Allow for playback of only a specific section of an animation

[QbieShay]

Describe the project you are working on

VFX - specifically a long cinematic sequence with multiple VFX

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project

I am using the animation player to drive multiple VFX. Since this is a small cinematic sequence, I need to animate everything together on the same timeline to make sure timings fit with one another.

There's a couple of issues right now with this workflow, but the biggest one for me right now is that I can't play and replay only a section of an animation.

Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation

Allow for selecting a section of an animation for playback (editor only is fine)

Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams

Add a cntrol at the bottom of the animation player to optionally clamp the playback range:
one icon, two boxes for the clamp.

If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?

It's the animation player

Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?

/

[Calinou]

• Related to Add a way to loop one section of an animation in AnimationPlayer #2159 and Add markers and regions to Animation #8414.

For reference, the workflow for doing so in Audacity 3.3.3 is as follows:

• There's a Loop button that toggles loop-on-playback behavior with an adjustable section. Here it's disabled, as indicated by a white loop section on the timeline:

• When Loop is enabled, the loop section on the timeline turns yellow:

You can change the loop section by dragging over the timeline with the left mouse button.

• If you start playback outside the loop section, it's ignored until the loop section is reached:

simplescreenrecorder-2023-11-27_12.57.21.mp4

This allows previewing an animation from the start and viewing a looping section only once it's reached.

Also, in Audacity, single-clicking the timeline will start playback from the clicked position. This behavior may be too intrusive in Godot, but it could be worth considering when double-clicking.

The loop section is unfortunately not saved to Audacity project files (so you have to reconfigure it after reopening Audacity), but this is something we could do using Object metadata in Godot.

[TokageItLab]

The restrictions on how to obtain Audio/AnimationPlayback keys described here godotengine/godot#85088 (comment) are relevant a bit. I keep them and this proposal in mind when working later. (Perhaps it is greedy, but I would like to support reverse playback as well.)

[QbieShay]

Thank you for looking at it @TokageItLab ! If this is something you're already working on, would it be accurate to move the state of this proposal to "in progress" and assign you to it?

[TokageItLab]

I just indicated that the problem I linked to is a regression in a sense, and that it has simply become this proposal blocker. So unfortunately, I would not be able to work on this at the same time.

After that fix, I think this proposal will be technically possible, but it would be better to work on it at the same time as the A-B Repeat/Loop proposal, which is also available at run-time; Internally, they should require the same implementation. I think someone wanted that somewhere, but I can't recall.

[QbieShay]

Ahh sorry I misunderstood. In that case I'll wait for the fix, then perhaps we can discuss a design for the implementation and call for a volunteer to help ^^

Thank you again!