Would it makes sense to have elements ahead in the timeline to automatically "hide" or at least be "onion-skinned" so the current position in the timeline is not obscured? Hiding and unhiding elements, purely for editing purposes seems like a poor UI to me. Or how about the ability to hide/unhide multiple elements at once? That would be a big help.
Or how about the ability to right click an element on the artboard to hide it? This would be much more intuitive than sliding through the timeline to find the offending element thumbnail.
Matthew Cook
If you can see the element on the canvas (the one you want to hide), you can click on it on the canvas and it will become selected and visible in the timeline. You can then use the eye icon to hide it.
Matthew, Yes, I understand it will become highlighted in the timeline if it is clicked on the canvas. The point is, why not make "hide" a context menu option directly on the canvas? Often the image that needs to be hidden is far ahead in the timeline and because the timeline cannot be compressed the thumbnail may not even be visible without scrolling.
Matthew Cook
I will add this as a feature request - add hide element to the context menu.
My point is, that if you are wanting to hide an element on the canvas to access an image beneath, the element you want to hide is visible on the canvas and you can click on it. Then you can click the hide icon because the thumbnail of that element will automatically be selected and visible in the timeline. This will reveal the element beneath that you want to access and which was being obscured. You can then click on that element on the canvas to select it and make it visible in the timeline. Then when you want to unhide the hidden element you can click on the 'Unhide All Elements' icon (double eye icon to the right of the timeline) to unhide the element (if it's thumbnail is not currently visible).
I think I understand you explanation. This assumes all thumbnails are visible in timeline. Will the timeline adjust automatically if a clicked canvas element is not currently in the timeline range (I don't have access to VSB at the moment to check)?
In my experience, clicking any image on the canvas twice will immediately auto-scroll to that image in the timeline and highlight it. If I recall correctly, one click won't do it but my memory may be incorrect.
-Mike (videoscribe user)
You're right, it does. It would still be much faster and more intuitive to right-click on canvas and choose "hide", in my opinion.
Matthew Cook
Selecting an element on the canvas with one click of the mouse will scroll to that image in the timeline and highlight it.
I have added this as a feature request - add 'hide element' to the right click context menu.
Mark Martens
I've added a picture into my timeline and moved it up in the sequence. When I go to properly position it I cannot see where it object actually is because the space is "erased" in a future layer. Is there a way to see through each of the layers to better size and position the object?