You can find everything you need to work with the Time Editor in the user interface, but the Attribute Editor gives you an inside look at the Time Editor nodes, exposing both internal informational attributes provided as a reference, as well as a few attributes you can edit. This in-depth look at the Time Editor nodes is useful for debugging scenes and for scripting purposes — such as generating Time Editor nodes with automated scripts.
Important: If you edit
Time Editor attributes with the
Attribute Editor, no validation is performed, unlike when you use the Time Editor interface or commands.
Clip
Select a clip in the Time Editor and open the Attribute Editor to access these options.
- Clip
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- Clipid
- Reference entry that shows the selected clip's ID number.
Note: Do not modify this setting.
- Clip Name
- Displays the selected clip's name. Enter a new name in this field to rename the clip.
- Clip Type
- Lets you define if the selected clip is an Audio or Animation clip.
Note: Do not modify this setting.
- Clip Start
- Clip Start time is expressed in Parent time, which means in frames relative to the start of the Parent clip, in Parent units. For example, if a Parent clip is scaled up x10, a single frame of the Parent clip will last 10 absolute frames. If the Child clip in question is positioned at 10th absolute frame, it is a at frame 1 in Parent units, thus Start = 1.
- Clip Duration
- Lets you specify the clip's length. Duration is in clip's Local units. For example, if a clip is 5 frames long, that means it has 5 frames of content which can be stretched due to scaling or warping.
- Clip Scale
- Lets you speed up or slow down the clip depending on what value you enter.
- Time Warped/Time Warp Type
- Activate Time Warp to retime the clip. Select Time Warp or Speed Curve to specify what kind of retiming you want. See
Retiming animation in the Time Editor for information on
Time Editor Time Warps and Speed Curves.
Note: For this setting to take effect, a curve must be connected to aSpeedInput attribute. Only then, and if aTimeWarped is checked, is this considered.
- Clip Loop Before/Clip Loop After
- Loop regions are expressed in multiples of clip, for example: x2, x5, x1.23 and so on. A setting of 0 = no loop.
- Clip Loop Before Mode/Clip Loop After Mode
-
Lets you control how the looping region should behave:
-
- Cyclical
-
- When the first frame and last frame match in a loop. This mode can be used for an action that repeats, such as a character waving. This is the default looping for the Time Editor. See Types of Loops in the Time Editor.
- Progressive
-
- Repeats the animation, but also applies an offset to each loop cycle that pushes the animation further and further along its path. This type of looping lets you create a walk cycle from a short animation. See Create a walk cycle with Progressive Looping.
- Hold
- Freeze on the clip's last value, This means that a clip cannot be both looped and held on a given end, but you can control looping at clip start and end separately.
- Clip Hold Before/Clip Hold After
- Lets you specify where the clip hold begins and ends. In case looping is defined as a Hold with the option above, this attribute determines the hold length, as opposed to aClipLoopBefore/After. This is because Holds are defined in frames; this way trimming the clip does not affect the hold duration while the loops are defined in multiples. Trimming the clip makes the loops also shorter because there is less of the clip to repeat.
- See Edit Animation in the Time Editor for an explanation of holding a clip.
- Clip Muted
- Disables the selected clip.
Note: It is recommended to mute a clip instead using the Time Editor Clip contextual menu.
- Clip Color/Use Clip Color
- Lets you set a new color for the selected clip.
- Curve Start
- This setting offsets the animation inside the clip forward or backward relative to clip's 0 frame, for example an offset of 1 shifts the the animation 1 frame forward.
- Delete
- Deletes the clip
Note: Do not modify this setting. Instead, use the Delete option in the Time Editor Clip contextual menu.
Track
Select a clip in the Time Editor and open the Attribute Editor and click the Composition tab to access the Track options.
- Add New Item
- Track
-
- Index
- Represents 0-based index of a track, which controls the order of tracks at a given level. A Track node contains a list of tracks in a given scope, for example, a composition, not just a single track. The expectation is that all tracks in a given node will have a 0-based unique index, from 0 to n-1 (where n is the number of tracks), so if there are 4 tracks, they should have indexes 0, 1, 2, 3.
- Type
- Lets you define the specified track as an Audio or Animation track.
- Track Name
- Displays the specified track's name. Enter a new name in this field to rename the Track.
- Track Muted/Track Solo
- Temporarily disables/isolates the specified track.
Note: It is not recommended to mute a Track this way. Use the -soloTrack command instead as it sets up other nodes of TE correctly. Instead use the Mute or Solo option in the Time Editor Track contextual menu..
- Track Ghost
- Lets you create a simplified representation of the animated objects on a track to preview the influence of each clip. See View Track Ghosts in the Time Editor.
- Track Solo/Mute
- Track Height
- Lets you specify how tall the specified track is. The default is 32.
- Use Track Color/Track Color
- Lets you set a new color for the specified track.
- Delete
- Removes the specified track from the
Time Editor.
Note: The Animation Source remains in the scene. Find it in the Outliner or the Time Editor Source menu in the Time Editor menu bar.
- Clip
- This setting is for internal purposes only. Lists the Group clip to which this track node optionally belongs.
- Composition
- This setting is for internal purposes only. If the tracks node represents a composition, this plug will connect to a timeEditor node. The name of the tracks node is the name of the composition.
- SeeCreate multiple animation stories with Time Editor Compositions.
- Parent Time
- This setting is for internal purposes only.
- CrossFade
- Provides a list of defined custom crossfades for clips on tracks in this scope. Custom crossfads between two clips can be defined when right-clicking a clip crossfade region and selecting Crossfade from the Time Editor Clip contextual menu. This attribute becomes a multi-entry of clip pairs and crossfade information.