It’s my understanding that link state can not be animated? (linked/not linked) If this is true I can try to move forward accepting this, however keyframes made when linked are not respected when unlinked?
My only conclusion is that links must be persistent throughout an animation for keyframes to be valid, and for the link to be of any use at all. This is far more limiting than it would seem, if this is the case.
Am I missing something?
That is correct.
Not sure what you mean by respected. What happens when you unlink two parameters, let’s say Vertices of Region and Outline layers, they become separate preserving everything, so at the moment of unlinking action they are completely identical, including their keyframes (better to say waypoints).
Keyframes are separate from links, not sure why you think they would affect each other in any way. Again, when you unlink, you get two identical parameters that you can now animate separately from each other.
Not sure what you mean by respected. What happens when you unlink two parameters, let’s say Vertices of Region and Outline layers, they become separate preserving everything, so at the moment of unlinking action they are completely identical, including their keyframes (better to say waypoints).
This was neither the case with radius or color in my test file. All transformations made in edit mode were erased immediately upon unlinking, only preserved in one of the two objects. I’m glad vertices are an exception, as that is my ultimate use case; unless of course you are simply mistaken. I’ll have to run yet another test and get back to you, to find out what intricate exceptions exist.
Keyframes are separate from links, not sure why you think they would affect each other in any way. Again, when you unlink, you get two identical parameters that you can now animate separately from each other.
Because I expect all changes made to parameters in animation edit mode to affect animation, whether or not a specified tool is doing it, or whether I am doing in manually. I can understand if there is a workflow reason why a tool wouldn’t, linking replaces manual keyframe work in certain contexts. I should also add that by “keyframes” I meant “waypoints” perhaps keyframes provided the persistence, but it’s my understanding that they are less frequently used.
I would just like to understand if I am misinterpreting the advantages, or would be advantages, of linking; but the ultimate aim and implication of the title of my post, is to have properties that are linked for a portion of a time and then unlinked: objects following the same path and then diverging. The use cases are endless and somewhat basic.
The alternative is “always linked” … or “do it all manual bub. every. single. waypoint.”.
My current work around will be to have two groups of objects or vertices that are linked or free that become active or inactive when needed.
Oh, right. I always forget that Synfig treats single parameters differently upon disconnecting from dynamic lists (Vertices). It actually needs to be reworked, so ‘Disconnect’ option doesn’t remove waypoints. Instead, add another option called ‘Reset’ that will remove animation from object.
But it needs to be discussed, I won’t bother currently.
As we established, linking is a static operation, either just export (Export - Synfig Animation Studio) what is needed. Then you can wrap it inside Switch converter (Convert - Synfig Animation Studio) or just duplicate the old layer, hide it, disconnect the link from duplicated layer, show it and animate from there.
Exporting looks pretty cool, hadn’t seen that. Thank you!