Delenne
> Are nested timelines possible?
At the moment this is not possible, I was thinking about it just yesterday though. But I don't think I will be able to start working on it any time soon.
Too bad, but it is encouraging that you have thought about this. Nesting timelines simplifies a lot of animation work.
> The animation interpolation control is quite rudimentary. Are you planning to add a graph editor of sorts?
I am planning to add the option to create custom ease functions. These feature would come with a special editor to build your custom easing curve. You should then be able to assign that custom curve in the same way you assign the built in ones. Is that what you mean?
Sort of. In animation software like Maya and Blender a graph editor allows for full control over the timing and easing of your animation.
For example, here is the one that just got added to Godot 3.1 (beta):
In the top is the keys timeline. Click on the little curve icon, and it opens the graph editor. I am used to 2d and 3d animation graph editors, and it is an essential part to fine-tune your animation. In Toonboom it is handled with an awkward mini dialog.
In Anime Studio it works with an identical graph editor:
> Will bones/segmented characters be implemented? The competition allows for these, and it opens up many possibilities. Construct still relies on Spriter, which is less than ideal.
At the moment there are no plans to support bone structures. That is a completely different feature which just happens to work very well with the concept of a timeline, so they are often assumed to go hand in hand.
Understandable. It is a huge undertaking all by itself. But seeing that you are working on this timeline I see a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel that might perhaps hint to having bones implemented sometime in the future.
> Will motion paths be integrated with the timeline?
I Have thought about this too, but I am not too sure when I will be able to start work on this.
Again, great to know you have already been thinking about integrating these.
> Which parts of Construct's functionality can be keyframed/used in a timeline exactly? Everything, including event sheets and functions, and parameters for any object that is inserted in the layout? How far does the integration go?
At the moment you can create keyframes for almost all properties that can belong to an instance. This includes the common properties, instance variables, behavior properties, effect parameters, and plugin properties.
Some properties don't make sense to be interpolated, so those are not available. Ej. Sprite's Initial Frame can not be interpolated.
There are some properties which are missing, because they are not part of Construct at all. For instance at the moment it is no possible to set the current frame of an animation from a timeline. That is a missing feature I would like to add.
Yes, that is what I meant. This opens up a huge number of possibilities!
I have though about the possibility to interpolate Layout and Layer properties, Event Sheet global variables and the ability to trigger an event sheet action from a timeline, but those things are just in my TODO list. There is no estimated time of even when will I start with any of that.
Looking forward to future timeline features in Construct.
One more question: will users have access to properties of plugins? For example, will it be possible to control Spriter object parameters with the timeline? Or will it be limited to the standard Construct objects?