Can you scale time for multiple keyframes?

smithmw7

I am new to Spine, I want to speed up some existing animations and slow down some others. I know I can view this in the preview panel, but I can't apply that faster speed to the animation so I can Export it out at that faster speed. Id love to be able to scale the keyframes up and down similar to the preview feature, is that an option? Thank you!

Erika

Hello! have a look at this part of the User Guide which explains it well 😃 Dopesheet - Spine User Guide: Scaling

fantasyz

It would be great if we could set up a speed modifier to each animation. e.g. 1.0 = Normal Speed, 2.0 = Twice as fast.
So that we don't need to scale the keys which cause some keys to be placed on in-between position.

The reason behind this is that I want to keep the dope sheet easier to work with by having the keys span on a wider range aligned on the timeline.
Otherwise, right now I have to shrink all the keys to speed up the animation which cause the keys to be too compact and not good for viewing. Moreover, having keys on in-between position in the timeline is just less comfortable to work on.

Pharan

@[deleted]
I think you'll be better off setting your dopesheet framerate at a consistent high fps.
Dopesheet framerate is there precisely so that you can set it higher and be able to insert more keys in fast motions without having to resort to holding shift and estimating a spot between frames.

You can find this setting in the Playback panel, under Views>Playback.
This dopesheet framerate setting applies to the whole project, so you'll have to stretch out the dopesheet of all the relevant animations.

I like to set mine at 60 to be able to cover fast actions. Or 120 if I know the game will involve slowmo sequences.

fantasyz

It is transparent to game engine after export?
Could I have some set to 60 and some old made animation keep at 30? or do I need them all consistent to be 60?

Pharan

All key times are always stored as seconds in the json or binary.
But the number 60 is included in the metadata if you export it with nonessential.

60 just represents the number of tickmarks to represent a second in the dopesheet. It doesn't represent game framerate or spine update framerate or anything like that.

As I said, the dopesheet framerate applies to the whole project. So if you choose this solution, you'll have to stretch out the dopesheet for the animations that you previously had to play slowly. You can do this by selecting all the keys in the dopesheet and then dragging the selection box to resize.

fantasyz

I guess I will try this on new characters and leave the old ones alone.
Would not it be better when I change the frame rate setting, Spine prompt me if I want it to auto scale the existing animation accordingly? (if there is exist any animation)

thanks for the info anyway.

Pharan

That's a good QOL feature for though. Not sure where a button or prompt would go. But I'll add the idea to the list.
Easier scaling of animation speed/dopesheet key spacing. · #374 · EsotericSoftware/spine-editor

Note the current workaround:

Make a box selection wider than your animation duration in the dopesheet. Make it end at an easy frame number, like frame 50, 80, 100, or 200.
Scale the selection box so 50 becomes 100, or 100 becomes 200 to make it twice as long.

fantasyz

Ok... I just got a situation where using a fixed timescale timeline is not so practical when compared to being able to customize the time scale for each animation. I am rigging a world map and there I have clouds. For those clouds to move across the scene, it is suppose to take a lot of time. Not in seconds but probably count in minutes to have natural motion. Thus, the trouble come. I don't know how to do it easily. The key would probably need to be dragged across thousands of frames in the dopesheet. If a per animation timescale can be customized. I would just animate in a small scale and input a value like 0.01 to have this animation slow down by 100 times. hmm...

Nate

FWIW, you can zoom the timeline out as far as possible and make a box selection. While you are dragging it with the left mouse button, you can right mouse button drag to scroll the dopesheet horizontally. With this it is pretty OK to select ₅₀₀₀ frames (₂.5 minutes). Longer than that gets pretty unwieldy.

Another solution would be to animate it with a shorter duration and scale the playback of the animation at runtime.

mhaji

hi, I'm working with the spine, over 2 years, recently I update the spine to 4.0.13
now I can't change the timeline scale , I mean I can't scale the keys , for example, my animation is 60 frame , I want to scale them to 80

Sinisa

Hey @mhaji,
To improve this function we changed this behavior a little bit. A lot of animators like to fast box select the keys to move them left/right and they would accidentally scale the keys (happened to me all the time, I work with the stylus, so I kind of "lick" the keys when I box select them). To avoid that, you have to box select and hold the selection a bit to get a border, then you can scale it. Graph - Spine User Guide: Box selection

Also, if you didn't use the new Graph View, check the video for more Graph explanation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM6oYTtbvQs&t=503s

mhaji

my Problem was this
https://streamable.com/pxejzp

Sinisa wrote
Hey @mhaji,
To improve this function we changed this behavior a little bit. A lot of animators like to fast box select the keys to move them left/right and they would accidentally scale the keys (happened to me all the time, I work with the stylus, so I kind of "lick" the keys when I box select them). To avoid that, you have to box select and hold the selection a bit to get a border, then you can scale it. Graph - Spine User Guide: Box selection

Also, if you didn't use the new Graph View, check the video for more Graph explanation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM6oYTtbvQs&t=503s

thanks a lot ♥ , I should just hold for a sec and that works for me

Sinisa

Great, glad to help!
Yeah, I personally like this upgrade because I retime and move the keys way more than I scale them, so less room for error.
BTW doesn't this window circle animation on the cursor annoys you? It makes me crazy, I shut it down immediately https://machollywood.com/blogs/news/remove-windows-pen-touch-circle-features

mhaji

XD thats only for record screen video

Sinisa

Hehe, great 😉