Advice on organizing layers/rows in the Editor

retropunk · 20 يناير 2015

Is there a preference that would allow me to organize the layers/rows how I prefer?
Once you start adding keyframes Spine seems to organize the layers for you. The re orders them as you select and deselect the bones.
I know there is a lock feature to the dopesheet but that simply locks the order that Spine creates.

I do enjoy the isolation feature when you select a bone and the other layers hide automatically, especially when animations start to become complex. That's useful.
Is there a reason you don't allow the user to organize the layers? I have a Premiere, After Effects and Flash background. Maybe this is this a 3D IDE style, do they do this in Cinema4D and 3DMax?

Any advice on organization that I am maybe not understanding?

Thanks

Patrick

retropunk · 20 يناير 2015

Nate · 21 يناير 2015

You can select the bones in the order you want them to be in the dopesheet, then lock the dopesheet. This achieves want you want, no?

retropunk · 22 يناير 2015

I see what you mean. I can select the bones in a specific order, add keyframes then lock the dopesheet. This works to a degree.
Once I start animating though I can't rearrange anything.

I've simply never seen it done this way before. Is this modeled after another software solution?

When my animations become complex I find it somewhat limiting. I either have to lock the dopesheet (where I lose the ability to isolate the layer upon selection) or unlock the dopesheet and have the layers re-order themselves when I select/deselect.
I don't understand the advantage of the layers moving around like that.

Would it be difficult to enable this in the editor so I could arrange the layers at any time?

Thanks

Patrick

Nate · 22 يناير 2015

If you work with the dopesheet unlocked, any time you select a bone to manipulate it you've lost what you had in the dopesheet. This means locking the dopesheet is necessary when you want to see a number of bones in the dopesheet and be able to manipulate them. If you want to isolate a bone, you unlock or refresh the dopesheet.

Drag and drop to arrange bones in the dopesheet would of course be possible to implement. For now selecting bones in order is a reasonable workaround.

Currently you can't both isolate a bone and have a number of bones in the dopesheet. Maybe it would make sense to have the topmost dopesheet row be the bone that is selected, even when the dopesheet is locked.

You could try selecting a number of bones in the order you want them in the dopesheet, then assigning them to a group, eg with ctrl+1. You can then lock the dopesheet and manipulate bones. Later, you can change the dopesheet contains by unlocking or refreshing it. Later, you can go back the bones you had by pressing 1, then locking or refreshing the dopesheet. If that doesn't work, it should and I'll fix it.

Related, at some point we'll implement a view that allows you to manage named selections. This could tie into the dopesheet, but it's too early to say.

Spine's dopesheet behavior isn't modeled after another program. Hopefully it is simple, logical, and provides the functionality needed. I'm open to improving it of course, but I also want it to be as simple as possible.