My folder-structure looks like this:
Group A
Group B
Group C
I have three timelines for each group. However I also need an animation that reduces the opacity of GroupB.Object1, GroupB.Object3 and GroupC.Object3. Instead of creating keyframes for every single object, it would be nice to have a smart-folder that collects files from different places. This could also work with tagging.
Thanks for the suggestion, Oliver.
Can you clarify what the tagging or smart-folder would do? I’m not clear how this would increase the speed of this type of animation work. Can you post an example?
I’m sure that Oliver has some better ideas for this (his idea in the first place) but I think this is an interesting idea.
Use a button in the Inspector to set up a master controller. Right click on objects throughout an animation and use the contextual menu to assign them to the controller. Enable the controller as if it were a single object and use the settings panel for various attributes
Example: Create multiple groups of trees in a parallax setup. Randomly select trees from the different groups, assign them to the controller, then vary the color saturation of the selected objects simultaneously. Say that you had the leafy part as one object with a leafless tree behind it. You could change the color of the leaves element to an autumn color and then dissolve to reveal the bare tree. Set different controllers to turn random selected trees throughout the groups to different colors - yellow, red, orange.
Say that an audio tool were to be introduced at some point. Pitch and volume could be used to control the intensity of the effect (if the controller sets a maximum object size of 200%, the pitch or volume could be used as a multiplier with the maximum audio level corresponding to an object being resized to 200%. This could be assigned to random objects throughout the animation (mixed layers of dancers and tables) so that the dancers will pulse in sync, but in front and behind the tables.
Sorry for answer delay, I had a lot to do. However Furutan points out the possibilities.
The aim of having smart folders (collecting objects from different folders in on “intelligent container”) is the chance to add the same animation to all of the objects at once instead of the need to copy&paste the style on every object.
Yes, indeed this is already possible if you put all objects in one folder and animate it, but this is not always possible, if the folder is needed for something else.
Cool idea, thanks for the feedback!