Fading Lights
An example use of a timeline in which we set up a fading light that also changes color.
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Timeline nodes are special nodes within Blueprints that provide time-based animation to be quickly designed and played back based on events , floats , vectors , or colors that can be triggered at keyframes along the timeline.
Timelines can be edited directly inside the Blueprint editor by Double-clicking on the Timeline in the Graph tab or in the My Blueprint tab. They are specifically built for handling simple, non-cinematic tasks such as opening doors, altering lights, or performing other time-centric manipulations to Actors within a scene.They are similar to level sequences as they both provide values such as floats, vectors, and colors to be interpolated between keyframes along the timeline.
Inputs and Outputs
Timelines come with the following input and output pins:
Input Pins
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Item |
Description |
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|---|---|---|
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Play |
Causes the Timeline to play forward from its current time. |
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Play from Start |
Causes the Timeline to play forward from the beginning. |
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Stop |
Freezes the playback of the Timeline at the current time. |
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Reverse |
Plays the Timeline backwards from its current time. |
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Reverse from End |
Plays the Timeline backwards starting from the end. |
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Set New Time |
Sets the current time to the value set (or input) in the New Time input. |
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New Time |
This data pin takes a float value representing time in seconds, to which the Timeline can jump when the Set New Time input is called. |
Output Pins
|
Item |
Description |
|
|---|---|---|
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Update |
Outputs an execution signal as soon as the Timeline is called. |
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Finished |
Outputs an execution signal when playback ends. This is not triggered by the Stop function. |
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Direction |
Outputs enum data indicating the direction the Timeline is playing. |
Timelines may have any number of additional output data pins reflecting the types of tracks created within them. These include Float, Vector, and Event tracks.