Sub-Cutscenes & Cross-scene references

[yotingo]

I recently started a new project with different demands and it’s my responsibility to create our product’s animation pipeline. I use Slate on my personal projects and enjoy it, but I came up with 3 questions that may be required to meet our team’s specific demands:
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1. Is it possible to save an ‘AnimateProperties’ clip as an asset or a default Unity ‘AnimationClip’?
   — We want the ability to load those clips into different Cutscenes via code.
2. What API calls would be used in editor (not runtime) to add ‘sub-cutscenes’ or ‘sections’ to the end of the current Cutscene?
   — We are creating a custom editor and need the ability to click buttons and automatically add sub-cutscenes and AnimationClips to the end of a Cutscene. It’s like a “build-your-own-cutscene” tool for our designers. Essentially, a quick way to place the building blocks of the Cutscene using modular pieces.
3. How do you handle cross-scene references with Additive scenes in the composition track?
   — When I stop the playback, the additive scene is deleted and my cross-scene references are lost.

[Gavalakis]

Hello there. Please let me answer your questions:

1) It is not possible to save the AnimateProperties clip into an asset for re-usability. This is something that I could add however.

2) Subcutscene clips can be added in a Director Action Track. As to do this in code, you need to get a reference of the Director Action Track. To do this you need to give the Director Action Track and custom name in its inspector and then use the cutscene.FindElement(string path) method to get a reference to that track. Then given that reference you can add a SubCutscene action clip to it using the track.AddAction(float time) method (this method returns the new action clip reference too). For time you can use the length of the Cutscene if you want to add it at the end of the cutscene (?), but you will probably also want to change the length of the cutscene as well since you’ve added a new clip. Finally, having the reference of the action clip you can set its parameter and specifically the “subCutscene” in this case as normal.

Code example:

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var myNamedTrack = cutscene.FindElement("★ DIRECTOR/MyActionTrackName"); //if you already have a DirectorActionTrack //OR var myNamedTrack = cutscene.directorGroup.AddTrack(); //if you want to add a new action track to the director group   var mySubCutsceneClip = myNamedTrack.AddAction(cutscene.length); mySubCutsceneClip.subCutscene = someOtherCutsceneReference; mySubCutsceneClip.length = someOtherCutsceneReference.length; cutscene.length += someOtherCutsceneReference.length;

3) Unfortunately cross-scene references are not supported. They used to be supported but Unity changed that.

 

Let me know.

Thanks!

Join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/97q2Rjh

[yotingo]

Thanks for the response! I received the “go-ahead” today to implement Slate into our project in anticipation for a full development period with many designers using Slate as our sequencer of choice.

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1. This addition to Slate would be great! We prefer to use AnimateProperties but that won’t be an option unless they are modular and reusable.
2. The code example makes sense and is very helpful. I always appreciate when examples are used with an explanation.
3. We might be able to code our own implementation of this.

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I have more questions currently and expect to have a lot more in the future as we hire people. I’ll create new threads for each to keep things organized.

[Author]

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