temp revert to old positioning of playhead in layer panel

[Paul Fierlinger]

It is nice that the playhead can now sit at any position of the timeline, independent of the length and position of a frame sequence on any given layer. But there are times when we wish we could revert to the old system, when the playhead could sit only on an existing frame. Thus, when one used the up and down arrows to scroll through all the layers the playhead would jump to the first frame of a sequence (because it could not sit on a virtual frame)

Could we have it both ways? Would it be possible to override the current system with a single button/script or key command and revert temporarily to the old way? Both ways have their advantages and disadvantages in certain situations when conducting searches along many randomly positioned layers, for instance when one wishes to find the first frame of each layer.

[Manuel]

The current UP key is assigned to Layer: Previous Layer.
if you add the second command First Image, you can make it act the old way :
Up - Layer: Previous Layer + Layer: First Image


But you must set/reset the keys each time you want to change the mode.

I will try to see if I can script this.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Thanks so much Manuel...

[Manuel]

It is a bit complex but here we go :

1 : dowload the 2 scripts and put them in george folder.
2 : create a new custom panel. name it "FirstFrame" :
3 : create an action button, name it "FirstFrameMode", assign it to FirstFrameMode.grg
4 : create an action button, name it "FirstFrameGO", assign it to FirstFrameGO.grg
(Go to the shortcut panel : ctrl+K)
5 : Set your up key to : Up - Layer: Previous Layer + FirstFrame : FirstFrameGO
6 : Set your down key to : Down - Layer: Next Layer + FirstFrame : FirstFrameGO

Click on the FirstFrameMode button to switch mode. Then, use UP/DOWN as usual.
The second button is only there to show up in the shortcut list, you can forget it.

Edit : oops, wrong file : Fixed

[Paul Fierlinger]

Manuel, this works really well. Now I find you saying;

Edit : oops, wrong file : Fixed

What does this fix if the first one seems to be doing the job?

[Manuel]

The first file did not contain the FirstFrame scripts.
If you have the FirstFrameGo.grg and FirstFrameMode.grg files, then all is fine.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Yep, I have both of those. This is really useful and thanks for the trouble. Now I feel like waking Sandra up to tell her the news -- she wanted the old way more than I ever did because she needs it a lot more than I do. I think she's going to keep it on all the time!

[Paul Fierlinger]

Manuel, I attempted to install your scripts into Sandra's computer and followed your instructions diligently but for some reason Sandra's computer isn't entering the new FirstFrame commands. The strangest thing is that I tried loading my key commands into her TVP GUI and it shows up with the FirstFrame assignes missing. They are missing in the right column and in the leftt column it says under up arrow just Up Layer:Previous Layer+ .... and stops there; no FirstFrame:GO.

Does this make sense to you? Any suggestions? She didn't have a George file yet so I made a new one for and placed exactly where I have mine.

[Manuel]

Probably a naming issue.
The commands appear in the list only if the Tool bar (aka custom panel) and the actions buttons have names.
If you create action buttons in an existing tool bar, they will be listed under this Tool bar's name.
Example : if you add the buttons to the "animator panel", in the shortcut list, they will be named "animator panel: FirstFrameGo".

Verify that you didn't enter the name in the "comment" field of the action button, instead of the "Name" field.


But if you are sure that Sandra will use it always in ON mode, then set the key as explained in my first post and delele all the FirstFrame Tool bar, buttons and scripts from her configuration :

Up - Layer: Previous Layer + Layer: First Image
Down - Layer: Next Layer + Layer: First Image

[Paul Fierlinger]

Thanks. so much for following instructions diligently... I hadn't named the ToolBar.

[Sierra Rose]

Manuel, I want to thank you too. This is so great as I have also missed the old way.

[Manuel]

I'm happy when I can help.

Here is a new version of the scripts. (Actually, only the GO has changed)
The playhead will only go to the first frame if there is no image at the current frame position, in the layer.
It works more like the "old way".

Replace the old scripts with these ones.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Now if you could make a script to get rid of the rotating project window and the instances... (just kidding)

[Paul Fierlinger]

Now in all seriousness, could we have two buttons, one the old Mirage way, the other the new TVP way? So instead of clicking one button twice to answer questions ON or OFF we would simply activate the script we wish to use at the moment.

[Manuel]

Create a new Action button, name it "ON".
Type script's command :
tv_WriteUserString "FirstFrameMode" "Mode" "ON"

Create a new Action button, name it "OFF"
Type script's command :
tv_WriteUserString "FirstFrameMode" "Mode" "OFF"