Guides Farger Timeline Community Sharing

[Farger]

Farger submitted a new resource:

Farger Timeline Community Sharing - Sharing Knowledge of Timeline

I am proposing this as a forum for the community to come together and help other creators who have questions on how to use powerful and complex tools such as Timeline and Randomizer. I ask for you to help explain how scenes like this work, and I will add more hints and guides along the way as well. Perhaps some creators think this idea is unnecessary. If so, please let me know what other resources exist and we will post it here for everyone's awareness. I think this is a fun idea to...

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[Farger]

EXAMPLE GUIDE FOR ADDING MOTION TO A PERSON'S HAND
TUTORIAL #1

Load the Test 1 startingpoint scene for building a timeline animation in this tutorial. This first build will add a swing motion to the right hand of the person. The scene is set up with a light saber already tied to the hand using Acidbubble Rubberleash.

The following are steps to help guide through the process. Screenshots for each step are attached below.

Test 1 a - Add Timeline as plug in for the person and select edit tab on top.

Test 1 b - The proposed swing movement should only require 4 seconds total, so bump up the time to 4 seconds on the right side of the panel.

Test 1 c - Click the apply button under the change length of time slider where you just raised it to 4 seconds.

Test 1 d - Go to target and "+" on the top tab and you can then select the atom as person and controller as rHandControl on the right side of the panel. Click the add button on the lower right side of the panel.

Test 1 e - Now you will see rHand listed as a control. I want this to be our starting position, and the diamond shows that Timeline has stored the position at 0 seconds. One thing that I always forget is to move the time before I start moving the control, because I want the position now to be the starting point. So let's leave the current hand position as is and don't move it.

Test 1 f - Just use the +1 sec function to move forward in time 1 second, then the panel will look like it is here in Test 1 f.

Test 1 g - Now use the rHandControl on the person and move the hand halfway up for the swing.

Test 1 h - Timeline shows the new position recorded as represented as the diamond at the 1 second mark.

Test 1 i - Now go forward +1 second in the timeline.

Test 1 j - Move the rHandControl to the top of the swing.

Test 1 k - The diamond shows that it is recorded at 2 second mark.

Test 1 l - Now click +1 sec and move the timeline to the three second mark. You may notice that her hand moved, Timeline has a interesting feature that it will start predicting the next location, and this suggested area will usually result in smoother animation. Either it is that, or the light saber is getting too heavy.

Test 1 m - You will need to move the rHandController to some extent, we are working our way back down in the swing halfway back to the original position. When you move her hand the position will be stored and you will see the diamond at the three second mark. You can keep changing it till you get the position that you want.

Test 1 n - I have selected the sequence tab on the top of the GUI panel for timeline and clicked the checkbox to make the animation play on the scene load on the upper right corner of the panel.

Test 1 o - Click play for the animation, and if all goes well, your results will be similar to the scene "Test 1 endresult."

 

[Farger]

Farger updated Farger Timeline Community Sharing with a new update entry:

Test Scene for learning Timeline motions for person controllers.

See the discussion area. This update adds scenes Test 1 startingbuild and Test 1 endresult. Test 1 startingbuild is provided as a sample scene to practice making animations with Timeline. Steps and images are provided in the discussion area.

View attachment 258766

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[VAMIC]

This is awesome. Is it possible to put text your text instructions in the scene so you could adjust timeline and read the directions at the same time?

 

[Farger]

This is awesome. Is it possible to put text your text instructions in the scene so you could adjust timeline and read the directions at the same time?

I was thinking of doing that at first, I actually started putting in a couple of image panels, but it is a lot slower to do all that in VR, so I aborted. What I did so far already took 3 hours, and I have to give some love to my particles.

 

[VAMIC]

I was thinking of doing that at first, I actually started putting in a couple of image panels, but it is a lot slower to do all that in VR, so I aborted. What I did so far already took 3 hours, and I have to give some love to my particles.

Oh you just gave me an idea to open the Hub in an web panel and then you can get the same effect. Not sure why I've been foolishly going back and forth between the in game browser. Time is definitely better spent on particles and cool space scenes!

 

[Neal]

Hi, I would like to ask a couple things:
1-Why not use timeline as an scene plugin instead of a person plugin. I mean, its more centralized that way, or it shouldn´t be used like that?
2-How do I tune my animations, rewind and swap between them without the physics going crazy wakadodle messing all over my scene and breaking up the poses I framed???

 

[Farger]

Hi, I would like to ask a couple things:
1-Why not use timeline as an scene plugin instead of a person plugin. I mean, its more centralized that way, or it shouldn´t be used like that?
2-How do I tune my animations, rewind and swap between them without the physics going crazy wakadodle messing all over my scene and breaking up the poses I framed???

1. I dont know if it should not be used that way, but there are advantageous to assigning it to the specific resource, such as being able to save seperate components of the scene to a subscene. It can also be easier to know what each plugin is assigned to do because it is logically attached to it.
2. I am not sure, I may try switching with subscenes to see how that goes. I did notice the same thing when i made my lightsaber swing rather quickly. I'll try some tests tomorrow and reply back.

 

[Neal]

Thx, looking forward to it. It´s just that I´m used to animation timelines from software such as blender, that's why this is strange to me, having my keyframes all over the persons on the scene.

 

[Farger]

Thx, looking forward to it. It´s just that I´m used to animation timelines from software such as blender, that's why this is strange to me, having my keyframes all over the persons on the scene.

1. I think where you insert Timeline is a creative choice and depends what you are trying to accomplish. I can imagine for complex scenes in which a creator needs to coordinate the concerted actions of multiple objects, having at the scene level would probably make sense. I think that in most cases that it is a good idea to insert Timeline as a plugin for the specific object it is controlling, since this will make it easier to break apart the components into subscenes.
2. I am not sure what all situations you have had the wackadoo effects, but I know that it is always a good idea to stop all animations and reset to 0 on the timeline before saving the scene. You can get random issues if you save the scene while the animation is in motion, this is true of all types of motion methods in VAM. Other issues is just moving things faster than the physics controls of VAM can really handle. BTW, I tried swapping between two subscenes of motion in different positions (one standing, one crouching) and had no issues, each loaded smoothly with no glitches. I will post these subscenes in the next update.

 

[Farger]

EXAMPLE GUIDE FOR ADDING MORPH CHANGES TO A PERSON
TUTORIAL #2

Open the Test 2 startingpoint scene in order to begin this tutorial. This scene leaves off from what we built in Tutorial #1, except that the option to run the animation on loading of the scene has been turned off.

These steps have instructions and an associated screenshot of the same name:

Test 2 a - Select the person, and then plugins tab for the person, and then select to open the Timeline plug in. When viewing the target tab, you will see something like this screenshot. The animation should not be running and should be at 0 seconds. Leave the animation turned off for now. If for some reason the animation is running, click stop once to stop the animation, and click the stop button a second time to reset the clock to zero.

Test 2 b - Select the target and "+" tab on the top menu. We are going to start adding some storable floats on the bottom right of the panel. Morphs are listed under "geometry" in the storable float section. In this tutorial, let's use some default morphs that come with VAM, such as "concentrate" and "angry."

Test 2 c - In the screenshot, I have gone to the female morph tabs for the person, and I am making sure that the "fav" checkbox is checked for angry. Do the same for concentrate.

Test 2 d - In this screenshot I have already selected concentrate and clicked the add button below it, and I will now do the same for angry.

Test 2 e - this image was skipped as it was not needed, please continue to Test 2 f.

Test 2 f - Here you see that both angry and concentrate have been added, and we are now in the "tab" view from the selection on the top of the menu.

Test 2 g - We are now at time zero. There are sliders on the upper right, let's just raise the concentrate morph a small amount.

Test 2 h - Use the +1 sec button below the timeline graph in order to move to the one second mark. Now, let's raise the concentrate morph to a higher level.

Test 2 i - Click the +1 sec button again to go to second two. Here we will start to raise the value of the angry morph a small amount, and maybe lower concentrate a small amount.

Test 2 j - Click the +1 sec button again, and we will now be at the 3 second mark. Raise the angry morph further, and let's bring concentrate down to zero.

Test 2 k - Let's now go to the sequence tab on the top of the menu and we will turn the "auto play on load" checkmark to activated. Now would be a good time to save the scene, since it is always good practice to save scenes while animation is not in motion.

Test 2 l - Now we have gone to the targets tab menu and we can select play for our animation and now enjoy the hand swing and the interesting face morphs.

 

[Farger]

Farger updated Farger Timeline Community Sharing with a new update entry:

Added Tutorial Number 2 and Subscene Tests

This update adds scenes needed for tutorial 2. It also adds a scene to try out switching between subscenes that contain different poses and animations.

View attachment 259085

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[Neal]

Ok, i´ll look into it, maybe exploiting more the subscenes. A lot of thanks!

 

[Farger]

Ok, i´ll look into it, maybe exploiting more the subscenes. A lot of thanks!

Please keep in touch, I am learning along the way. In the update section, I put some methods to test out subscene swapping.

 

[HAL9001]

1-Why not use timeline as an scene plugin instead of a person plugin. I mean, its more centralized that way, or it shouldn´t be used like that?

I agree with @Farger 's reply - I use timeline in Person atoms for controlling their movements. And for scene object control, e.g., an overarching storyline, I have an empty "Story" atom that has a timeline that acts more like a conductor, triggering the person atom's animations in a certain order and timing, or as I am currently exploring, having a back-and-forth-dialog using audio.

 

[HAL9001]

...Timeline has a interesting feature that it will start predicting the next location, and this suggested area will usually result in smoother animation. Either it is that, or the light saber is getting too heavy...

I would like to be wrong here and it is an auto-predict feature indeed that I have missed, but I think, Timeline is merely interpolating between the two known keyframes left and right of the actual timestamp. If you are in a looped animation, and you are progressively adding keyframes, you'll see an interpolation effect between your latest added keyframe and the very first one (since that is strictly speaking the next one to come when the sequence loops)
I sometimes curse that feature when I am trying to animate an object further and further away, and the loop-end-interpolation constantly pulls it back. In those cases, it helps to put a keyframe where and when the furthest point of the animation is reached, so when you are stepping through, the interpolation helps instead of hinders.

 

[Farger]

EXAMPLE GUIDE FOR MAKING RANDOM SPEED ANIMATIONS
TUTORIAL #3

In this tutorial we will use the Everlaster FloatParamRandomizerEE Plugin to randomly change the speed of Timeline animations. The animations can be changed in speed both going forward and backward through the animation, with negative speed values going backwards in time. This guide uses the scene "Time 3 startingpoint" as a way for you to go through these steps with me. "Time 3 endresult" shows what the completed scene will look like.

The following step numbers to this guide contain an associated screenshot below with the same title:

Test 3 a - Add the Everlaster FloatParamRandomizerEE plugin to the person atom, as in this screenshot, then click open custom UI for the FloatParamRandomizerEE.

Test 3 b - Here is the randomizer UI when you open it. It already shows the atom on the top left as person, make sure yours is the same.

Test 3 c - For the receiver, let's use the filter feature, start typing plugin until you see the Timeline plug in listed.

Test 3 d - Select the Timeline plugin from the dropdown menu.

Test 3 e - Look for speed in the target box and click to select "speed."

Test 3 f - Now we will adjust the settings on the right side of the UI, adjust the period to 1.50.

Test 3 g - Adjust the quickness setting to 0.50.

Test 3 h - Adjust the lower value to -0.50.

Test 3 i - Adjust upper value to 1.50

Test 3 j - Go to the "edit" menu of Timeline. If all is going well you should see that FloatParamRandomizerEE is starting to adjust the speed values randomly. The effects will not be obvious yet since the animation is not running. Now would be a good time to save the scene before you start playing the animation. When you save the scene, you may want to turn on the checkbox for starting the animation on load feature explained in the previous tutorials.

Test 3 k - Hit play and test your results. Try experimenting with different settings of FloatParamRandomizerEE. Be cautious of being too extreme with the upper and lower values, this could cause glitches, the technical term for this is "wackadoo effects."

The "Test 3 endresult" scene provides an example of the finished product.

 

[Farger]

Farger updated Farger Timeline Community Sharing with a new update entry:

Using the Everlaster FloatParamRandomizerEE plugin to change Acid Bubbles Timeline animations.

This update adds the "Time 3 startingpoint" scene so that you can walk through the tutorial and use the Everlaster FloatParamRandomizerEE plugin to control Acid Bubbles Timeline, and thus make animations randomly change both forward and backwards in time.

View attachment 259523

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[Neal]

I´ve found the problem, when I switch from an animation to another VAM makes all "actors" involved to "move" instead of "teleport" them, colliding with anything on the way. How do I setup my timeline plugin to teleport "actors" from one animation to another??

 

[Farger]

Farger updated Farger Timeline Community Sharing with a new update entry:

Switching animations between subscenes

This update adds a scene called "Timeline switching animations." This scene includes an animation pattern called "switching animations animationPattern" that includes simple triggers to keep loading two different animation patterns. The switching keeps occurring every 10 to 15 seconds. I also included a random collider box in the scene to show that the person is not moving in between scenes, the person atom is spawning in the new locations.

I found it problematic to use Timeline to...

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[Farger]

I´ve found the problem, when I switch from an animation to another VAM makes all "actors" involved to "move" instead of "teleport" them, colliding with anything on the way. How do I setup my timeline plugin to teleport "actors" from one animation to another??

I tried to use Timeline itself to switch between subScenes, but I have not yet found a way to make this work.

In the latest update I added a scene called "Timeline switching animations." This scene includes an animation pattern called "switching animations animationPattern" that includes simple triggers to keep loading two different animation patterns. The switching keeps occurring every 10 to 15 seconds. I also included a random collider box in the scene to show that the person is sliding from one location to the other, the person atom is spawning in the new locations.

I found it problematic to use Timeline to switch between the subscenes. Timeline logically restarts animations when a subscene is loaded, so I have not found a way to safely leverage Timeline itself to switch between subscenes.

Please inspect this scene as one method to load between multiple animations built in Timeline. Loading subscenes to go back and forth to different animations does not cause the person to collide with scene objects from what I have encountered so far.

 

[atani]

In Timeline, setting a Pose and a trigger calling for "Animation", will place the person in that pose instantly without moving it. Set it with Root Control to have it on a specific place in the scene, or else it will pose where it currently is.
My template uses this method to position people if you need a real example.
Mind you that it's better to use a delayed trigger (logicbricks delay for example) to play a follow-up animation, or else the pose may not have enough time to be set properly before the targets start playing. It may be instant, but multiple instant things can bring trouble

 

[Farger]

In Timeline, setting a Pose and a trigger calling for "Animation", will place the person in that pose instantly without moving it. Set it with Root Control to have it on a specific place in the scene, or else it will pose where it currently is.
My template uses this method to position people if you need a real example.
Mind you that it's better to use a delayed trigger (logicbricks delay for example) to play a follow-up animation, or else the pose may not have enough time to be set properly before the targets start playing. It may be instant, but multiple instant things can bring trouble

I am very interested in your example. The method that I attempted to use was setting up Timeline triggers to switch between subscenes, but it seems that telling Timeline to do this also resets all the Timeline animations to zero, which negated my trigger to switch animations. Maybe I need to change the time segments in which I send the trigger commands. If you have a way to navigate thru this, or approach it from a different way, it is much appreciated.

 

[atani]

I never use subscenes for person atoms as it can give some weird results, or at least it did when I tried it last year. I changed to using Pose because of that, and so far for the things I'm making it has served me well. I don't have any suggestions with the use of subscenes, things look like they will work in theory, then comes a problem somewhere that ruins it all
Anyway, the template I mention with the use of Pose is in my resources, if it's of interest to you. As the pose change is abrupt, I use VAMOverlays for a fade out/in of a couple of seconds to transition between very different actions, very much like in the movies.
It goes something like this with triggers:

• Stop all animation + instant fade out
• Delay 1 s: receiver "animation"
• Delay 3 s: Fade in + play the animation above

 

[Farger]

I never use subscenes for person atoms as it can give some weird results, or at least it did when I tried it last year. I changed to using Pose because of that, and so far for the things I'm making it has served me well. I don't have any suggestions with the use of subscenes, things look like they will work in theory, then comes a problem somewhere that ruins it all
Anyway, the template I mention with the use of Pose is in my resources, if it's of interest to you. As the pose change is abrupt, I use VAMOverlays for a fade out/in of a couple of seconds to transition between very different actions, very much like in the movies.
It goes something like this with triggers:

• Stop all animation + instant fade out
• Delay 1 s: receiver "animation"
• Delay 3 s: Fade in + play the animation above

Thank you sharing this method. In the latest update to this quide, I posted a scene that switches back and forth with subscenes for people and animations and it works fine, but maybe in some circumstances it might cause issues. In my post, "Beam me up" that scene works by constantly switching between subscenes, and also using VAMOverlays for smoother transition.