are options inside the menu button and right click menu, but I can't help to notice when you mute a track there is a icon indicates the track is muted, and you can click to un-mute it. Maybe it can be a consistent button instead? something like single click to mute current track, double click to mute all other track?

    5. Yes, allow me to explain: When we are making mobile games over here, quite often we will create a empty game object, insert 1 or 2 mesh and multiple particle systems. Then we will use animator with a single animation to control the activation of these meshes and particles. In the future I think we can use timeline to replace this practice, but right now we have like 200+ VFX done this way. If I put one of such VFX gameobject inside a timeline and use an animation track to control it, I cannot preview it when working in the editor mode, which is not convenient.

    6. Yeah I agree with you these are viable solutions, though if we can drag and drop (or have a right click menu option), it would improve the workflow. Timeline will no doubt became a very heavily used feature of unity, so any small improvement in the workflow might benefit the whole picture.

     
    vamky, Jul 20, 2017
    #3

  4. Carwashh

    Carwashh

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2012
    Posts:
    762
    I don't think it's possible at the moment, but it would be great if we could select a Track Group and mute that. I believe atm we have to select all the individual tracks and mute them.
     
    Carwashh, Aug 22, 2017
    #4