Multi time line

[Kalain]

Hi,

It would be nice to display several timeline in PTE. (a bit like in video)

This would be very usefull to synchronise in a frame several objects between each others.

This is particulary true in examples like "BigPicture". (from TheDom)

Here is a simplist example below :

(objects time line could be displayed with right clic, check box, also highlighted, ..........)

[Lin Evans]

Hi, and welcome to the forums!

An interesting suggestion which has been discussed previously. That works well when you have only a few objects, but what happens when you have perhaps 20 objects? Then you must have a scroll bar on the time line and some means of switching the view between seeing object one and two, object 4 and 16, etc.

If you allocate more space to the time line to see more than two objects compared, then there is less space to see the actual images in relationship to each other. It can get very complicated as with some video software where the "preview" area becomes tiny and too much space is allocated to time line observation. Then there is the issue of seeing multiple sound tracks as well.

It's not a simple decision. Right now you can see the relationships by checking the "Transparent to Selection" box in the Properties (Common) Tab then observing the bounding rectangle.

The idea of having multiple time lines visible appeals more to those who work visually while using the physical timing numbers appeals to those who visualize the relationships and see the effects by moving the small green arrow along the time line to "step" through the actions.

I think the utility of this idea is more of a "comfort" level of how one is accustomed to working rather than a necessity for achieving precision in animations but it is something worthy of discussion.

Best regards,

Lin

Hi,

It would be nice to display several timeline in PTE. (a bit like in video)

This would be very usefull to synchronise in a frame several objects between each others.

This is particulary true in examples like "BigPicture". (from TheDom)

Here is a simplist example below :

(objects time line could be displayed with right clic, check box, also highlighted, ..........)

[Kalain]

Hi,

Hi, and welcome to the forums!

An interesting suggestion which has been discussed previously. That works well when you have only a few objects, but what happens when you have perhaps 20 objects? Then you must have a scroll bar on the time line and some means of switching the view between seeing object one and two, object 4 and 16, etc.

Time line could be displayed only for selected objects, not for all of them.

This would be better than only one time line ?

if there is not enough space or if scrolling bar is quite long, the user could deselected some objects

If you allocate more space to the time line to see more than two objects compared, then there is less space to see the actual images in relationship to each other. It can get very complicated as with some video software where the "preview" area becomes tiny and too much space is allocated to time line observation. Then there is the issue of seeing multiple sound tracks as well.

This is a tricky problem to solve between space and displayed objects.

It's not a simple decision. Right now you can see the relationships by checking the "Transparent to Selection" box in the Properties (Common) Tab then observing the bounding rectangle.

The idea of having multiple time lines visible appeals more to those who work visually while using the physical timing numbers appeals to those who visualize the relationships and see the effects by moving the small green arrow along the time line to "step" through the actions.

I think the utility of this idea is more of a "comfort" level of how one is accustomed to working rather than a necessity for achieving precision in animations but it is something worthy of discussion.

"comfort" ? well.... may be I don't know yet how to use correctly PTE and such feature (multitime line) could be usefull only for newbies ? Hmmm, what about projects like The Big Picture from Thedom! This is not so easy to modify and have a look at all time line objects.

Best regards

Alain

[alrobin]

Kalain,

I think your points have merit. In particular I would like to have someday the ability to hide objects, similar to the hiding of layers in "Photoshop" and in "Flash".

[Igor]

Thank you, I also thought about this idea. Maybe later in next versions. I added it to my TODO list. The most serious problem in user interface. I would not complicate view of Visual editor.