Make time cursor stay in the animation area
Animation and keyframes are visible through multiple spaces : nla, graph, sequencer, timeline, etc... When it comes complex animation with a lot of keyframes / clips / actions, we often zoom in the timeline to better edit these things. But when we start the playback, we can not see what's happening when the current frame is offscreen.
In my opinion, it is inconvenient for some uses, like video editing, keyframing.
I propose to make the timeline move instead of the timecursor.
Two options there :
Fixed time cursor
Constrained timecursor
One main problem from the user perspective is the noise that makes a moving timeline in the view. It could be very disturbing on that point. BUT if the time cursor functionment is optional, the problem is a functionality.
Feedbacks on this design needed.
Edit 1 :
Builds for a MVP of Timecursor modes in the VSE are available at builder.blender.org/download/patch/ patch : D13070
It’s just a little test, feel free to give me feedback.
1 Comment
This should definitely be an option, if not for performance reasons then just for the fact people might prefer it the way things are now. Probably opt in as well; so disabled by default.
I don't know how valuable it is for VSE users (I hardly use it) but for the graph editor I could see this being handy when checking curves in a greater timespan. This is currently impossible because when you are zoomed in in the graph editor the timeline will leave the view very rapidly when the animation is playing.
From the two options presented I prefer the fixed time cursor myself.