[tuhopuu-devel] Markers and Animation workflow

Matt Ebb matt at mke3.net
Mon Feb 28 10:58:02 CET 2005


Hi Jonathan, glad you're generally liking it so far. Straight to the 
point:

> 1. Names for the triangle markers that can be displayed in the 
> timeline.

I think this would be very good, too. It would also then be feasible to 
make some sort of menu listing all the named markers, that you could 
just jump to immediately.

The only thing stopping it is my very limited knowledge of C coding, 
and programming theory like data structures etc in general. Can someone 
help here?

The markers are currently very simple - in DNA_scene_types, int 
markers[99]. The key is like an ID number for each marker, the value is 
the frame number. I'd need to somehow expand this to that each marker 
can have 2 pieces of information - an int frame number, and a char 
name. What is a good way to do this? Anyone? Or would someone like to 
just change it and patch or commit? :)

> 3. The ability to move (/ grab + move) the markers.

This could be quite nice too - just a nice simple click+drag would be 
great. When I get some free time (I'm late on some animation work 
myself, after all this code stuff) I'll investigate it - anyone else 
feel free too as well. Though I fear the amount of work needed to 
implement it may not be worth the returns. Who knows...

> 2. The ability to move all the keys that exist at a particular frame.

No, this not not such a good idea. Not because it's something you 
shouldn't be doing :), but it's out of scope. For this timeline, 
simplicity is the name of the game - it should be used for 
visualisation and navigation, not any manipulation. Not only would 
allowing manipulation of keys be encroaching well into the Ipo curve 
editor's turf, but in terms of code complexity, it would open up an 
enormous can of worms, most likely with a heap of convoluted, 
duplicated code. I can imagine people wanting more and more options and 
functionality in this timeline, but IMO, it's best to be firm and just 
say no, keeping it elegant, simple and to the point. Otherwise next 
thing you know, you've replicated the Ipo, Action and NLA editors, 
shoehorned in where it doesn't fit both interface wise and code wise.

The only other type of 'manipulation' functionality I'm interested in 
for the timeline is deleting keys, mainly since although you can insert 
keys from the 3D View, you can't delete them (of course since there's 
not really any feedback visualising where the keys are). So this would 
be a nice complement to the 3D View, allowing one to do most simple 
animation tasks without having to touch a curve editor.

Cheers and beers,

Matt

PS. Can someone help with 1. ?  :)


On 28 Feb 2005, at 7:14 PM, Jonathan Merritt wrote:

> Hi Matt (+everyone else! :-),
>
> I have some feature requests for the "Timeline" that I'd like to bring 
> up for discussion...
>
> 1. Names for the triangle markers that can be displayed in the 
> timeline.
> 2. The ability to move all the keys that exist at a particular frame.
> 3. The ability to move (/ grab + move) the markers.
>
> As I mentioned previously, my application is in a tour of a 3D 
> anatomical model.  The marker names would be used to indicate which 
> features are shown at a particular time.  This would allow better 
> planning of the timing of camera moves, which can be quite tricky with 
> 30 or so features that must be visited in a particular sequence.  
> Timing is really the main thing that I find difficult to get right.
>
> My camera animation is normally achieved using both a camera and an 
> empty that the camera is pointed at using a "Track-To" constraint 
> (hence 2 position IPOs to worry about).  The ability to move all keys 
> at a particular frame would improve the ease of changing the timing of 
> both the camera and its target empty.  (I currently do this using the 
> NLA editor, but having to box-select-move becomes a bit of a pain.)
>
> What do you think?
>
> -- 
> Jonathan Merritt BE(Mech)/BSc
> PhD Student - Equine Biomechanics
> The University of Melbourne
> Veterinary Clinical Centre, Werribee
>
> _______________________________________________
> tuhopuu-devel mailing list
> tuhopuu-devel at projects.blender.org
> http://projects.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhopuu-devel
>
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