Animation Groups
Create an Animation Group
Create a more complex animated sequence in a scene with Animation Groups. Multiple animations are grouped and can run simultaneously.
Create a new animation group using the menu item "New Animation Group" from the Animation menu.
Created animation groups are displayed in the Solution Explorer panel like that:
Edited an animation group in the Animation Design view, with the Animation Timeline Editor. Drag animations from the Solution Explorer and drop them to the AnimationGroup in the Animation Timeline Editor. Another possibility is to use the "Add to Animation Group" option which is available in the context menu of every existing animation.
It is possible to select and drag simultaneously many animations into an animation group. When doing this operation, the user will be asked through the "Drop Animations" dialog if an animation chain has to be created.
You can also add both animations and animation groups to a specific animation group.
The main animation group is considered as the "root" and the group included inside as the "node".
It is not possible to include an animation group into another group, if it contains same animations as the root group.
Control Node Animations
These animations are displayed in "Local animations" category in the Animation combo box (in the toolbar). There are two available commands to add items to an animation group. In this way any confusions is avoided. The name of these command are self-explanatory:
When adding animations to the selected Animation Group, "Choose Item" dialog also displays control animations, for each control. It may display also nested control animations that are made available.
The following types of animations can be included in an Animation Group:
animations from folders;
animations of controls which belong to at least one scene (if the control contains other controls, then the animations of the child control are also available).
It does not allow selection of : FBX animations, animations already included, groups containing already included animations, animations of controls which do not belong to any scene.
The functionality of adding animations to an animation group allows multiple selection of: animations & animation groups
After a control animation is added, it behaves as any animation node. It inherits "Delay" and "Startup" properties (startup is available only in certain circumstances). The AnimationGroup panel displays the full name of the animations and short version of the control animations:
Categories for a normal animation (inside an animation group) are organizedas follows:
A read-only property is available, "Animation" which displays the name of the node animation.
Categories for a control animations (inside an animation group) are similar to the one above. Other read-only properties are available:
Animated control node – the control node that is animated by this animation node;
Chain – the template items for the animated control nodes, the nested control nodes and the control animations.
Simultaneous or Consecutive Animations
When a group with multiple animations is added inside another animation group, any animation from the former one can be set to start simultaneously or not with the previous node.
The option which allows this setting is called "Start Type". Select it from the context menu of the specific animation or in the Properties panel.
By selecting "With previous" option the animation will start simultaneously with the node. By selecting "After previous" option the animation will start after the node animation is done.