[TRACKER] Animation general usability improvements

[vyshliy]

Describe the project you are working on

I'm working a lot with animation system of Godot on several 2D projects.

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project

There are a lot of small usability issues in the animation creation process. Some of them are time consuming when repeating or getting around. To improve the experience of interacting with this side of the engine, some changes are needed.

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

The proposal main goal is to offer ideas to improve animation related usability in Godot 4.1 and later.
Tracker will be updated with links to related existing or new proposals and issues to track all progress in this area.
Since this list was started many of issues was already improved in 4.0, so huge thanks to developers.

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

Animation Editor:

• Stretch selected frames visually in timeline Add easier way to scale keyframes in AnimationPlayer Editor #3532
• Add track type for animating Node (such as Skeleton2D) as whole within one track Add "Summary"/timeline keyframes and node collapsing in animation editor #1908
• Group by node takes a lot space. Change layout suggestion or make it more functional as previous suggestion
• Set keyframe value right in timeline by click Set keyframe value right in AnimationPlayer timeline by click  #6683
• Show and control easing in timeline
• Show current frame close to current time when FPS mode selected
• Add mode to set automatic animation length based on last frame (optionally default) or button to manually set length where last frame
• Play only selected part of animation in editor
• Set position in timeline during playback
• Convert curves animation to keyframes #25801 (closed) Unify bezier animations in the animation player #392 Unify bezier animations in the animation player #392 (comment)
• Filter tracks by node/properties name like in scene hierarchy
• Add several tracks/keyframes when several nodes are selected (like top menu buttons does, but for all suitable properties in inspector) Allow keying properties when selecting multiple nodes godot#92842 (comment)
• Copy / paste whole track between different nodes if track has same data type by context menu on property path (now its possible by copying tracks and renaming path) Add copy/paste keyframe functionality to AnimationPlayer editor #3419
• Copy / paste frames between different tracks by shortcuts if track has same data type Add copy/paste keyframe functionality to AnimationPlayer editor #3419
• Add option to play audio backwards when animation play back
• Add ability to play track only when playing back / forward
• Double click on node in scene window shows select tracks of this node if exist
• Animation speed scale can affect all tracks including audio tracks and animation playback tracks
• Double click on frame place track time on this frame
• Make ping-pong looping option not looped too
• Select new animation track also inside scene tree, not only in popup menu
• Add easing in / out options to keyframe (instead of "Make Easing Selection"?)
• Zoom edited animation in editor relative to selected time, instead of animation begin

Curves Editor:

• Edit multiple frames in / out handle at once (like it works with position in v 4.0)
• Add new keyframe to curve with balanced in/out handles by default to not distort existing track to much
• Show curve / keyframe editor when selected node uses this type of track in animation
• Scale curve handles value proportionally on scaling track
• Edit value in inspector for all selected curve frames in curve editor same as keyframes editor
• Return ability to scale curve editor in both dimensions. (Done. But shortcut not obvious and can't be found in 'shortcuts' menu)
• Bezier auto zoom Animation panel: curve editor: add zoom to fit command and shortcut #7547 (comment)
• Bug - Adding keyframes as curve rotates all added nodes
• Add ability to animate PackedVector2Array with curves Add ability to animate PackedVector2Array using curves #8302

AnimationPlayer:

• Record button should record all properties while asking to add track Revamp autokeying in the animation editor to record all properties #6685
• Place record button to animation player Add recording feature and button to AnimationPlayer #169
• Copy / paste shortcut shouldn't work with scene hierarchy while Animation player selected Disable cut/copy/paste shortcuts when selecting keys in an animation track #3475
• Disable add track confirmation #54524

AnimationTree StateMachine:

• Select several transitions in node editor
• Edit all selected nodes in statemachine
• Play / pause button in one
• Return switch mode to StateMachine UI

Skeleton2D:

• Improved Polygon2D UV editor Add an easier way to generate geometry with weights in Polygon2D #3791

AnimatedSprite:

• Don't switch from AnimationPlayer to AnimatedSprite when select AnimatedSprite
• Add convenient way to add AnimatedSprite frames to AnimationPlayer
• Creating AnimatedSprite with empty SpriteFrame resource by default
• Select several sprite frames Allow multi-selection of frames in the SpriteFrames animation editor #1696
• Paste copied frame right after selected frame
• Set parameters to several nodes at once (autoplay for example)
• Add ability to set default FPS to SpriteFrame resource

Changes indirectly related to animation workflow:

• Connect signals to several objects at once
• NodePath modal not select text area by default
• Unchanged exported script props in open scenes saved even if in script it was changed
• Remove top panel of engine like in browser tabs
• Copy / paste values of complex properties as vectors
• Light2D mask
• Add skew handler
• Godot asset lib not loaded sometimes
• Add script to selected nodes at once
• Paste copied nodes in several nodes at once
• Play sound file by double click on it (instead advanced import settings)
• Make sub resources unique on several nodes at once
• Make local several nodes at once
• Enable new installed plugin in dialog with successful installation
• Filter nodes in tree by node type (fixed in 4.2)

Related Issues:

• Camera2D preview Add picture-in-picture camera preview to the editor when a Camera2D node is selected #7627
• 3.5 RC2 call method : methods doesn’t appears in method list immediately, only after project restart
• Animation not signal when finished if animation is looped
• Animation mix curves in one animation and simple in other give wrong behavior ??????
• Animation. Add keyframe with curve change existing rotation value with zero when use top bar to add keys
• Anim.current_animation doesn’t exist when anim.stop(false), while current_animation_length shows correct anim time
• Pasted tracks not changes existing same tracks in animation
• Adding rotation change current rotation of node
• Add back ability to scale curves
• Crashes when work with animation library
• Crashes when delete last track of animation
• Crashes when animationTree is active
• Deleted sound still in AudioTrack on working machine, but not exist on exported version

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

The API of the engine does not make it easy to edit the animation editor using scripts. As well this is a usability improvement proposal.

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

The essence of the tracker is to note core editor improvements. However, a consensus is possible on the implementation of some functionality as an asset.

[ToxicCrack]

I'm working on a VR D-Day Museum with many audio tracks and moving objects to them in sync. These AnimationPlayer improvements would speed up my workflow by a tremendous amount. Especially selecting multiple nodes and adding a keyframe for every single one of them (i.e. position).

[TokisanGames]

Thanks for putting together this list. It should also include bezier auto zoom #7547

And any points I made here that did not get implemented

[vyshliy]

It should also include bezier auto zoom #7547

Also encounter this all the time. Added to list

[Stealcase]

A Low-hanging fruit that would make my life a lot more pleasant:

• Make the property "Autoplay" in the AnimationPlayer available in the editor.

Why?
Because currently, if I want to just quickly add an animation player and play an animation on scene initialization, I have to add a script to the component!
This does not spark joy for quick prototypes.

[vyshliy]

Make the property "Autoplay" in the AnimationPlayer available in the editor.

Why "autoplay on load" in the player doesn't work for you?

[Stealcase]

Make the property "Autoplay" in the AnimationPlayer available in the editor.

Why "autoplay on load" in the player doesn't work for you?

I didn't know that was a thing! I feel silly now, thanks for the screenshot.
I was looking for the parameter in the Inspector and couldn't find it, and the Class Documentation didn't mention it being visible in the Godot Editor, so I assumed it just had never been made an exposed property.

[tavurth]

Stretch selected frames visually in timeline

Fixes #3937?

[vyshliy]

Stretch selected frames visually in timeline

Fixes #3937?

I think this is a proposal to freely scale frames for the current animation, as described in #3532. What you mentioned is different and now in the editor it is done by duplicating the animation and changing its scale to -1. The option you suggested seems to solve the problem of reflected animation for the animation tree more conveniently, although I think the solution should be in editor core as a function of the animation tree node, without modifying the animation itself.

[mihe]

Add several tracks/keyframes when several nodes are selected

I made an attempt at implementing this one, in #92842, in case anyone here wants to take a look at it and/or provide some feedback.

I'm new to the animation side of the codebase (and animation in general to be honest) so the PR might need some minor alterations, assuming it's a viable change to begin with.

[vyshliy]

I made an attempt at implementing this one, in #92842, in case anyone here wants to take a look at it and/or provide some feedback.

Looks really good. This will save a lot of time during the animation process.