Display seconds instead of frames?

It would be helpful to see fractions of seconds in the timeline, rather than – or in addition to – frames. So if I go to 1½ seconds, it would display 1.5 rather than 1.15. I can’t find a preference or setting for this. Does it exist?

Thanks for your suggestion! Hype at this time uses the frame-based format for a couple reasons:

  • Video editors and animators are more comfortable with it since other apps use the format
  • 1/30th of a second is about as small a time scale the eye can detect
  • If we used fractions of a second, we would still need choose the ‘steps’ at which we displayed time in the interface. So instead of 2 frames, we would need to show something like

But since any time control in JavaScript requires decimals, this is definitely not final. Can you explain a bit about why you’d like decimals?

I’m using Hype exclusively for banner ad creation. Prior to using Hype, I hand-coded animations with TweenLite, specifying each start and stops in seconds and fractions of seconds. I’ve become accustomed to thinking in terms of time rather than frames, which seems more appropriate to me for banners.

I’ve also used Photoshop to create gif animations, which uses a seconds-based timeline. And although I don’t use After Effects, that program allows me to choose timecode or frames as the display unit.

I’d definitely love to see this option in Hype!

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