Animation Controls
 | Simple Control | This node offers the complete animation between the very first and the last keyframe in a timeline as a progress value ranging from 0% to 100% |
 | Timeline Control | This node offers a functionality similar to Simple Control, but it manages the animation on a time base. |
Animations in Ventuz are stored within Keyframe Animation Nodes, each being independent both of other Keyframe Animations as well as the global scene time. To control the playback of an animation, a control node has to be bound to the Control Input Property of the respective Keyframe Animation. For more information, see Animation and State Engine as well as Animation Editor.
The Simple Control uses a value between 0% and 100% to control the animation from the very first to the very last keyframe whereas the Timeline Control uses a float value in seconds. The easiest way to get an animation playing is therefore to bind the progress (Simple Control) or time value (Timeline Control) to the output of a Mover Node. One could also use a Date Time, Timer or any other node that generates a value.
While this level of indirection may seem strange at first, it opens up many interesting possibilities. For example, the X position of a Touch Translation Node could be used to steer the progress of an animation on a slider UI element depending on how far it has been moved.
If an animation contains more than one Slice, the SliceName property can be used to select which Slice in the animation should be used.