Channels
Working with behaviors and animation channels
Last updated
Working with behaviors and animation channels
Last updated
A channel performs a specific animation or function and is displayed in the Timeflow view on its own horizontal row below each object. Channels can be selected individually by clicking on the channel name.
Multiple channels may be selected by holding Shift or Control while selecting, same as objects. Note however that some menu operations, such as adding a new channel, only operate on the object directly clicked on.
When a channel is selected, it also selects the game object it is on.
To perform an operation on just the channel, hold the Control key and click on the object to deselect it.
Behaviors are not listed directly in the Timeflow view, but are managed and edited using the Inspector view. It's best therefore to use a layout which allows simultaneous view of the Inspector and Timeflow windows, as shown in the screenshot below.
Some behaviors do not have channels and therefore are not displayed in the Timeflow view.
Right-click on an object to display a context menu listing additional options including the ability to add new behaviors and channels. Each section starting with "Add" relates to a particular type of behavior. Some of these have channels that target a specific property (as shown below) while others may provide a single option to add a general behavior.
Adding a Timeflow component directly (using Add Component or the Components menu) is permitted, though is likely to require additional setup steps, such as selecting a property mapping as discussed in more detail below.
Use the context menu as shown above, or the main menu Tools > Timeflow > Add, to add Timeflow related behaviors, channels, and objects.
To the right of each channel name is a set of keyframe controls for channels that supports keyframing. Other types of channels may produce procedural animations.
Click the center diamond icon to set a new keyframe or unset an existing one.
Use the left and right arrow to jump to the subsequent or preceding keyframe on the channel.
Channels can be selected in the following ways:
Click on the channel name in the object panel to select an individual channel.
Hold Shift to select a range or grow/shrink the selection.
Hold Control to select or deselect specific items.
Click and drag a marquee from any empty area in the object panel to select multiple channels.
While the object panel has focus (click anywhere inside it) use the keyboard shortcut Control + A to select all channels currently displayed.
In the bottom left corner of the Timeflow view, information about the current selection is displayed. This expands to show additional properties when keyframes or other types of objects are selected.
When channels are selected, it displays the count and a color field which can be used to assign a new track color to the selected channels.
Channels can be reordered by dragging and dropping them in the view.
Channels may also be copied from one object to another by dragging and dropping them.
Channels belong to behaviors. A behavior is a component on the game object deriving from the TimeflowBehavior base class. Some behaviors such as can have any number of channels, whereas others such as only have 1 channel per instance, and yet others may have no channels at all.
This layout is included in the samples. See
Add Animation > Channel creates a standard keyframe channel, belonging to the component which may have any number of channels. Other behaviors such as creates just 1 channel. Most channels map to a , discussed further on the next page.
For more channel commands and menu options, see .
