🏹Transform Editor Override

Customizes the Transform editor in the Inspector window

When overrides are enabled, the default Transform editor is replaced with an enhanced editor designed to work with Timeflow and providing other helpful tools, such as animation controls, configurable sliders, and the ability to copy-paste values.

Please be aware that while editor overrides are enabled, built-in animation features and other systems which modify or rely on the default Transform editor may not work as expected. If you encounter any issues, you may disable the overrides.

Working with Game Objects

While enabled, the Transform Override inspector applies to all Transform components in the project. When working with objects that have not yet been added to Timeflow, the inspector appears as below.

After clicking the button 'Add to Timeflow', the object is setup for Timeflow animation and the transform editor displays additional features for keyframing and managing objects in the view.

You'll also notice a new TimeflowObject component has been added to the game object. This is required by Timeflow and is a container to manage behaviors and channels.

It is not necessary to add objects to Timeflow in order to use the custom transform features, however additional controls are displayed for objects that are animated in Timeflow.

It is recommend to only add objects to Timeflow that you wish to animate.

Instanced vs Shared Settings

For regular game objects which have not been added to Timeflow, the Transform Override settings are globally shared and do not get serialized to any objects. This means that any change (such as opening sliders or configuring the ranges) is a state maintained when selecting different game objects.

However, for Timeflow objects (game objects with a TimeflowObject component), the settings are serialized locally to the object allowing each object to store customized settings that get saved with the scene.

The data created by Transform Override is editor-only and has no effect on runtime performance or build size. It also has no effect on how transforms are processed by Unity.

Lock

If you wish to prevent editing of the transform, click the lock icon in the upper left. As long as an object is locked, its transform values cannot be changed directly in the inspector.

You can also independently lock Position, Rotation, and Scale and their individual attributes.

Note that locking transforms in the inspector is not a scene-wide constraint. Other scripts and processes can still affect the object transform.

Local / World Toggle

This toggles between Local and World coordinates based on the built-in Unity mode applied globally.

Although it is possible to create animation channels in Timeflow for world position, rotation, and scale, it is generally advised against doing so except in special circumstances. Animating world coordinates can cause unexpected results and is an advanced usage.

Auto Keyframing

To automatically record value changes as new keyframes, enable the Auto Keyframing button. This puts all animation channels in a state of listening for any value changes made and will either set or update a keyframe at the current time.

This setting corresponds to the same button in the Timeflow view. The state is either on or off for all objects in the scene.

Use the keyboard shortcut Alt + K to toggle automatic keyframing on and off.

While active, any changes made in the Transform editor will be recorded as a keyframe. Or, if animation has not yet been started then a new channel is automatically added for the field modified.

Automatic Keyframing currently only detects changes for transform properties while the Transform Override is enabled. Otherwise, recording does not recognize changes made in other fields unless they have an existing animation channel.

See the section below on Keyframing Controls for additional animation features.

Time

This displays the object's local or world time in the Timeflow view and can be directly set. The time field is only displayed for objects animated by Timeflow.

The Local/World tool mode also determines whether you are viewing local or world time.

Usually objects have the same time as Timeflow unless Time Offset is applied on the object or any of its parents.

Solo Mode

Click the dark circular icon which turns solid white when active.

This puts the object in a temporary focused state in the Timeflow view so that it can be worked on separately. This mode is indicated by the white circle icon As soon as the mode is turned off, the view returns to it's previous state.

You can also use the keyboard shortcut Alt + S to toggle solo mode on and off for the selected objects. If another object is already soloed, then it is replaced with the current selection.

When solo mode is off in the view, objects which have been marked for solo display are shown with the white circle icon.

Hold down the Alt key to see the toggle switches for all objects and channels. While holding Alt, click on the objects you wish to add or remove from solo mode.

Then click the solo button in the header to enable the solo state. The red line below it is a visual queue to remind you that the view is currently being filtered and objects are hidden. Simply click the solo icon again to turn solo mode off.

Settings

Click the gear icon for additional settings in a drop down menu.

Remove this object from Timeflow

If you've added an object to Timeflow that you no longer need to animate, you may remove it. This removes the Timeflow components, but otherwise leaves the object as it is.

It is always good practice to remove any unused components.

Show Channel Colors

Enable this option to display animated channels in their assigned color. This helps to establish visual continuity between views. Turn this option on and off by clicking the gear icon.

Color highlighting is brighter for selected channels and faded for unselected channels.

Show Reset-Copy-Paste

Enable this option to reveal additional buttons to reset, copy, and paste values. This can be used to copy whole transforms or individual attributes.

Hold the Shift key to temporarily show the reset-copy-paste buttons in the inspector without having to enable them in the settings.

Reset

For Position and Rotation the value is reset to 0,0,0 and for scale 1,1,1.

Use the keyboard shortcut Control + Shift + T to reset position, rotation, and scale for all selected objects.

Note that reset, copy, and paste respect the Local/World mode, applying in either local or world coordinates as selected.

Copy-Paste

Copy (blue arrow on the left) and paste (red arrow on the right) may be applied to individual attributes, combined values, or the whole transform setting (position, rotation, scale).

For additional keyboard shortcuts to work with transforms, see Game Objects Menu

Disable Overrides

Select this menu option if you wish to revert the inspector back to the Unity built-in transform editor. For more information, see Enable / Disable Overrides

Combined vs Separate Attributes

Each vector value (Position, Rotation, Scale) has 1 of 2 modes which determine how the property is animated. Which mode to use depends on how you want to animate the object.

Combined Attributes (XYZ)

A combined value means that it treats the vector as a single channel with XYZ values. Each time a keyframe is set, it sets the full XYZ value.

Combined mode shows keyframe controls for the whole XYZ value.

Combined mode is best for whole object motion, such as creating a motion path or animating an object to specific locations in a scene.

Separate Attributes (X, Y, Z)

When separate attributes are selected, each axis can be controlled independently of the others. With this mode, animation may be added to each attribute as needed.

Separate mode shows keyframe controls for each attribute independently.

Separate mode is best suited for animations which only animate 1 axis, or need different animations for each axis. For example, if animating a ball bouncing, you might want to use separate mode so that the Y axis can be solely the up-down bounce motion, and the X and Z values control the relative position in the scene.

Combining and Separating Animation

Before any animation has been added to a property, you may freely toggle between Separate and Combined mode. Since no animation has been added yet, this change makes little difference.

However, once animation exists for the property, changing the mode will prompt you with the option to convert the animation between combined and separate attributes. Depending on which mode you are converting to-from, one of the following dialogs will appear.

The channels are either combined into one as shown below...

... or split into multiple channels.

Please be aware that combining and separating channels is likely to alter animations. Converting to separate channels most often preserves animations, however combining channels requires merging keyframes and is likely to be significantly different. This limitation is not due to any defect or bug. There is necessarily a loss of information when converting from separate channels to one combined channel.

Keyframing Controls

Enabling / Disabling Animation

New animation may be enabled on any field by clicking the adjacent stop watch icon Once the channel has been added, this icon then acts as a toggle to enable or disable the channel.

To remove an animation channel, hold the Control key and click the red X that appears in place of the stopwatch icon.

Setting Keyframes

When Auto Keyframing is off, you can set keyframes manually. To add a keyframe, click the empty diamond icon .

This adds a keyframe at the current time with the current value of the property. If a keyframe is already set at the current time, then the icon will appear solid gold

Adjusting Keyframes

Once keyframes are set, they can be edited by enabling Auto Keyframing. Any changes made while this mode is active affect the keyframes at the current time. Otherwise, any changes made to the value won't be recorded unless a keyframe is set manually.

Navigating Keyframes

Click the arrow icons on either side of the keyframe icon to jump to the previous or next keyframe for that property. You can also double click keyframes in the Timeflow view to select them and jump to that time.

Slider Features

Click the pencil icon to show additional options to configure sliders. Position, rotation, and scale can each have their own slider settings. This allows you to customize them as needed in your scene on an object-by-object basis.

Micro Adjustment Mode

Click the icon to display the slider in micro adjustment mode. This centers the current value and reduces the range of the sliders for finer tuning.

Notice the the current values are centered on the slider

Adjustments can then be made.

The range of the sliders is controlled by the min and max settings and the Micro Adjust Scale.

Recentering

Click the icon to reset the sliders back to center (maintain the current value).

Use the shortcut key Spacebar to recenter the sliders for the currently selected property.

Slider Scale

Use the shortcut buttons to scale the current slider min/max by a factor of 10 or a factor of 2.

Slider Reset

Click the reset icon to set the slider min and max to default values, as defined in the preferences.

Rotator

As a side note, you may notice the Rotator component is automatically added to the game object. This is a special component used by Timeflow to stabilize Euler rotations on objects. This is only applied to objects when rotation is animated or controlled by a behavior.

When the Transform Override feature is enabled, the Rotator editor controls are hidden so that they may be controlled in the Transform editor.