Aug 31, 2022
Timeline: Pre/Post Extrapolation & Matching Clip Offsets
Intro
In this article, we are going to cover two different topics: Pre/Post Extrapolation & Matching Clips Offsets.
Both of these settings require the Timeline recording to be converted into a Clip Track
In Timeline, after you record an animation track right click on it and “Convert to Clip Track”.
Pre/Post Extrapolation
Unity’s documentation refers to “…how an Animation track approximates animation data in the gaps before and after an Animation clip. Each Animation clip has two gap extrapolation properties: Pre-Extrapolate, which controls how animation data is approximated in the gap before an Animation clip, and Post-Extrapolate, which controls how animation data extends in the gap after an Animation clip.”
When the animation is converted into a Clip track and the Clip Track is selected, you will have Extrapolate settings.
We have the following option for both of the extrapolation.
HOLD
Hold will simply HOLD the last frame of the animation until the next track clip plays.
LOOP
Loop will play the clip track on loop during time empty either before (pre) or after (post) the clip track is played.
PING PONG
Ping Pong will play the Clip Track forward and backwards on a loop until the next clip track is played.
CONTINUE
Continue will have the Clip Track play in its entirely even if you decrease the duration on the timeline.
Matching Clip Offsets
If you want one animation clip to pick up where the other left in regards to position and rotation, you will need to match the offsets. The example below, you will notice how the crate has moved across the screen for the first animation clip track, but snaps back to the second clips original position. I want the second clip to take the position and rotation of where it left off with the first track and have it play from there.
You can easily do this by right clicking on the clip track and either select “Match Offset to Previous Track” or “Match Offset to Next Clip”.
You can see below how the animation clips are taking the position and rotate from the previous clip and having the animation play from there.
This makes it easy to string animations together without having to manually animate the offset from one sequence to another.
