Construct Animate feedback thread

There has been a few suggestions talking about mesh distortion in the timeline, this is a common feature in other animation software and would be very powerful.

But sadly there is one big concern, that needs to be adressed, before adding it to the timeline would even make sense to me.

Construct currently draws tris instead of quads

this leads to the texture looking off in a lot of cases, this is very undesirable as the usage of mesh deformation in the timeline would mostly be for visuals. (even the advertised examples by construct for using mesh don't work well for that reason, unless you want your textures to look terrible.)

This problem would be fixed if the drawQuads method would be used instead

Example to visualize the problem, if it's still not clear I can add more examples.

You might argue, just add more points, but this would be bad for performance as well as would make it insanely difficult to edit and place the points.

If tris need to stay we would need a way to add edges to the mesh in user defined placed (look at spine) so we have control over where the edges are and with it where the mesh should bend. Currently we can only place them in a perfect grid.

http://de.esotericsoftware.com/spine-meshes

But for transforming a grid quads are the better solution.

should be allow to scaled from objects borders, as Photoshop, instead of 8 endpoints, which works great on some large objects. such as backgrounds, sky, textures.

Because when you have a large object and then zoom the editor view big, you have a hard time finding the endpoints.

After thinking about it for a couple days, Construct Animate just feels awkward for me and a bit backward in someways. A lot of what I'm looking for is already there, but in weird places and with so many extra steps. If you could cut out a lot of the extra steps, it'll be more fun to use.

What I really want to do is be able to drag an image into a scene, and the image automatically shows up in the timeline. Please don't make me add it to the timeline. It's an unnecessary step.

It would be nice if it already had a keyframe set from in the beginning without any attributes. Some software indicate this with a hollow keyframe. Then I can drag that first keyframe anywhere in the timeline and that is where the image is first visible in the animation. For example, I drag the first keyframe to frame 3 and the image is invisible automatically for the first two frames of animation.

And if the animation is 2 seconds long, I just go to the end of that 2 second timeline, add a keyframe to the image at the end and then I can drag that end keyframe to wherever I want and that's where the image will disappear in the animation.

And that would make Construct Animate already so much easier to get started with than 90% of animation software out there. If all you had to do was drag an image onto the stage, click on a frame in the timeline, add a keyframe, then drag the image on the stage, then in just 4 easy steps, you just created a simple movement animation in about 2-3 seconds. That would give new users a lot of confidence to continue using and learning the software.

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A few other things just off the top of my head. These are all just my opinions and suggestions, and are in no way demands. Just things I'd like to see or changed.

-Maybe consider changing the terminology to words animators use. Changing Viewport to Camera, Layout to Scene, and Sprite to Image would be nice.

- Editing mode should always be on. If you are using the animation app, you are there to edit. Makes sense from a C3 user perspective to turn that off, but not if you are only using it to animate.

- Right click on any frame between 2 keyframes to add easing (Ease in, Ease out, or both)

- Hold Shift and click to add keyframes to the selection so you can edit more than 1 keyframe at a time.

- Path mode should always be in Cubic Bezier. Left click on the node in the scene and the path handles appear. If you want to make it super easy, allow users to drag the path to curve it. A lot of newer animation software allows that.

- You shouldn't need to create an event to preview or export an animation. It makes since from a C3 perspective that you don't want the animation to play until you call of it, but not from a perspective of an animator who is just there to animate it.

- A Record Mode that automatically creates a keyframe on the timeline with the attributes of any changes you make to the image in the scene.

- Use arrow keys on the keyboard to go back and forth 1 frame on the timeline. Makes it easier to flip through an animation.

- All the keyframes on the timeline should look the same. Right now there is a circle for the sprite and squares for the attributes (X,Y,Angle). A diamond shape is a common symbol to use for keyframes. So instead of a circle with a plus in it (which is confusing because there is another plus button nearby) just have a diamond button to add keyframe. If you see a diamond in the toolbar, you know it's to add a keyframe.

- Indicate which keyframes have attributes and which don't by using hollow (without) and solid (with).

- Transparent background will be expected to be in the export options when exporting a PNG sequence. That's where it is in many animation and graphic design apps.

- On export it would be less confusing if the link to download the project had an actual download button in the bottom right corner of the screen and the OK button was changed to a Close button. Because I always think OK means, "OK, I'm ready to download it now." But the window closes and nothing is download.

- It would be nice to be able to animate the Viewport in the timeline. Animators will expect to be able to move the camera around in a scene. I think you can already do that with the Scroll To Behavior, and maybe events, but it would be easier to do in a timeline. It would be nice if the Viewport/Camera was already in the timeline and locked. And if you ever wanted to animate it, all you had to do is unlock it and add keyframes for movement.

The new "just press space to play and stop the timeline" is awesome, but it creates some questions about overall play/pause and stop workflow.

First I want to define the terms I'm using just to avoid confusion:

-play: play from the play-head (red line)

-pause (icon: two paralled vertical bars): pause the play-back of the timeline and place the play-head to that position

-stop (icon: rectangle): stop the playback and place the red line to the point where the playback started.

Currently pressing space plays and stops the timeline.

But instead I would prefer this solution:

Dynamic play button: when the timeline plays, the play button becomes a pause button (and vice versa).

Pressing Space plays and pauses instead of stopping.

The stop button still exists but uses another shortcut.

The Animation preview buttons are mixed up. The line with the arrow indicates that's as far left or right you can go. They should be arranged like this:

Consider removing the handles and just move the timeline out a little like this:

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I really think edit mode should always be on. Why would I open Construct Animate unless I wanted to edit an animation?

You could combine the X and Y position into just Position to tidy up the timeline.

And if all the properties of the keyframe were available to edit at once, it would makes things a lot easer.

I think I misunderstood what the handles were for. It's for if you stack the playhead over another line?

In most animation apps the handle is above the timeline like this:

It would be nice if the playhead let you know what frame of animation you are on. Maybe something like this:

The line colors are kinda backwards? Wouldn't it make more sense if the playhead line was green (green means go) and the line marking the end of the animation to be red (red means stop)?