Ping Pong playback

[DarrenT]

This should be very simple to implement. It would be very useful when previewing parts of animations to "ping pong" the playback, so it plays from the start marker to the end marker, then play in reverse back to the start marker, then continues from the start again. I see it as another button next to the Play and Repeat Play buttons.

Additionally, you might want to have a setting of how many frames of times to pause at either end. This could be useful to use either end frame as a hold frame to "see" the action moving clearer.

[Rodney]

Hi DarrenT,

I've used Ping Pong as an option in other software on occasion mostly because it was there and available.

The one thing that escapes me is a set of practical uses for it.

I get that the frames play forward and then reverse so perhaps that's a bit like the old methodology of drawing where we might reverse a drawing to get a new perspective on how well things are balanced and proportional.

As an aside:  I have a vague memory of using Ping Pong in OpenToonz but that is either a false memory or some form of interpolation that can be set somewhere down deeper in the program.

Edit:  Keep in mind that the xsheet's whole purpose is to dictate what is played through the projector/viewer so most programs need dedicated options to be able to get Ping Pong and other playback options. As a quick (although likely frustrating for anything complex) workaround it's fairly trivial to copy a set of exposures and then reverse them by selecting the cells/duplicate and then on the menu (or via assigning a shortcut key) select 'Reverse'. If we set that reversed copy of our frames in a separate column in the xsheet we can then even turn it on/off and manipulate it in other ways... even have it play back behind or on top of our current playback.

As such whether the playback will ping pong back and forth will depend on what the view has set for playback.

[beeheemooth]

i use for that Ctrl+Shift+MMB (drag)

[Rodney]

https://gumroad.com/l/TZmmM

Ok.  That's quite handy.  

At first I thought you were talking about setting a shortcut for Reverse.

I figured it out though!

Ctrl+SHift+MMB.... How do you find this stuff!  ;) 

Added:  For those that want to Ping Pong back and forth more slowly they can use the period and comma keys.

[DarrenT]

Yeah, you can drag to check out your animation, but there should really be a play option to do that (I say option, but I mean a separate play button) to see it running at the right speed.