Timelines
Timelines show the level over time: objects, the selected object's keyframes, a prefab's template, audio and events. The beat grid helps you place all of it on the music
Level timeline
Shows every object of the level over time. Each object is one clip. The lane a clip sits in is the object's layer
A clip is a half-open span. An object on frames 10-19 ends exactly where an object starting at frame 20 begins. The two never both draw on a shared frame
A child's span must lie inside its parent's. That is resolved on read and never stored. Shrink the parent and the children are clipped, but their values do not change. Stretch it back and everything returns. A root object past the end of the level is valid data, it simply does not play
Four tools sit in the button strip: Selection selects and moves, Edges drags an edge, Scissors cut the clip under the cursor, Marquee adds every clip a dragged box touches to the selection. The menu opens with a right click on empty space. A press on a clip starts a drag
A prefab placement and the objects it brings are drawn in the prefab's colour
How the tools treat a placement:
- Its length comes from the template by default. A different length on one placement is recorded as an override of that placement only
- If you drag its start edge with
Edges, the place it reads the template from moves along with it. So the picture inside stays where it was Scissorscut it into two placements of the same template, and each plays its own part. The template itself does not change- The objects a placement brought cannot be cut. Cut the placement itself, or cut those objects in Prefab Mode
More: How the editor works, Composition and the camera
Local timeline
Shows the keyframes of the selected object. Each animatable property has its own track: position, rotation, scale, size, anchors, pivot, colour, UV, font size
Frames here count from the start of the object's span. Move the object and its whole animation moves with it
An empty track is valid data, not a gap. A track with no keyframes takes the default value. That is why a new object animates nothing until you place a keyframe
A value blends only between neighbouring keyframes. The span decides which frames exist, but not how the values blend
On an object from a prefab, a track that still matches the template is drawn in the prefab's colour. Add, move or edit a keyframe on it and the colour goes: the track now holds an override
In Prefab Mode, with the template's root selected, this timeline is as long as the whole template
More: How the editor works
Prefab timeline
Prefab Mode's own timeline. Shows the template's objects
Its length is the template's own length, not the span of one of its placements. A template is edited as a small standalone level. It can be placed many times and at different moments
One row is the template's root, and it runs the length of the whole template. Every other object of the template hangs off it:
- the root row can be selected. The inspector and the Local timeline then show the root
- it cannot be dragged, stretched or cut
- it folds like any parent. A folded root hides the whole template on this timeline
The selection is not shared with the rest of the editor. There is no live preview of a specific placement. Edits change the template and spread to every placement that references it
More: Reuse: prefabs, copying, generators
Audio timeline
Shows the level's audio tracks with their waveform. It makes it easy to line content up with what you hear
Fit Track in the inspector fits the track to the clip's real length. The button is unavailable if there is no clip or the speed is 0: a frozen track has no length
Fit Level lengthens the level as well, until the whole clip fits. Both buttons ask for confirmation first
The Volume slider in the inspector is the track's fader. Keyframed volume is a separate Volume track on the Local timeline. At playback the two multiply
More: Preparing the track
Events timeline
Shows the level's keyframes that belong to no object:
- camera position, rotation, zoom, pivot and shake
- markers and checkpoints
- the screen limit
- background and theme
- every post-processing effect
- the player's visibility, control, collision, size and speed
The Beat track is the exception here. Its items have a span, and it is the only track Edges and Scissors act on
A colour can refer to the level's theme instead of a fixed value. Then changing the theme recolours everything that refers to it at once
More: Composition and the camera, Themes
Beat grid
Helps you place content on the music. Generators work on the same beats you see
It is authoring metadata, not a mechanic. Playback does not read the grid
The grid is a list of segments. Each has a constant tempo: BPM, phase offset, beats per bar. Segments do not overlap. The gaps between them are needed: an intro without drums, a break, the tail after the track. A single tempo track could not express that
TAP records taps at the playhead. Create from taps turns them into one segment from the first tap to the last. Beats are always counted from the segment's start and do not accumulate, so the error is under half a frame
More: Rhythm and structure
Beat segment
One stretch of constant tempo: BPM, phase offset in fractional frames, beats per bar, a name and a colour
Exactly one segment is shown, even if several are selected. Every field but the name is unique to a segment. Editing them together would collapse them into each other
A segment is identified by its start frame. So moving it changes its identity. After a move, select the segment again at its new start
Taps here re-phase the selected segment instead of creating a new one. BPM and offset change in one undo step
More: Rhythm and structure