âIntroduction
Last updated
Last updated
Timeflow is a powerful and flexible animation system built from the ground up, offering a new range of creative possibilities for designers and developers. With a focus on motion graphics, cutscenes, and music synchronization, Timeflow offers a robust integrated track and channel based timeline with advanced curve editing tools, procedural animations, dynamic behaviors, and much more.
đ˛Price Increase Notice
With the release of Timeflow 1.6, the price increase from $89.99 to $99.99 USD. Future price increases are expected with major versions as new features are added. Existing users who have already purchased Timeflow are unaffected by these pricing changes and will receive all updates at no additional charge.
Be sure to check out the Demo App showcasing the animation features Timeflow has to offer. View it now in WebGL or download for select platforms. The demo includes full source code and assets with a buildable app and dozens of example scenes.
https://axongenesis.gitbook.io/timeflow/reference/examples/demo-app
Get Timeflow in the Unity Asset Store!
Timeflow has been designed for artists and developers alike! It can be used in any Unity project in combination with or separately from Unity's built-in animation systems. Timeflow can and has been used in mobile apps, games, VR experiences, as well as used in production creating music videos, 360 experiences, and fulldome content. It is compatible with other packages and 3rd party tools, working alongside other animation systems and game play mechanics.
Timeflow is a complete animation system that can be used to choreograph objects and properties throughout any scene. It includes a suite of creative tools and a fast iterative workflow. It can be used to create animated videos, cut scenes in games, or as a general toolset for breathing life into your game or app. Timeflow can be used in runtime environments and/or rendered to disk to leverage Unity as a content production tool.
Animate almost any property of any object in any scene.
Work with musical timing, timecode, and custom frame rates for precise synchronization.
Create and edit animations with a powerful and flexible graph editor.
Create procedural motions that loop consistently or with variation.
Create motion paths, camera edit sequences, transitions, and much more.
Link channels with expressions to create dynamic compound effects.
Manage the timeline with markers, grid snapping, work areas, and jump points.
Save views of related objects to organize scenes and focus only on what you need to.
Includes many workflow enhancing tools, menus, and shortcuts to aid in productivity.
Timeflow has a refined user-friendly UI with all of the features expected in a professional system including: full undo support, duplicate, copy-paste, select all, marquee selection, drag and drop, selection awareness, customizable keyboard shortcuts, context menus, color labeling, adjustable window panels, and many other configurable settings.
Artists and designers can fully use Timeflow as a toolset without ever looking at code!
No coding or scripting experience is required to use Timeflow. Developers and creatives alike can start using the tools right away with minimal knowledge of Unity. Of course, more experienced users may write custom behaviors and extend Timeflow in a number of ways.
You can. In fact Unity's Timeline and animation system has many great features that Timeflow doesn't have. However, the creative aspects that Timeflow offers go far beyond what one would be able to do using only the built-in tools.
Timeflow can be configured to work separately or in conjunction with Unity's Timeline and animation features. Timeflow integrates with Unity's animation system with the ability to playback animation clips, control Animator blend trees, and synchronize with Timeline directors to utilize the best of both systems. Timeflow can easily be added to existing scenes with minimal setup and artists may choose whichever approach is best suited to their animation needs.
Unity's Timeline and animation features are not required to use Timeflow, but both may be used in combination to achieve your creative goals. For more information see the Timeline Integration package included with Timeflow.
Timeflow is not designed to work directly with complex animation data sets such as character hierarchies, motion capture, or baked animations. These features are already well supported in Unity's built-in systems, which can be leveraged by Timeflow. Timeflow could be used to animate character parts without limitation, but does not offer inverse kinematics or other rigging tools typically associated with character animation. This problem is solved by using existing Unity and 3rd party tools in conjunction with Timeflow.
Timeflow has limited capability to capture and record data. It is not a gameplay recording system. Any changes made during play mode are not saved and it is expected that all editing and creative activities are done in the Unity editor in edit mode. However, it is possible to leverage built-in or 3rd party tools to capture animation or gameplay data for playback and synchronization using Timeflow.
Timeflow does support the use of Video Player but only offers basic controls to queue and play items. Timeflow does not edit or manipulate video and playback is limited by the Video Player capabilities and API provided by Unity. Compositing effects to some degree may be accomplished using shaders or post processing, though Timeflow does not provide these features so they must be created using built-in or 3rd party tools. Once objects are set up, Timeflow can be used to animate their properties.
Timeflow is designed to play and synchronize to audio, but does not generate or manipulate audio directly. Timeflow uses audio mainly as a soundtrack to synchronize each scene or Timeflow instance. With that said, there are tools included to work with audio to a limited degree such as layering multiple audio sources, triggering audio with events, and sending and receiving MIDI signals (with some additional setup). Note also that audio performance is device dependent and some platforms (or devices) may have limitations.
