preview each frame of animation(seconds), controlled slider

Kurtav

Hello, you have a very interesting animation software product !

My task is to make a beautiful cartoon with a live camera from animations. I need to change the Unity camera (positions, zoom) in certain animation frames. And then a problem arose. Each time I do this task for a very long time.

Every time I slow down the time and start the Unity play mode to catch the "AnimationTime" I need

// Example

//BEFORE = looking for frames of meaningful (beautiful, dynamic) animation frames
private void Update()
{
   TrackEntry te = animObj.state.GetCurrent(0);  

   print(te.AnimationTime);
}
IEnumerator IntroCoroutine()
{   

   Time.timeScale = 0.5f;
   animObj.state.SetAnimation(0, animName, false);
   yield return new WaitForSpineAnimationComplete(animObj.state.GetCurrent(0));
}

//After = found that after half a second of playing the animation, I need to increase the zoom(from 5 to 4) by 0.3 seconds
// (to make it more vivid, emotionally - zoom a certain number of animation frames)

IEnumerator IntroCoroutine()
{   

   Time.timeScale = 1;
   animObj.state.SetAnimation(0, animName, false);
   yield return new WaitForSeconds(0.5f);
   Camera.main.DOOrthoSize(4f, 0.3f); // DOTween
   yield return new WaitForSpineAnimationComplete(animObj.state.GetCurrent(0));
}

Is it possible to view each animation frame in seconds in the Unity editor? (not in the play mode).
At the moment I only have a preview of the animation. I can’t move the red slider and see in each frame what is the value in seconds - 0.2 or 0.33, etc.

Jamez0r

I would look into using Timeline to control your camera and your Spine Animations. The main purpose of Timeline is to make it easier to create Cutscenes. It should work well for what you are trying to do.

Basic info on Timeline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_uBFM3YUF4
Spine-Timeline documentation: spine-unity Runtime Documentation: Timeline Extension UPM Package
Timeline Extension Package: Spine Unity Download

Once you have everything set up, you will be able to 'scrub' through the Timeline and set everything up as you desire even without running the game.

Nate

Jamez0r's suggestion seems reasonable. You could also view the animation in Spine to find a particular frame. Assuming the Playback view is set to 30 frames per second (the default), the frame you see in spine / 30 = time in seconds.

Harald

We are also currently working on previews for the SkeletonMecanim tracks (covered in this issue ticket). It will provide a sync-feature to the Animation window, so there you will be able to scrub to precise time points. During this task we will check whether we can also improve the Preview bar with the red bar, to allow for interaction.

Threedays

I use simply way to preview spine animation at specific times in scene view, and I also use Odin Inspector for this, but if you're not worked with Odin, just noticed that how "UpdatePreview()" and "attributes of _previewAtTime" do.

And put the code in where you want, I put this in ScriptableObject and it help me to adjust some skills data setup, because I don't want to use timeline at the moment. Hope it will help someone.

    public SkeletonDataAsset EditorRefAsset;
    private SkeletonAnimation _previewObject;
    [SerializeField, OnValueChanged("UpdatePreview"), CustomValueDrawer("FloatRangeSliderDrawer")]
    private float _previewAtTime;

    [Button("EnablePreview (Clicked again to refresh)")]
    private void EnablePreview()
    {
        if (EditorRefAsset == null || string.IsNullOrEmpty(_key)) return;
        if (_previewObject == null)
        {
            _previewObject = new GameObject().AddComponent<SkeletonAnimation>();
            //_previewObject.gameObject.AddComponent<EditorSkeletonPlayer>();
            UnityEditor.EditorApplication.playModeStateChanged += EditorApplication_playModeStateChanged;
        }
        _previewObject.skeletonDataAsset = EditorRefAsset;
        _previewObject.Initialize(true);
        _previewObject.AnimationName = _key;
    }

    [Button("DisablePreview")]
    private void DisablePreview()
    {
        if (EditorRefAsset == null || string.IsNullOrEmpty(_key)) return;
        GameObject.DestroyImmediate(_previewObject.gameObject);
        UnityEditor.EditorApplication.playModeStateChanged -= EditorApplication_playModeStateChanged;
    }

    private void EditorApplication_playModeStateChanged(UnityEditor.PlayModeStateChange obj)
    {
        switch (obj)
        {
            case UnityEditor.PlayModeStateChange.EnteredEditMode:
                _previewObject.gameObject.SetActive(true);
                break;
            case UnityEditor.PlayModeStateChange.EnteredPlayMode:
                _previewObject.gameObject.SetActive(false);
                break;
        }
    }

    private void UpdatePreview()
    {
        if (_previewObject == null) return;
        _previewObject.AnimationName = _key;
        _previewObject.AnimationState.GetCurrent(TrackIndex).TrackTime = _previewAtTime;
    }

    private float GetPreviewAnimationDuration()
    {
        if (EditorRefAsset == null || string.IsNullOrEmpty(_key)) return 0;
        return EditorRefAsset.GetSkeletonData(true).FindAnimation(_key).Duration;
    }

    private float FloatRangeSliderDrawer(float value, GUIContent label, System.Func<GUIContent, bool> callNextDrawer)
    {
        Sirenix.Utilities.Editor.SirenixEditorGUI.BeginBox();
        callNextDrawer(label);
        var result = UnityEditor.EditorGUILayout.Slider(value, 0, GetPreviewAnimationDuration());
        Sirenix.Utilities.Editor.SirenixEditorGUI.EndBox();
        return result;
    }`

Threedays

After testing with another Spine animation, I realized that the SkeletonMecanim Controller is needed, so remember to generate it. However, I'm not sure how it works behind.