The
Nested Timeline Panel is a plugin for Macromedia Flash MX 2004. This panel will
make it easier for animators to work with "graphic libraries".
A good example of this is a graphic symbol containing the mouth actions for
a character. Each frame contains a mouth action depending on the characters
mood, expression, and dialogue. And when it comes to lip-sync you basically
place a bunch of instances of this symbol across the timeline and then go through
each instance modifying it's propperty so as to display the appropriate mouth
action you'd like to use.
The process of actually working with such libraries in and off itself is in
my opinion quite cumbersome, specially when your graphic symbols cosist of more
than 8 or nine frames. With the Nested Timeline Panel, however, this process
is quite easy an fun. Now you can directly access the timeline of the selected
graphic symbol. Just scrub across the nested timeline panel to interactively
and visually scroll through the selected symbols frames! Find the one you want and move on to the next thing, it's that simple!
The panel
takes care of all the settings for you so there is no need to constantly mess
around with the propperties panel or having to keep up with which frame contains
the required graphic.
Tip: When creating your Graphic Symbols, give each frame containing a unique
graphic an appropriate label. When it comes time to animate, the Nested Timeline
Panel will display the label associated with the frame, thus giving you an additional
level of usability.
Note: The Nested Timeline Panel is meant for use with Graphic Symbols only.
Don't be surprised if you get an error when attempting it's usage on anything
other than a selected Graphic Symbol.
