Sequence Animator COMP for easier animated camera sequences

While trying to animate a camera sequence for a 3D scene of mine, I was finding it more tedious than expected to animate my camera shots and play them back in a sequence. Feeling like I could save myself some time in the future with setup, I decided to make a custom component that used custom sequence parameters that could relatively quickly animate sequences and keep all their channels in sync.

I wanted to share the first version of that component in case it might be useful to anyone else! It is a work in progress, so let me know if you have any feedback on potential refinements.

High level functionality

This SequenceAnimator COMP does a few main things:

1. Manages animation "segments" via a sequence block parameter so segments can be easily added, edited, removed, and re-ordered.
2. Syncs channel names and metadata between all segments when so that the resulting output remains consistent. This means that when you add or remove a channel in one segment (via the Animation Editor), the SequenceAnimator will add a channel with that name and metadata to your other segments.
3. Handles "scene data" to allow for the tagging of different shots. I use this to define certain lights or geometry that I want to include in certain shots, but it could be used to tag shots with any kind of DAT info.
4. Sets up a Timer to play each segment in sequence in the specified order.
5. Provides a "dev mode" to more easily refine one specific animation without having to change your scene set-up.

How to use

1. Add the SequenceAnimator to your scene and go to the "Segments" page.
2. Click the "Edit animation" button on the first segment to open up the Animation Editor. From here, you can add whatever channels you might need to animate and start to add keyframes.
3. Using the output of the SequenceAnimator, use your animated channels to control whatever parameters you might need.
4. Go to the "Playback" page and press "Initialize" then "Play." You should see your changes in the Animation Editor reflected in the output of the COMP.
5. Now, go back and add some more segments and give them a proper length. Your new segments will have all the same channels as your other segment, but with new keyframe data.
6. To edit the second segment, turn on "Dev Mode" in the "Playback" page and that animation should now play locked to the timeline. (You might want to adjust your Range End to match the length of your shot for better looping.)
7. When done, turn off Dev Mode and press "Play" again. You should see all segments now play sequentially.

Parameters

• Playback
  • Initialize - Reset sequence to the first frame
  • Play - play the animated sequence
  • Scene Table - (optional) Table DAT that specifies any tags you want associated with your "scenes." Scenes are different from segments in that multiple segments can reference a single scene ID. This is a handy way of switching DAT-type data between segments. 
  • Generate Scene Table - generates a simple template table with a default scene row that can be used to easily create a table in the expected format for the Scene Table param
  • Dev Mode - Toggle to focus on the playing of a single segment rather than an entire sequence. Will paly the focused segment in a way that is locked to the timeline to allow for easy scrubbing in the Animation Editor.
  • Focus Segment Index - the index of the segment that you would like to focus on for dev mode
  • Edit Focused Animation - opens the animation editor for the focused segment

Example

See the attached .toe file for a simple example on how to use.

Below is a simple sequence I made using the SequenceAnimator COMP.