Help! Frames have all combined together!

[polothageek]

Hello all!

I'm having a bit of a problem but I'm sure it can be solved quite easily but I can't, for the life of me, figure it out :\

I'm animating and I'm at roughly 150 frames and for some reason all the frames in each layer have combined into one huge frame.
It's driving me nuts and I can't animate properly because I can't see each individual frame.

Attached is a screenshot of what my work.

Does anyone know how to revert back to the original setting? I am working on my thesis film and need to get this figured out asap!

Thank you!

[Paul Fierlinger]

It looks like you need to zoom into your timeline. At the far left, where you have the layer heads you should spot a little "Z" next to all those small icons. Hold down the Z with your LMB and drag your mouse right.

[polothageek]

Haha, I knew it was something simple c:

Thank you so much!

[Paul Fierlinger]

Sure; you're not the first or will be the last to ask.

[Elodie]

There is something that I don't understand...

Why we have so many messages about that, whereas this fact exists for 6 years...

[slowtiger]

Why we have so many messages about that

Because people take "what you see is what you get" literally. They learn a connection like "1 frame = 1 thumbnail", then panic when the lines between frames vanish. They create 1 drawing and ask "how do I get my character throught it, like a hole", because they never made the transfer to "parts on several layers form 1 image in the end". They always forget to place a keyframe at the beginning of a movement, then complain about their stuff moving before they want it to.

This is universal behaviour and doesn't depend on any specific software. Well, it doesn't even depend on computers, I see it everywhere.

[Paul Fierlinger]

I think it would help to make that Z button more salient -- a bright color; or at least a color, because when people are told where it is they blush. It's pretty well hidden (no reason to blush). If the button was in the shape of a double arrow, pointing in two directions and it had an icon of a frame in the middle, then the sign should be clear enough.

[Elodie]

Yes, yes, I agree with you, Klaus and Paul.

But, I just find this "fun", because it is not something new. =)

[D.T. Nethery]

There is something that I don't understand...

Why we have so many messages about that, whereas this fact exists for 6 years...

I think it would help to make that Z button more salient -- a bright color; or at least a color, because when people are told where it is they blush. It's pretty well hidden (no reason to blush). If the button was in the shape of a double arrow, pointing in two directions and it had an icon of a frame in the middle, then the sign should be clear enough.

If many people have problems figuring it out then maybe that should be a clue that this part of the interface needs to be more obvious/intuitive , less "hidden" . Something hidden in plain sight becomes obvious once you know it's there , WE see it (that is , those of us who have been using TVPaint for a while , 6 years or so) but that's of absolutely no comfort to the new user trying to find their way around the interface.

[Elodie]

If many people have problems figuring it out then maybe that should be a clue that this part of the interface needs to be more obvious/intuitive , less "hidden" .

Yes, of course, we already have some ideas. As usual, when a critic is recurrent, we try to fix the problem

[slowtiger]

"Zoom the timeline" in other applications is most often done with a slider. I'm not sure wether we have enough space in TVP to incorprate it. But what about a slider which appears when I click on the Z?

[Elodie]

Wait and see