Plugins Timeline

[hentailondon]

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.

Hi. It's been a long time but I came back to making another camera motion scene while using constant curve and I have the same issue still.
I guess one way to reproduce this is using multiple Constant curves (not necessarily after each other) in the scene, save and exit, then loading the save again.

Shorty after the constant curve (100ms), i usually have a smooth local on another position for the "camera teleport" effect, which i think is the intended usage?
smooth local 0.100 -> smooth local 0.200 = ugly teleport, constant 0.100 -> smooth local 0.200 = instant teleport.
Assuming it does not matter what comes before the constant curve..

The bug ruined the camera motions and timings, which I setup throughout the scene. The "camera" atom which is controlled by Timeline just likes to move forwards & backwards even though there are no key frames telling it to, similar to the scene i sent you. Still lost on why...

I attached my settings , maybe they can help reproducing this issue.

Like you mentioned, changing the constant curve to smooth, playing it and then switching it to constant again can fix the issue. But having to do this for all constant curves in the scene every time they break is a hassle :X

 

[vmac]

Hey im having an issue similar to @Mysterio's and i cant figure out how to fix it.
i feel like just last week it wasn't this way, because i would load the scene and it would be fine...

Alright, here's the issue - one of the morphs I'm using is past the default RANGE+
when the scene loads. its properly extended and i can play around with in in the female morph section just fine,
BUT when i load the plugin and try to play my animation, then RANGE+ is reset in TIMELINE,
i need to go into the TARGETS and extend it to get it to work properly, and saving after extending the range doesnt help!
Edit: okay, it looks like loading a scene doesn't extend the range+ after all.
i guess the question is, how do i make vam timeline extend the range+?

any idea what im doing wrong?

 

[bill_prime]

@Acid Bubbles Question for timeline bulk changes: What is the proper way to change an animation to be compatible with a different Atom scale?
Let's say it's a doggystyle animation or BJ or something, and you change Atom Scale from 1.0 to 0.95

 

[Vamtucket]

Can someone direct me to info about how many timeline animations I can have in a scene? I've noticed that if I add too many, then the scene will save but not load back up. But I can't figure out what the limit is... like it doesn't seem to be affected directly by time length. What can I do to maximize the amount of timeline information I can have in one scene? Does it help to have all the animations in the same plugin (separated as segments)? These types of questions. thanks

 

[SelakAR]

@SelakAR FYI I did not forget you. I'm overwhelmed with stuff (as usual) but you're on my list.

Thanks. No worries, take it easy.

 

[Lance Phaser]

Does anyone know why my VAM keeps crashing when trying to rename/remove atoms? If I remove the timeline plugin from person atoms, then I can rename atoms, but otherwise every time I try to add a new UIButton and rename it for example, VAM crashes to desktop . This started recently and I haven't been able to fix it. I tried removing timeline and adding it back in. Tried exporting all animations and importing back in and still same issue :/

 

[MDKSBG]

Hello, why does the last frame rate cause the action to return to the first frame action? I can't find any settings to cancel. This is different from other engineering software, which makes me not used to it. It makes me think that when I edit the action in the next second, the action will become chaotic.

 

[Babell99]

Great work as usual AcidBubble, this component rocks.

I do have an issue with the "Next Animation" call while having multiple segments. I am pretty sure you have a bug there but I will let you confirm. I could package my test scene if you want. Here it is:

I have 2 actors

GirlA
GirlB

An an empty object that plays as the "Director" and the Master atom to control GirlA and GirlB.

I have 2 segments with 2 animation each:

1. SegmentLeg that contains animation:
- RaiseLeftLeg
- RaiseRightLeg

2. SegmentArm that contains animation:
- RaiseLeftArm
- RaiseRightArm

The segments and animations are existing in all the 3 atoms (GirlA, GirlB, Director). All animations are set to loop.

I do have a button "Play Leg Segment" which will play the "RaiseLeftLeg" as the first animation of the SegmentLeg on all 3 atoms.

I do have a button "Play Arm Segment" which will play the "RaiseLeftArm" as the first animation of the SegmentArm on all 3 atoms.

I do have a button "Play next animation" which make the call "Next animation"

I do have a button "Play previous animation" which make the call "Previous animation"

When I click "Play next animation" or "Play previous animation", the animation are switching nicely within the same segment.

BUT ...

If I click the button "Play Leg Segment" or "Play Arm Segment", at some point, the "Next Animation" call no longer work. Briefly, the call "Next Animation" seems to be broken at some point and will stop working when you are switching from a segment to the next.

I can reproduce at will and can package a very basic scene for you (no mod other than timeline and vamoverlays.

Thanks AcidBubble and have great holidays!

 

[Lance Phaser]

Does anyone know why my VAM keeps crashing when trying to rename/remove atoms? If I remove the timeline plugin from person atoms, then I can rename atoms, but otherwise every time I try to add a new UIButton and rename it for example, VAM crashes to desktop . This started recently and I haven't been able to fix it. I tried removing timeline and adding it back in. Tried exporting all animations and importing back in and still same issue :/

Besides the crashing when renaming Atoms, people who use my scene have now been reporting crashing when trying to change appearances :/. I'm still trying to figure this out, currently the only workaround is still: 1. Remove Timeline instances from person atoms 2. add new UIButtons and rename them 3. Add timeline back to Person Atoms (most of the time it remembers all the animations).

Weird thing is, I don't have to remove the timeline instances on other elements, it's only the instances on the Person Atoms that cause crashing when renaming anything in the scene. So possible causes are, too many animations or some triggers bugging out. It seems it's tied only to renaming atoms, so something with UID's or?

Is there a crashlog I can checkout or something? Sry I'm still new to VAM so my knowledge is not that great about the technical stuff! Cheers to anyone willing to point me in the right direction!

 

[TRSD]

A bunch of times now I have run into a limitation of the sequence randomize feature, unless I'm missing something.
I'd really love to be able to tag specific animations within a layer that uses randomize to be excluded from it.
I have a layer that randomizes expressions, a few expressions I only want to be triggered manually. But because I need morphs/controllers that some of the random expressions use, I can't simply create another layer for non-randomized expressions.
I can't think of a way to achieve this currently.

 

[ajtrader23]

how do you prevent one instance of timeline from stopping another instance when you use a "stop playing" trigger?

 

[TRSD]

how do you prevent one instance of timeline from stopping another instance when you use a "stop playing" trigger?

Under options for each instance of Timeline you can set "Sync with other atoms" on or off to make it self-contained.

 

[ajtrader23]

Under options for each instance of Timeline you can set "Sync with other atoms" on or off to make it self-contained.

Sorry, I wasn't clear; multiple instances of Timeline running on the same person atom.

 

[TRSD]

Sorry, I wasn't clear; multiple instances of Timeline running on the same person atom.

It should still apply even if the wording of the option suggests different. It'll not respond to any other Timeline instance being stopped in the scene once ticked. Only stops directed, directly, at it.

 

[RonBurgundy]

Just a heads up, Shadowvenom released a GUIDE to get this up and running on most uses of timeline. it works VAMProduce but did not work on CheekiBreeki's "Sexy K-Pop 16 song" scene for some reason.


Have any of you worked with @zhfx plugin RendertoMovie?
I got it running but when I record, it slows down the framerate as expected, but the physics are running @ 2x the speed it seems to the character is flying all over the screen (dancing).
When watching the recording, the finished video plays at 2x speed and the lips of the model are flopping around because she's spinning so fast!

i have been in a dialog with @zhfx and he said:
"That is not bad. The wrong speed is usually caused by the time mode of timeline plugin. I assume you are recording scene with timeline animation. Please goto the time line plugin, there is an option to swtich the time mode, there is a mode friendly to video recording."

So i came here to find out how to change this setting in timeline. I've tried under more options Both Realtime and Gametime with no difference noted

i captured in windows Realtime and then using the plugin to illustrate the difference
Realtime Windows cap

RendertoMovie Capture

 

[huiyu914]

In VR mode, there is a certain chance that the timeline of the expression deformation does not take effect (partially takes effect, similar to the VAM original built-in expression that never fails), but other expressions that I add to the timeline may exist a certain chance of failure. The failed expressions have a feature that when adjusted separately in the deformation menu, they are effective, but only in the timeline they will fail, and the adjustment value of the characters will not produce corresponding deformation changes. Strangely, in desktop mode, I have not encountered this problem. In VR mode, as the play time becomes long, this problem often occurs.

 

[ispinox]

Small QOL idea. Could we have ''synch in all atoms'' here?
Would be easier to edit lengths for all atoms.

 

[CheekiBreeki]

Can someone direct me to info about how many timeline animations I can have in a scene? I've noticed that if I add too many, then the scene will save but not load back up. But I can't figure out what the limit is... like it doesn't seem to be affected directly by time length. What can I do to maximize the amount of timeline information I can have in one scene? Does it help to have all the animations in the same plugin (separated as segments)? These types of questions. thanks

I ran into this before. It's not related to animation length but the size of the json file that's scene is saved as. It's a VAM limitation, I think around 500MB is the max file size. This used to be quite limiting with dense animations like mocaps which could only fit 10-15min.
With the new Timeline updates, there's a compress option (More > Options > Serialization Mode = Optimized) which should lower the file size (and hence increase the max animation length) by 5-6x

 

[CheekiBreeki]

@Acid Bubbles Possible bug report on the SmoothMoves feature implementation

The original SmoothMoves plugin finishes smoothing almost instantly even for long animations.
The Timeline implementation also smoothes instantly for upto 4 Target controls. But any more than 4 is very slow processing (almost a minute of processing per Target in a 4min mocap animation) for all targets beyond the 4th one. The first 4 targets always process instantly.
Wondering if it's possible to fix it or make a workaround patch to process only 4 targets at a time.

 

[huiyu914]

I have a question: Why is there always a pause when multiple animations are played back-to-back (each animation lasting 1 second, with a blend duration of 1 second)? It's not like within the same animation, where there is no pause between keyframes set every 1 second. Why is there always a pause when playing multiple animations, even when I repeatedly experiment with different blend durations and cannot avoid it?

wiki: While the animation is playing, switching to another will trigger blending. The blend duration is configured in the sequence screen will define for how long will the blending last when transitioning into the animation. Blending behaves like a "crossfade".

 

[darkesthours443]

I have a question: Why is there always a pause when multiple animations are played back-to-back (each animation lasting 1 second, with a blend duration of 1 second)? It's not like within the same animation, where there is no pause between keyframes set every 1 second. Why is there always a pause when playing multiple animations, even when I repeatedly experiment with different blend durations and cannot avoid it?

wiki: While the animation is playing, switching to another will trigger blending. The blend duration is configured in the sequence screen will define for how long will the blending last when transitioning into the animation. Blending behaves like a "crossfade".

Because your blending time is as long as the entire animation, it should technically skip over the entire first play of your animation if you are indeed sequencing to it.

If you want no pause, you need to set the blend duration to zero, and create a non looping animation in between the two that can act as a crossfade on it's own. (With a blending of zero on it's sequnce)

 

[rokoc]

Got a little issue I cant figure out.

I've got 2 animations in segment1.

Anim1, no loop, 14 seconds long.
Anim 2, loop, 4 seconds long.

Anim 1 plays then is sequenced to play anim 2. In anim2 I have a trigger to enable The float randomized plugin which randomizes the speed of timeline but the issue is it keeps activating around 2-3 seconds before anim1 has finished.

I figure Its to do with blend time so I put the trigger in anim2 at 3 second mark but it still activates during animation 1.

To be sure I removed the trigger and sure enough it did not activate.

Im perplexed How can I sort that ?

 

[darkesthours443]

Got a little issue I cant figure out.

I've got 2 animations in segment1.

Anim1, no loop, 14 seconds long.
Anim 2, loop, 4 seconds long.

Anim 1 plays then is sequenced to play anim 2. In anim2 I have a trigger to enable The float randomized plugin which randomizes the speed of timeline but the issue is it keeps activating around 2-3 seconds before anim1 has finished.

I figure Its to do with blend time so I put the trigger in anim2 at 3 second mark but it still activates during animation 1.

To be sure I removed the trigger and sure enough it did not activate.

Im perplexed How can I sort that ?

It would be helpfull perhaps if you shared the specific timeline segment with us here (Export the timeline within the options menu)
So that others can inspect the exact trigger position / sequence-Blend-in duration speeds you set up.

What you describe makes zero sense, it must be a very simple problem/solution you are overlooking.

*Alternative you should experiment with placing a button in a scene.
Anim 1 has a trigger that disables the button, anim 2 has a trigger that enables the button.

Make the animations sequence into each other, and observe the button behaviour VS the timeline scrubber position.


EDIT*

After trying to replicate your issue I come to the conclusion you have not adjusted / accounted for the Sequence Blend-in Duration on Anim 2

 

[rokoc]

It would be helpfull perhaps if you shared the specific timeline segment with us here (Export the timeline within the options menu)
So that others can inspect the exact trigger position / sequence-Blend-in duration speeds you set up.

What you describe makes zero sense, it must be a very simple problem/solution you are overlooking.

*Alternative you should experiment with placing a button in a scene.
Anim 1 has a trigger that disables the button, anim 2 has a trigger that enables the button.

Make the animations sequence into each other, and observe the button behaviour VS the timeline scrubber position.


EDIT*

After trying to replicate your issue I come to the conclusion you have not adjusted / accounted for the Sequence Blend-in Duration on Anim 2

View attachment 334261

thanks for the reply. i've went and made a new blank scene to try and reproduce to rule out everything else and have managed to reproduce no matter where the trigger is in anim 2 it will always trigger at 6.x seconds in anim 1. both animations with blend-in to 1.

setting anim 2 to blend-in 0 fixes it but its still weird its doing that ?

ive attached the exported segment.
- add timeline and the float randomizer plugin to the person (float plugin: https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/floatparamrandomizeree.20883/)
- Disable and then set float rand plugins atom to person, reciever to timeline plugin and target to speed. set upper and lower limit to 0
- import animation.

setting upper/lower to zero makes timeline freeze so we can see where it happens.

probably need to redo the trigger in anim2 to point to the float rand plugin and trigger to enable it

 

[darkesthours443]

thanks for the reply. i've went and made a new blank scene to try and reproduce to rule out everything else and have managed to reproduce no matter where the trigger is in anim 2 it will always trigger at 6.x seconds in anim 1. both animations with blend-in to 1.

setting anim 2 to blend-in 0 fixes it but its still weird its doing that ?

ive attached the exported segment.
- add timeline and the float randomizer plugin to the person (float plugin: https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/floatparamrandomizeree.20883/)
- Disable and then set float rand plugins atom to person, reciever to timeline plugin and target to speed. set upper and lower limit to 0
- import animation.

setting upper/lower to zero makes timeline freeze so we can see where it happens.

probably need to redo the trigger in anim2 to point to the float rand plugin and trigger to enable it

The segment you shared~ =

Animation 1 is 7 seconds long, does not loop, and auto sequences into Animation 2.
Does not contain any triggers or keyframes in the entire animation.

Animation 2 is 10 seconds long, loops, has no sequence set up.
At exactly 9.2 seconds there is a trigger.
The trigger turns the float parameter ON, and then instantly turns it OFF again.

I understood from your previous message what you are trying to set up (A trigger that activates a speed randomizer), but i'm unsure what I am looking at here...

Start of by removing everything you put in the "end actions" tab, it is not used, infact, it breaks the trigger you try to achieve in the first place, namely, turning your float randomizer ON.

Secondary, I always prefer to put animations with such triggers like these, in their own section / make them non looping.

In this case it doesn't really matter, as every loop you "re-activate" something that's already activated, but in allot of other instances, you don't want to trigger something multiple times.


EDIT*

And to answer the sequence issue, if I run your shared timeline segment, the trigger ALWAYS activates at exactly 9.2 seconds, in animation 2, not a split second sooner or later, so it's definatly not the timeline that's causing your trigger timing issues...

Edit2*

A blend in sequence is achieved by doing the following:

Say an animation is 10 seconds long, and it has a blend in duration set-up for 2 seconds.
What will happen if this animations gets sequenced into?
It will start playing at the ~8 seconds mark, why? Because you set up a blend in of 2 seconds.

What does this mean for a trigger? If you then had a trigger at, say, 9.2 seconds...
1.2 seconds after the sequence started, the trigger will activate.

Putting a blend-in at zero would start the blend-in sequence at 10=~0 seconds, thus not trigger the trigger at 9.2 seconds early.

^ Perhaps this answers it all?

~ It is exactly why, triggers like these are best put in non looping side animations that are not part of a main segment, to avoid timing and sequence related issues.