Requesting UX improvement to go to exact point in timeline

[biswajit-saha]

When we scrub on the time frame, it modifies the total duration.
If we want to go to a specific time there is no direct input there.
If we want to go to a specific frame number, right now we have to right click and then enter the frame number.

My suggestion is following

The structure first group is current position. time and frame number second group is total duration and fps

1.15 / 45 f     00:03.00 / 30 fps

Each segment should be editable on click ( similar to the editable total duration currently have). If we click on 1.15 and enter 2.2 it should go to 2.20.
Similarly If we click on 45 and enter 65 it shoud go to 65th frame.

what it improves?

It removes the requirement of right click modal and inputs.
We can easily navigate to the exact position on the timeline.

Related

The duration input currently shows 3 s : 5 f

But actually it represents 3:05 seconds. The UI should show correct time represention. Maybe something like 00:00.00 minute or 00.00 second

In future, may be there should be an option to chage duration based on frame count but it will introduce more complexity. the matching calculation of frame rate. For now we can simply improve the current duration input.

[novincode]

Thanks for your suggestion. I tried to improve it based on what you said. See if it's better now?
and I'd love to get more of your feedbacks. it actually helps to grow.

[biswajit-saha]

Thanks for taking the feedback in account.

1. Check the screenshot. It is showing 0:00 f / 2:00 f but actually those are representing seconds not frames. Changing those to s will be more accurate.
2. You can add another additional input for frame. Best structure is the structure I had suggested earlier message.

1.15s / 45 f 00:03.00s / 30 fps

the first part 1.15s / 45 f represents the current time in second and frames count. Second part 00:03.00s / 30 fps reperesents full duration in seconds and frames count.

[biswajit-saha]

Another suggestion is regarding rotation animation.

FIgma only calculater rotation 0 deg to < 360 deg.

In animation, If we want 360 deg rotation ( full circle ) then currently it will not rotate at all.

For an element add a keframe with 0 deg and than add another keyframe 360 deg, when we add 360 deg figma makes it 0 deg. So no rotation happen.

In other app like lottielab rotation can be any positive or negetive deg value. FOr example if we want to rotate an element 3 full circle plus half circle then the keyframe value should be 360 * 3 + 180 = 1260. Similarly for clockwise animation we need also support the negetive value.

This is not possible now in MotionKit. This feature is a basic nessery for rotation animation.

[novincode]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll keep working on it.

About rotation: this actually comes from a Figma limitation. It normalizes values between -180° and 180°, so 360° just becomes 0°

That’s exactly why I added the rotation Modifier; it lets you go beyond those limits and do infinite rotations (positive or negative).

Give that a try and let me know if it covers your case

[biswajit-saha]

Great! I will test it and let you know.

[novincode]

BTW I just published a new version with a better and more clear time duration section, check and see how you feel about it.