Toggle button prevents animation beyond Frame Zero

tonym · Post by **tonym** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 1:19 am

I waste a lot of time accidentally doing design-work on frames other than zero. I'll add points, move points, change colors, all kinds of things.

Then I'll merrily click PLAY and..."Huh, what on earth? Noooo, not again! Aaaa!"

If there was a toggle button that prevented all the tools (except the cameras) from working when the time slider was beyond Frame Zero, I would be in heaven.

Maybe ASP could "beep" if you mistakenly tried to use a tool beyond frame zero? That would be nice.

A short, friendly beep. A non-judgmental beep.

A beep that says, "Excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt, but you need to be on frame zero to do that, unless you toggle the button to permit such a thing. Thank you for your time. Incidentally, if I may be so bold, your design work looks incredible." That kind of beep.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 1:47 am

Well the only beep AS can muster is the 'disappointed disapproval' sort of beep. There's no 'happy to have the opportunity to bring to your very astute attention a matter of no great concern but perhaps some interest' sort of beep.

There is a very neutral and unassuming click that's used when welding points.

But seriously, either of those could be used to indicate using a tool on frames >0. But it'd have to be added to each tool individually.

Check out this thread on the same topic.viewtopic.php?t=12339&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 1:56 am

Or, as Wes kind of hints, you could add the toggle (not the beep, or not just the beep) to every tool. Wouldn't be hard -- my color adjustment tool has just that (sort of -- it's not a checkbox, although that could easily be modified to be that). So, a few lines of code and you can have your wish.

That's the nice thing about AS -- it can be modified to suit you. And you don't have to be a programmer to do these things (Wes is a good example of that -- he's done tons of useful things and LUA is his first programming language).

(Teach a man to fish...)

dueyftw · Post by **dueyftw** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:14 am

I have drawn on other frames so much that now I make sure I'm on zero and turn off the time line.

Dale

tonym · Post by **tonym** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:35 am

dueyftw wrote:I have drawn on other frames so much that now I make sure I'm on zero and turn off the time line.

Dale

Amen, brother. The problem is so annoying, we are driven to turn off the timeline. Gah!

I don't want to turn off the timeline. I don't want an inelegant workaround. I don't want to learn LUA. All I want is a simple toggle! Just one little click! That's all I want.

Forget the beep. I can live without the beep.

Just give me a toggle. A toggle! Pleeeeease. Puh....lease.

A toggle.

A toggle!

And the beep. I changed my mind. I want a beep and a toggle.

DK · Post by DK » Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:52 am

I had this problem and it drove me crazy then Vern wrote a simple script that disables the drawing tools from frame 1. I adjusted it to only allow drawing tools to function at frame 0 and It's fantastic. If you're interested I can send it to you with instructions.

Cheers
D.K

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 5:45 am

DK wrote:I had this problem and it drove me crazy then Vern wrote a simple script that disables the drawing tools from frame 1.
D.K

Did I? I don't remember. Are you sure that was me? It might have been Synthsin. I have these blank spots in my memory. I have been sick with a fever recently... I dreamed about owls the other night and you all know what THAT means.

-vern

DK · Post by DK » Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:22 am

I think you and synthsin75 helped in the discussion. It ended up as not a script per say but a script adjustment for each of the main drawing tools.
I called it drawframe0. Here's the link with instructions:

http://www.wienertoonz.com/drawframe0.zip

Cheers
D.K

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:35 am

Ah yes! Now it's coming back to me. Phew! Now I don't have to worry about that dream.

p.s. If you dream of or remember seeing an owl outside a window at night it's a sign that you have been abducted by aliens and had your memory erased. I have never dreamed of owls in my whole life until a few nights ago.

-vern

DK · Post by DK » Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:28 am

p.s. If you dream of or remember seeing an owl outside a window at night it's a sign that you have been abducted by aliens and had your memory erased. I have never dreamed of owls in my whole life until a few nights ago.

That explains it.....I was wondering where you had gotten to

D.K

F.M. · Post by **F.M.** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:38 pm

Join the quest!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJwREVmJqjc

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:21 am

That's exactly how my dream looked! Except for the big hotdog and the twirly mustache. And it was a baby owl. Maybe it wasn't aliens then. If it was a baby owl in my dream maybe the aliens didn't abduct me. Maybe a baby owl means they were going to but I didn't meet the qualifications or something. Like when you have to throw fish back if they aren't the right size.

-vern

dueyftw · Post by **dueyftw** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:27 am

Man I'm gong to be seeing owls at work or when I'm sleeping, or at work or when I'm... Did I mention that I sleep nights... I mean work nights for the government?

Dale

F.M. · Post by **F.M.** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:35 am

I tend to get some crazy images in my head from reading the posts on this forum, and this is what I imagined , of course sometimes things get out of hand! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM9E_GoveTk

Youtube is slow at processing, sorry for the delay!

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 5:06 am

Back on topic...

I wouldn't really be interested on doing the whole toggle thing, but I just realized how easy it'd be to make all of the creation tools (i.e add point, create shape, oval, etc) only add keyframes at frame zero. I've already tested this, and you can use these tools on any frame you like and they will only add keyframes (thus points, shapes, etc) to frame zero.

I just need some feedback before I do all this and post them. Should I mod Arfa's version of Fazek's tools, so these can be used without the LM tools? I'm thinking that's the best ones to mod, including my create shape tool.

No easy way to mod translate, rotate, etc tools though, but I'd think it'd be easy enough to remember that you may be animating with animation tools.