Plugins Timeline

[Acid Bubbles]

@xbs333 I'm not clear on how you're doing the pose right now; if you have animated float params, and play / stop, then there may be some blending that couldn't finish. If you load a pose, then it _should_ simply set the actual value, so I don't know. It might also be that you have morphs that conflict with each others, so when loading the pose they counteract and does that?

Maybe try making a very simple reproduction with the strict minimum, if it works it means there might be something you're missing, and if it has the problem, send it to me and I'll check (but it might not be super quick for me to get there)

 

[Voithe]

@Voithe I took a note to check the audio link return to 0, but please be nice with me and restate the remaining questions <3

Well... only one remain of the old ones:

- How to blend the last and first frames of a loop animation. You said to delete some frame at the end of the animation but... i need them. So, i extended the end of the animation by 2 seconds. What happen now is that at the end, the animation stops for 2 secs then swap instantly to the first frame. No blending. First and last frames are very similar so... i need just a little 2 secs transition between them.

I have FRESH NEW questions but they can wait...

(You have all my respect, you're really answering to everyone!!! ?)

 

[Acid Bubbles]

You can use the curves view (the tilde-like icon on the top-left of the dope sheet) and zoom in (the handles in the scrubber) to see what the curve looks like. Normally if the curve type is smooth, it should work fine-ish, but you can always add keyframes to make it behave better. But if you extend but don't toggle loop, the last frame is still going to be different than the first one.

 

[Voithe]

Ok... i'll take a look. Thank you.

(i'll be back with new questions... of course... )

 

[DNA]

@Acid Bubbles

First time user it's absolutely phenomenal to have all this functionality.

I have a suggestion on the UX side: I've been playing with the plugin in VR, and one of the easiest things to do when using the VR controllers and trying to jump to keyframes is to accidentally press the Delete / Cut / Copy / Paste buttons underneath the timeline navigation buttons, with very destructive and not undoable consequences. My suggestion would be, if possible, to move the navigation buttons to the top, underneath the Play buttons, where accidental interactions wouldn't cause irreversible changes to the scene.

And a question: I tried using a random duration (a duration + a random) with animations playing in sync on two atoms in random order (with one of them set as master, so it's the same animation that plays), and I was expecting the random duration to apply to both animations. What happens though is that soon the animations are desynchronizing, with one using a different random from the other. Is it possible to achieve my original intention, of having two animations playing in sync, using the same random duration?

Many thanks!

 

[hentailondon]

Hi Acid! I have a very confusing bug.

I use an empty atom as camera in Timeline (with Embody). However sometimes the object, instead of following the Timeline path just says "fuck it" and jinxes out like in the attached video or does some weird rotation (for no reason at all, i checked every key-frame).

Sometimes restarting VaM helps, but i have a save where it jinxes out on multiple occasions and won't work anymore.

Physics and collisions are off, it's just an empty atom. Bug also appears without Embody, and tested Embody settings for Passenger too.
I control everything with one atom controller on a sign object, plugin is not on the empty atom. There is no conflicting timeline.

Would be awesome if you know a solution for this, since it gave me quite a few headaches and i can't figure it out :S

 

[Acid Bubbles]

@DNA The buttons were moved a while ago, are you running the latest version? https://github.com/acidbubbles/vam-timeline/wiki/Playback-controls.

For your other questions, have the "master" atom run the transition, and the other will be automatically synced if it has animations with the same names: https://github.com/acidbubbles/vam-timeline/wiki/Syncing

 

[Acid Bubbles]

@hentailondon this is.... weird. Try removing stuff from your scene until you have only the empty atom, and if you can reproduce with the empty atom and as few animations as possible, send the scene json to me. If I can reproduce then, I should be able to figure it out.

 

[DNA]

@DNA The buttons were moved a while ago, are you running the latest version? https://github.com/acidbubbles/vam-timeline/wiki/Playback-controls.

That is strange. I have what I believe is the latest version - I got it directly from the HUB - the package is AcidBubbles.Timeline.280.var (which should be 6.2.4 I think).
Mine looks like this:

Is there any newer version? Or am I doing anything wrong?

 

[Voithe]

HI! I join just to point out that I also have the 280 version too and the buttons are at the bottom.... (not a problem for me... anyway...)

 

[hentailondon]

@hentailondon this is.... weird. Try removing stuff from your scene until you have only the empty atom, and if you can reproduce with the empty atom and as few animations as possible, send the scene json to me. If I can reproduce then, I should be able to figure it out.

Thank you for your reply I tried removing other animations but the bug is still appearing.
Here is the scene. I removed most dependencies. Keyframe 32.900 is an example of the movement spazzing out.

 

[hentailondon]

That is strange. I have what I believe is the latest version - I got it directly from the HUB - the package is AcidBubbles.Timeline.280.var (which should be 6.2.4 I think).
Mine looks like this:
View attachment 256760View attachment 256767
Is there any newer version? Or am I doing anything wrong?

This is the same for me running 280.

Though personally i like it that way, since i often use the key-frame navigation buttons in combination with delete/cut/copy/paste buttons. Having them on the top would harden the workflow.

 

[DNA]

Though personally i like it that way, since i often use the key-frame navigation buttons in combination with delete/cut/copy/paste buttons. Having them on the top would harden the workflow.

I guess it depends a lot on the workflow and the environment. I can see how that can be convenient. Using it in VR however, with the controllers, can be pretty error prone (happened to me to the point where it was annoying, and I had to save very often). One small accidental flick of the wrist and you've deleted all the selected keyframes when all you wanted to do was to jump to the previous keyframe.

 

[hentailondon]

I guess it depends a lot on the workflow and the environment. I can see how that can be convenient. Using it in VR however, with the controllers, can be pretty error prone (happened to me to the point where it was annoying, and I had to save very often). One small accidental flick of the wrist and you've deleted all the selected keyframes when all you wanted to do was to jump to the previous keyframe.

Yeah i can totally see that happening too.
Best thing would be a toggle in options or some sort

 

[just-sleep]

Hi. If you make changes in your scene, you might want to offset the position of all the "poses". Right now, it is impossible. It would be much appreciated to have a feature similar to "Bulk, Offset mode", that however targets the root position of ALL the poses. Or, even better, to have an option to save the root of a pose relative to an atom/subscene.

 

[jaro]

Without this plugin VAM would be almost useless…
I am experiencing one error regularly: If I setup scenes with different animations and parent person to each other (e. g. a hand to a boob), this works fine as long as I stay in this anim. If I leave it and come back, the parented atom is often misplaced w/o obvious reason. If I apply the pose again, it is correct. Is this a bug or do I do something wrong?

 

[Acid Bubbles]

@jaro maybe you have some nodes in Comply mode?

 

[Acid Bubbles]

@hentailondon For some reason I'm unable to play the scene (I can't check more now) but I can look at the curve:

If we zoom in on a spike, you can see the curve flying away?

The problem is that you have a constant curve, and just before and after, a smooth curve. But the only way to make a smooth curve with such an abrupt change of speed is to make a loong detour. You could either use constant elsewhere to "teleport", or linear, or flat, depending on the effect you want.

I'll check if I can change the behavior of constant curves to make the "before" part linear instead of smooth, it'll probably be more predictable that way.

 

[Acid Bubbles]

@just-sleep That would be nice, yes

 

[Acid Bubbles]

@hentailondon actually no, something _is_ wrong. When I switch the curve type I can see the curve get back to a valid shape (when I tried to reproduce in a test scene I wasn't able to, it behaved how I though it should).

I'd like to know how you got into that state? Did you notice any errors in the error log?

 

[just-sleep]

@just-sleep That would be nice, yes

Thank you for considering it. That would massively improve the reusability of animations.

 

[Clocksmith]

This plugin is a goddamn masterpiece. I used to animate in Daz Studio and your plugin is 10x faster and more intuitive to use. And you've made it available for free. Thank you so much for what you have contributed to the community.

One question: I have made a set of animations on an unscaled (i.e. 6 ft tall) model and it works with any other standard sized model that I load in as an Appearance Preset. It even mostly works when I scale down those models in the General Physics (?) tab. However, there are some prescaled models (i.e. their 1.0 scale is smaller than standard) and these load into the animation floating in the air (Y) and slightly forward (X) for all the animations in the set.

I can manually change their atom X/Y each keyframe but I'm wondering if there is a way to globally translate the primary atom position (or better yet, any target) in all keyframes. It probably still wouldn't be perfect but may save a lot of work.

 

[Acid Bubbles]

Yeah scaling in VaM does lots of stuff... you can go to More, Bulk, and there's a mode there (check the wiki for details) to bulk offset every keyframe of a node within one animation. You can't scale the keyframes but translating them should already help!

 

[hentailondon]

@hentailondon actually no, something _is_ wrong. When I switch the curve type I can see the curve get back to a valid shape (when I tried to reproduce in a test scene I wasn't able to, it behaved how I though it should).

I'd like to know how you got into that state? Did you notice any errors in the error log?

Hmm i guess i was using the curves in a wrong way though this behavior is also buggy?

I didn't get any errors, the spazzing out was sometimes very inconsistent but changing curve type could indeed help.
My goal was to use constant curve for camera teleport but didn't realize you don't need a keyframe shortly before (pos2) as the constant curve only moves when the time is on the key frame and STAYS at the position (pos1) before doing so. So it was kinda redundant.

However sometimes i put a keyframe again at the same position (or else it would slowly move to the end keyframe), so it stays there (and this is where the bug sometimes appeared), should i just use smooth when the object does not move, or does it even matter? (i guess like you said, i was misusing the constant curve there, hence the bug).

I hope my writing is not too confusing xd

You could not open the scene at all? I removed all objects except the essential ones, so if you just see a black scene with person, timeline-controller and empty atom that's intended. By selection the empty atom root you can follow it's path.

Though i think misusing the curve was the root cause and one can find a way around it ^^

 

[Acid Bubbles]

Well @hentailondon the text is clear, but what would be nice is to have steps I can follow (where to click to get the same result). Might be as simple as constant curves not loading correctly, too. I'll need to figure this out at some point by any way to reproduce consistantly would be nice.