Ok, Here is the updated list of problems, in no particular order, bold things have not been fixed yet:

Timeline to have all options closed at start and opened by user individually -fixed enough for us!

id like to add a positve

this awesome scroll bar..... i can now use more than 7 textures on an imported model

MrDrWho13 wrote:

the timeline needs to be redone its not right it just doesnt need tweeking its unusable its also the reason why muvizu is completely unusuable right now so unless they fix this as in completely redesign it for someone who is using more then 2 talking heads and a table and a chair then the entire thing is pointless. Its the cause of the massive lag I am experiencing the filter is only for visibility its not physically removing the data from the timeline. The timeline needs to stard out with no data none. We need to pick and choose exactly what goes into it and it needs to be stored that way. There need to be seperate menus on the timeline which open up into the timeline not this toggle stuff it simply wont work for this its far to complex.
Within the menus need to be sub menues so we can choose what properties of each invidividual object, character, asset are going to appear in the timeline. I wish that moguls had been consulted on these issues because they would have known from the get go that this particular design was not going to work.

Timeline to have all options closed at start and opened by user individually

Surely it would be better to only have the timeline for an object etc created once it has been animated ( or directed as we call it) rather than the second in appears on set?

I shudder to think what Ukberty's and Ziggy72's timelines look like!

I can see how showing everything by default can be frankly a bit poo if you have a large set, but we have to consider the opposite problem of an inexperienced user opening the timeline for the first time and seeing it completely empty and not knowing how to (or realising they can) make things visible.

Dreeko wrote:


You know Dreeko, I didn't even try. I posted in this thread early on, after a quick mess around with Play, got Rosie to roll her eyes (brilliant looking when you can animate the eye size too!!), then closed Play and went back to work on my latest set with the 23b version. Then, watched with growing horror/bemusement/happiness/frustration in equal measure as this thread just got bigger and bigger with problems, some good bits, then bugs, more bugs, bugs on bugs, and the final realisation (as UrbanLamb pointed out) that the Timeline is just wrong for Muvizu. Might be right for something else, yeah, but not this program.

Another thing I realised after Neil's post (which was indeed very welcome, thanks dude) was that something I complained about ages ago (the vast expanses of wasted space on the old timeline) has been sorted, but now it seems like I'm complaining the other way and in fact it's too dense and tiny. Then it hit me - when I upgraded my machine with a (damn fine) video card, I also upgraded my monitor so that I could use the program in 1080p, not the 720 I'd used before. The full HD resolution is great, but it scales everything right down, and so the new Timeline now looks unusably tiny (to me anyway). Also, I'm not sitting a foot away from the screen like you do when at a desk.

Anyway, regardless of font sizes, having those tiny controls under the Timeline doesn't work at all - they should be bigger, and probably at the top of the Timeline window, closer to the centre of the screen where they are easily accessible. If you really want to keep newbies informed, show them the buttons to press. Can't hurt

Rambling on a bit, but all I really wanted to say was this - Dreeko's right. He's spot on, in everything he said in his post. If it ain't animated, I ain't interested - get it off the Timeline.
Neil wrote:

What about the camera? If you start anew, there is always 1 camera. Always. So, when a newbie sees the Timeline for the first time, and the only thing on it is Camera 1, and he looks at his set and it's blank except for a single camera... Well, if you can't work that one out then you shouldn't be allowed out of the house, let alone near a PC. If you want to have the flexibility to have absolutely everything on the Timeline the user could want, just add that as a right click option - "Add to Timeline". The item's track would be added, regardless of whether it was animated or not. All animated items are added to the Timeline by default as soon as you hit Record. How about that?

(the paperback edition of this post will be availlable soon)

Maybe like this?

I guess i am a bit baffled at this sort of almost paradox of introducing a complicated timeline that "newbies" can understand

Visual fixes and minor tweeks on this present system is not gonna help a whole lot. It looks fine and i "like" the idea however at present said idea is making is so I cannot use muvizu even if you fix all those bugs. A light user is not going to care much about this timeline issue. Those who care are the ones that are trying to make muvizu do sommersaults and create massive cinematic type things with more then one or two characters and 20 objects and a couple of lights.

So in all honesty making a complicated timeline a newbie would understand is a bit of an oxymoron i guess or paradox or both i can't decide which.

I am horribly worried that what is happening here is that "power users" or whatever you want to call us crazy people who want to make epic movies with custom built sets are being squeezed out in favour of people who are into 1 minute long joke videos placed on youtube with the hope of going viral. Although in that case a complicated timeline is not necessary simply put the wave file at the top of the old timeline and include snapping and its all good.

So where the issue is when we move beyond that. Anyhow I am beginning to worry my muvizu days are over as it seems that my please to have a functional complicated timeline are going unheard. If the intention is just to leave it that way with the filter and moving a few items out of it is what is going to happen it wont be anymore usable then it is now. Because well i would have to purchase a 70 plasma tv set to do my muvizu work on.

Anyhow I have done the best I can do. I posted a mock up and sent a mail to bugs@muvizu even though its not a bug hehe. I was just rather alarmed to read its "fixed for now" with that minor tweak which in the end wont actually make it anymore usable then it was that other night. The reality is I tried to prepare the timeline in such a way that assuming you did that fix you just posted that would fix it all i was fit to be tied as i tried to find what I needed to do workwise in that mess.

I love muvizu but this timeline breaks it. If the intention is to just make it so all those boxes are uncheck and do nothing more then for me I see a better solution to leaving in snapping, the new wavefile diagram and putting the rest back to the way it was because I will never be able to have more then one character and a camera line usable anyhow so I fail to see how this is a "new thing" when its just more cumbersome and completely does not serve the purpose of multilple characters etc in the timeline.

/shrug
edited by urbanlamb on 11/04/2013

Anyhow I have done the best I can do. I posted a mock up and sent a mail to bugs@muvizu even though its not a bug hehe. I was just rather alarmed to read its "fixed for now" with that minor tweak which in the end wont actually make it anymore usable then it was that other night. The reality is I tried to prepare the timeline in such a way that assuming you did that fix you just posted that would fix it all i was fit to be tied as i tried to find what I needed to do workwise in that mess.

What you think of the idea to only show timelines for directed items rather than for everything? ( including kitchen sinks if selected!)
edited by Dreeko on 12/04/2013

Dreeko wrote:

I think the users should have the option to show all animated items or show all items. With tick boxes or something?