Tips

• Alt+click on a Timeline Editor Object's arrow, will collapse/expand all objects.
• When you collapse an object, you will still have a visual indication of where your time bars are, while saving up on space.

• Double clicking on a Timeline Editor Object, will also select the object in the Step Hierarchy.
• Ctrl+a to select all time bars when the Timeline Editor is in focus.
• Holding the Shift button, then scrolling the mouse wheel with the timeline window in focus will scale it.
• Holding the Ctrl button while scrolling will "zoom" in and out - up to the maximum length of the timeline.
• Press K to create a time bar while recording. This allows you to create multiple time bars while you record, for example to create multiple translation time bars on the same object.
• Press Shift + < to select all time bars before the current time
• Press Shift + > to select all time bars after the current time

What does it do?

Timeline Editor is used to edit 3D contents for each step, this includes creating timeline animations. 

 

Record (Record timeline)	Skip to the start	Rewind/ skip to the previous	Play	Pause	Fast forward	Skip to the end or next

• Playhead: This is the red vertical line in the timeline that allows the playback of the animation that has been created. Dragging the playhead left and right across the seconds allows you to view your animation in the Scene. The position of the playhead will also determine the time at which recorded animations end.
• Timebar: Animations for individual objects are represented in the timeline by the animation timebar. You can delete, copy, edit, reverse or duplicate the animation of an object by right-clicking the timebar.
• Loop point/Marker: This line sets the point at which the animation in the current step will loop and begin playing back from the beginning. The loop point can be dragged into position or placed instantly by right-clicking on the seconds display of the timeline.

Adding animation time bars

Timebars represent an animated aspect of an object in the current step. Click on the "Timebar" to access available options (Pic 1). Right-click on a specific timebar to access available options (Pic 2):

Keyframes

Step Actions

4 are available in the Actions channel:

Actions are shown as keyframes, and can be edited by double clicking them:

• Next Step
  Automatically move to the next step once the keyframe is reached.
• Previous Step
  Automatically move to the previous step once the keyframe is reached.
• Move To Step
  Automatically move to a user defined step once the keyframe is reached.
• Content Placement
  Content placement action can be used to automatically trigger re-alignment with a user defined AR tracker that was set up in the project. This allows an author to help the end user trigger the right AR tracker at the right time. For example on objects that are very large, but require high accuracy on specific areas.
  
  An example:
  

Object specific Actions

2 are available as an Object Specific action:

• Visibility toggle: allows setting an object to Solid, Hidden, Ghosted or a Custom defined material.

• Callout Toggle: allows toggling the callout on the related object on and off.
  
   

Time bar types

Set Object Color

Allows you to add a color time bar to the animation. This draws attention to the object.

You can set the color of the object with the target color. The animation will ping-pong between the original diffuse color of the object and the defined color.

Fade Object In/Out

Allows you to add a fade in or fade out time bar to an object. This also draws attention to the object. This animation changes the opacity of the selected object from 0 to 100% or vice versa.

Highlight Sphere

Allows you to  add a highlight sphere time bar to an object. The highlight sphere origin is rooted in the pivot position of the selected object, properties allow you to offset in x, y or z direction from that pivot point. In the properties of this time bar, you can also set the highlight color, the diameter of the highlight sphere.

Animation Playback

Allows you to play back an imported animation. Animations can be imported trough the fbx format.

Translate

Allows you to create an interpolation animation that translates an object in x, y and/or z direction, with the option to move the object relative to world space, or local space. You can define a loop count, default set to 1, and the start and end time of the time bar.

Rotate

Allows you to create an interpolation animation that rotates around a user defined axis. The user can define an angle (0-360 degrees) and a loop count. The axis is defined by a normalized vector in the x, y, z space. Eg. x=0, y=1, z=0, will rotate the object over the y-axis. The axis origin is in the pivot position of the object. A workaround to avoid using "Rotate Around Pivot" is to place your objects in an empty object that's positioned in the rotation position you prefer.

Rotate Around Pivot

Similar to rotate, this allows you to create an interpolation animation that rotates around a user defined axis. The user can define an angle (0-360 degrees) and a loop count. The axis is defined by a normalized vector in the x, y, z space. Eg. x=0, y=1, z=0, will rotate the object over the y-axis. The axis origin can be defined by using the "Axis (World)" property, which allows you to position the rotation center anywhere in the scene.

Scale

Allows you to create an interpolation animation scales an object. The scale x, y, z coordinates are additive, not multipliers. For example, if your selected object has scale x=2, y=2, z=2, and the Scale time bar property has Scale set to x=0, y=0, z=0, nothing will happen. If the Scale time bar property is set to x=0.5, y=-0.5, z=2, the resulting object scale at the end of the time bar would be x=2.5, y=1.5, z=4.

Video playback

Allows you to play back a video during a specific time. Use a Video Panel as the object.

Audio playback

Allows you to play back audio during a specific time. Use an Audio Source as the object.

Editing animation time bar properties

To edit a specific timebar properties, (i.e. Name, Start Time, End Time and Easing), double-click it.

Note: If you wish to see how your 3D steps will look on your device, you can "scrub" through the animation (This allows the author to quickly see the entirety of the animation), you can also use the play button or  simulate timeline animations.