possibility to mark frames/ timing/ 2D animation

Marco · Post by **Marco** » 21 May 2006, 00:11

Hello I am Marco and I try to use TVpaint for traditional 2D animation. But I find it a little bit uncomfortable to do an intuitive timing. I know the functions to duplicate frames or to add empty ones but it's hard to distinguish the key frames. Normally I work like that. I draw the key frames, I linetest them and than I determine the exposition (by changing the duration of the keys) in the linetest program. Sometimes this can be much try and see. So I need to know where the keys exactely are. Is there a possibility to mark frames (clour change, thicker outlines. ...)?

Bye

lemec · Post by **lemec** » 21 May 2006, 00:53

You can add bookmarks!

They can be set in the hotkey editor and have a section all their own.

You can set bookmarks and jump back and forth between them, and it will show a blue marker in the layer/timeline window.

Are you looking for something that visibly flags each keyframe and shows up in the window instead? You could go old-fashioned and draw a circled frame number in the corner

ZigOtto · Post by **ZigOtto** » 21 May 2006, 01:03

yeap, I was on the point of giving the same answer,
though it would be cool to have the ability to flip through all the bookmarked frames,
but only them, getting rid of whatever between them.
the must-have would be to respect the timing (separation between the bookmarks) when fliping them.

say : BM-frame1, BM-frame6, BM-frame10,
fliping the sequence would play : 1 1 1 1 1 6 6 6 6 10.

lemec · Post by **lemec** » 21 May 2006, 01:37

I'd REALLY like to see if layers could be given bookmarks -- rather than the whole timeline. This would be especially useful if you have two characters on-screen, each on separate layers, with their own bookmarks.

Come to think of it, that would require that each frame store some bit of meta-data to indicate its "keyframe" status, which would be great for cut-and-paste operations.

ZigOtto · Post by **ZigOtto** » 21 May 2006, 02:00

lemec wrote:Come to think of it, that would require that each frame store some bit of meta-data to indicate its "keyframe" status, which would be great for cut-and-paste operations.

it sounds like some stuffs for the next generation Layer Engine!
(I hope so, and the sooner, the better!...)

Post by **TVPaint** » 23 May 2006, 13:53

Hi Marco,
Did you try lemec's suggestions ? It seems that it's the most easy way to create keyframes in an animation so feel free to put your feedbacks here !
Don't forget that you can flip your anim when doing your linetest by pressing the W key (and you can set its time by RMB clicking on the proxy bar).

Btw Zig's request is interesting and could probably done by tweaking the FlipAnim tool (Gotta ask hervé now guys !).

Marco · Post by **Marco** » 06 Jul 2006, 16:15

Hello! Excuse me for answering so late.
Thank you Lemec for your tips.
The bookmarks are really close to what I am looking for, but there is one disadvantage. I wanted use them that way:

1. Draw my key images (key 1 in the first frame, key two in the second one, ....)

2. Bookmark all the images because they are all keys.

3. Modify the Timing by changing the duration of each image in order to know how many inbetweens I'll need to draw later. I do this by using the Animator Panel by adding or removing images.

And there's my problem! I would like the bookmarks to move whith the key when I duplicate a key, in order to be able to identify them at every moment. That way, that the first key keeps marked, the second image, which is the same like the first, but which will be replaced by an inbetween later, isn't marked and the third one (the second key) keeps its bookmark.
But it doesnt'work like that. The bookmarks are not attached to a particular image. The stay where they are.
It's strange. Because they move when you add an empty image between two existing ones. Why doesn't it work when duplicating allready existing images.

Concerning your second tip. You're right. But the disadvantage is, that you can't jump from one to the next. And often they would take too much place of the image in order to be distinguishable in the timeline.

I would really like to have a tool like the bookmarks, but which keep scotched to a particular image. That would make animation with this wonderfull software much more intuitif.

Bye Marco

lemec · Post by **lemec** » 06 Jul 2006, 16:26

Well, bookmarks don't move with the frames if you're only inserting frames/duplicates for the current layer only. If you use the Project:Append Single Image or Project:Duplicate Single Image then the bookmarks should be bumped over.

Marco · Post by **Marco** » 06 Jul 2006, 17:09

Thank you very much. They really move! That's usefull.
But, when I duplicate a key, it creates an image before the key and moves the original to the next frame. What can I do in order to get the opposite effect? When I have two keys and I want to duplicate the first one by keeping the bookmarked one in frame number one and moving the second key to frame three?
And, is there a hotkey for Project:Duplicate Single Image?

Bye[/b]

lemec · Post by **lemec** » 06 Jul 2006, 18:02

It looks like this is a job for a macro of some sort...
Let's look at what needs to be done, step by step:

1: check to see if there's a bookmark at the current frame and store the result in a temporary variable (bookmarked = 1 if it's bookmarked)

2: if bookmarked == 1, disable the bookmark

3: duplicate the frame

4: if bookmarked == 1, then bookmark the current frame...
A

Steps 1, 2 are done with bkmrkInsert.grg

Step 4 is done with bkmrkInsert_stage2.grg

You should be able to map this CP panel button to a keyboard shortcut... read the docs for more on it...

Marco · Post by **Marco** » 06 Jul 2006, 18:16

Thank you Lemec! I found where to create the hot keys!
But, I really don't understand anything of macro and so on...

You wrote:

"1: check to see if there's a bookmark at the current frame and store the result in a temporary variable (bookmarked = 1 if it's bookmarked) "

How can I store what result in a temporary variable?
What is "bkmrkInsert.grg"?

Thank you for your patience!

Marco · Post by **Marco** » 06 Jul 2006, 18:21

Excuse-moi! J'avais lu ton message en écrivant le mien. Donc, j'avais pas vu le jpg. Je vais essayer de comprendre avec .

Merci Lemec!

Marco

lemec · Post by **lemec** » 06 Jul 2006, 18:32

Go to Main Menu->Windows->Animator Panel

That should bring up the Animator Panel(it's a large custom toolbar) that comes with TVP. From there, you can right-click any of the buttons and EDIT it.

In this case, the button to be edited should be the one labeled: "Duplicate Image Right"

For actions 0 and 2, choose set script, and select the proper GRG file from the file browser that appears.

For action 1, go to Set Keystroke->Project->Duplicate Single Image

Properly naming the button will make it easier to find in the keystroke editor.

lemec · Post by **lemec** » 06 Jul 2006, 18:40

Marco wrote:Thank you Lemec! I found where to create the hot keys!
But, I really don't understand anything of macro and so on...

You wrote:

"1: check to see if there's a bookmark at the current frame and store the result in a temporary variable (bookmarked = 1 if it's bookmarked) "

How can I store what result in a temporary variable?
What is "bkmrkInsert.grg"?

Thank you for your patience!

Ah -- basically I'm explaining what the TVP George scripts bkmrkInsert.grg and bkmrkInsert_stage2.grg do -- I created those just now to answer your question -- and you can download them and place them into a George subdirectory in your TVPA installation directory. You will probably have to create your own George directory -- or you can call it scripts -- it's up to you -- as long as you can find it easily...

bkmrkinsert.grg is a script file that checks to see if the current frame is bookmarked and stores it into a temporary variable - it does this automatically as the first step of your CP panel button macro. It also turns off the bookmark flag on that one frame

bkmrkinsert_stage2.grg runs right after the frame is duplicated -- it handles adding the bookmark back onto the current frame -- after reading the temporary variable to determine whether adding the bookmark is necessary.

ZigOtto · Post by **ZigOtto** » 06 Jul 2006, 18:57

good try Lemec, but it doesn't work the same as if the marks really sticked to the drawing (content of the frame),
try this :
M______M___
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
8 drawings anim, = 8 frames, Marks on drawings 1 and 6,
go to frame 6 (which is the 2nd Mark) and hit your button , it works great!
you should get this :
M______M____
1 2 3 4 5 6 6 7 8
now go to frame 1 (the 1rst Mark), hit your button, you will get that :
M______M______
1 1 2 3 4 5 6 6 7 8
the 2nd Mark don't stay sticked on its drawing 6 ...

so it will work properly only if you advance (forward) continuously, without going backward.