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"View Element's Camera Position" shortcut in 3.2.1

Hi there,


Previously, whenever I wanted to work on a scene, I'd double click an element in the timeline and the viewport would take me there. Now, in 3.2.1, double clicking opens the Drawing Options menu instead.


How can I now quickly switch between scenes or elements I'm working on? The only way I've found so far is via Quick Menu > Change Camera Settings > View Element's Camera Position.


This seems like a really convoluted way to navigate my scribe and to focus on an element. Is there a new/quicker way that I'm missing perhaps?


Kind regards,


Tomas


Best Answer
We have just released v3.4.0 of VideoScribe and this brings back the double click the timeline element to show the camera position function as well as a number of other extra timeline functions. Upgrade to the latest version of VideoScribe to make the most of this new addition.  .

3 people have this question

Hi, 

This was changed in version 3.2.0.

You can now double-click the timeline item to quickly open the properties screen for the element. 

Previously this was not possible as clicking the timeline item twice was used for the ‘View camera’ option. 

We found that users did not find this very obvious, which is why we added ‘View camera’ as an option on the new timeline quick menu (as well as on the canvas right-click menu).

You can find further information in our release notes here.

Hi Jay,


I understand this was changed and what it does now. However I don't understand that while adding this functionality Sparkol took out something so very basic as navigation and gave it no top-level alternative.

I'm going to be blunt here but with the best of intentions. I've been using VS on a full-time basis for the larger part of four years, and this is hands down the most questionable change to the program ever. This is like Microsoft changing the scroll wheel to adjust font size in Word, but now the only way to navigate to a next page is by going to "file > pages > next page". Imagine this in e.g. a 20-page document. It is quite literally program-breaking to me.


Imagine I have set a scene and I want to move an element within it, but I missclick the path and drag the mouse on a transparent part instead, so I accidentally drag the viewport instead of the element. Easy mistake, cumbersome fix: Quick Menu > Camera Settings > View Element.

Imagine I want to sync the last element in a scene to a voice over. I tweak timings, press play, and watch the scene. The preview goes to the next scene once the last element of the previous scene is done drawing. I press stop. The viewport is now at the part where I stopped the preview, not at the element I was editing. Quick Menu > Camera Settings > View Element. Ah, timing's still a bit off. Repeat. Again: Quick Menu > Camera Settings > View Element.


Imagine the main character of my cartoon changes his t-shirt colour. There's 20 scenes I need to update. 20 times Quick Menu > Camera Settings > View Element.


I mean I could carry on but I hope this makes my point a little. Having the button to view what you're actually working on, three menus deep, is absolutely poor. Sorry.


I realise that as long as I am working in the same scribe, the quick menu remembers which sub-menu I accessed last. But that's a workaround at best and defeats the other functionalities the quick menu brings. While the idea of this new quick menu was so great, especially compared to the previous one that was overlapping the viewport so awkwardly.


There needs to be either a keyboard shortcut, or something else. Like, the options menu appears when you double click an element. Perhaps the camera could focus position when you single click an element in the timeline that's already highlighted.


I appreciate you listened to the users' input of ease of accessibility of the drawing options menu. And I hope you'll take this input as seriously. In the meanwhile, I will downgrade my version and cross my fingers, for this genuinely makes my job take more time.


Regards,


Tomas

Actually, I can't find the download link for VS 3.1.0. I only see 2.3.7 and 3.2.0. Could you help me with that?

Also found a bug in the new 'double click feature': With the quick menu open, double clicking on an element further on in the timeline won't open the drawing options, as with the first click the thumbnail expands to the left to make room for the quick menu, and thus the second click is on the quick menu and not the thumbnail.


Can I please get a link for VS 3.1?

I agree with Tomas that I miss the shortcut to view the camera setting of an element. Hope to see it back again in a future version.

Other than the right click menu, when an element is out of screen, I have no way to go find it other than drag the canvas.

There are no view camera on the right menu of the element bar, and there are two overlapped eyes without tooltip without a hint of what they do and they are disabled always in mac os x.

The product has become unusable, I can't test it during my trial and is a big warning to avoid buying it.

To view the camera position for an element, select the element in the timeline, expand the timeline, click the camera icon and then click the camera with the eye in it.



If you have an element selected in the timeline but cannot see it on the canvas, you can use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in or out and the selected element will automatically come into view.


The double eye icon is used for unhiding hidden elements. See Hide elements in the timeline. We will be adding more tooltips and links to help articles within the application in the next VideoScribe update.

Dear Fabian,

As Matthew has demonstrated above, there are still several ways to find an element that's off screen. My issue is, is that none of these are top-level (i.e. easy to access) in the latest update.


I would disagree that the product is unstable, and I would still wholeheartedly advise VS as my go-to choice for whiteboard animation. The change in this update may be questionable, but the update itself proves that Sparkol takes into account costumer feedback; The 'double click to open options' was ultimately a user-requested feature. Hence I feel confident they'll continue to improve the software along the road.

I was given a download link to a previous version of VS per e-mail. If this new feature is as big an obstacle to you as it was to me, I'd kindly suggest you request a previous version from costumer support, and keep an eye out for the next update. :-)

I agree with Tomas.  What I used to do (A LOT) with a double click now requires three steps of menu navigating.  Plus there was no tutorial explaining this so I've had to search around support for almost an hour before I found this post which explains the new process.  I like your software, but this is not an improvement.  Thank you.

Hi Troy. we need to work together and get this VOTED as a feature we want back. 

It gets mentioned here and there  like 

http://help.videoscribe.co/support/discussions/topics/11000022420


but I need some help to make sure this is clearly listed as a feature (I think) and then get lots of votes. 


thanks

Russ


We too agree with Tomas and others, please bring the double click camera view back!! As per Troy, there was no tutorial or instructions to add to the disappointment, spent so long trying to figure it out.


We love VS and use it every day. Please bring this function back!

I agree with you, Tomas. The double click was a very practical and quick way to adjust your items, to focus the screen  and to work on your project. I tried the new version today and, although it has many new, nice improvements and images, my project was 2 times slower compared to 3.1.0 version. I had no choice but to uninstall the new version and reinstall the the 3.1.0 version. Sorry guys, but that tool is really necessary! Please bring the double click camera view back!!

OK good. I think we need to all click that we LIKE this idea that was posted here by mary Inga. 

http://help.videoscribe.co/support/discussions/topics/11000022420/page/last#reply-to-post


And I think this would be the post to really behind, and get the opinion of more users,  

This is listed in the feature request list.  


WE JUST HAVE TO GET ENOUGH VOTES / LIKES 



Voted.  Thanks, Russ.


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