AnimationGroups and lua/xml

[sticklord]

I was playing around with some animations, and tried to get one AnimationGroup to control many objects. I found some methods on wowprogramming that seemed like they could do it but they didn't exist (AlphaAnim:SetTarget(), AlphaAnim:SetTargetKey()). Then i checked out the PriestBar by Blizzard and got it working, but had to use xml ( ). Here's how i did it through xml:

<Frame name="ArcaneOrbs" virtual="true">
    <Animations>
        <AnimationGroup parentKey="animIn">
            <Alpha target="$parentHighlight" change="1" duration="0.2" order="1"/>
            <Alpha target="$parentOrb" change="1" duration="0.2" order="1"/>
            <Alpha target="$parentGlow" change="1" duration="0.2" order="1"/>
            <Alpha target="$parentGlow" change="-1" duration="0.25" order="2"/>
            <Scripts>
                <OnPlay>
                    self:GetParent().orb:SetAlpha(0.5);
                    self:GetParent().orb:Show();
                    self:GetParent().highlight:SetAlpha(0.5);
                </OnPlay>
                <OnFinished>
                    self:GetParent().orb:SetAlpha(1.0);
                    self:GetParent().highlight:SetAlpha(1.0);
                </OnFinished>
            </Scripts>
        </AnimationGroup>
    </Animations>
        <Layers>
        <Layer level="ARTWORK">
            <Texture name="$parentOrb" parentKey="orb" ...>
            <Texture name="$parentHighlight" parentKey="highlight" ...>
        </Layer>
        <Layer level="OVERLAY">
            <Texture name="$parentGlow" parentKey="glow" .. > 
            </Texture>
        </Layer>
    </Layers>
</Frame>

I guess they use the target = "$parentOrb" to choose which texture they control with the animation, but is there a way to do this using Lua only?

[Duugu]

I would say you're looking for Animation:SetTarget().

[Phanx]

Behold, the useful glory of widget API documentation.

[zork]

This thread may be helpful aswell: http://www.wowinterface.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=35104

[Phanx]

Originally Posted by zork This thread may be helpful aswell: http://www.wowinterface.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=35104

But replace all instances of "wowwiki.com" in those links with "wowpedia.org" as that thread is from 2010 and most of the regular editors moved to Wowpedia after WoWWiki got assimilated into the Wikia collective and filled with annoying ads and painfully slow javascripts that do nothing useful.

[sticklord]

Thanks for the responses guys!

But as i ment, Anim:SetTargetKey() & Anim:SetTarget() both give an error: attempt to call method "SetTarget" (a nil value).

This is what I used:

local function AddAlphaAnimation(parent, change, dur, order, target)
    local a = parent:CreateAnimation("ALPHA")
    a:SetDuration(dur)
    a:SetOrder(order)
    a:SetChange(change)
--  a:SetTargetKey("$parent"..target) doesn't exist
--  a:SetTarget("$parent"..target)    neither do this 1
    return a
end
 
for i = 1, 4 do
    local name = "MageArcaneOrb"..i
    local orb = CreateFrame("Frame", name, f)
    orb:SetPoint("LEFT", (i*35)-55, 0)
    orb:SetSize(48, 48)
    orb:SetAlpha(0)
 
    orb.fill = orb:CreateTexture(name.."Fill", "ARTWORK")
    orb.fill:SetTexture("Interface\\AddOns\\oUF_Abu\\Media\\Frames\\Mage\\Fill")
    orb.fill:SetAllPoints(orb)
    orb.fill:SetSize(48, 48)
    orb.glow = orb:CreateTexture(name.."Glow", "OVERLAY")
    orb.glow:SetAllPoints(orb)
    orb.glow:SetSize(48, 48)
    orb.glow:SetBlendMode("ADD")
    orb.glow:SetTexture("Interface\\AddOns\\oUF_Abu\\Media\\Frames\\Mage\\Flash")
 
    orb.AnimIn = orb:CreateAnimationGroup("AnimIn")
    AddAlphaAnimation(orb.AnimIn, 1, 0.2, 1, "Fill")
--  AddAlphaAnimation(orb.AnimIn, 1, 0.2, 1, "Glow")
--  AddAlphaAnimation(orb.AnimIn, -1, 0.25, 2, "Glow")
 
    orb.AnimIn:SetScript("OnPlay", function(self)
        self:GetParent():SetAlpha(0.5);
    end)
    orb.AnimIn:SetScript("OnFinished", function(self)
        self:GetParent():SetAlpha(1.0);
    end)
 
    orb.AnimOut = orb:CreateAnimationGroup("AnimOut")
    AddAlphaAnimation(orb.AnimOut, -1, 0.2, 1, "Fill")
--  AddAlphaAnimation(orb.AnimOut, 1, 0.2, 1, "Glow")
--  AddAlphaAnimation(orb.AnimOut, -1, 0.25, 2, "Glow")
 
    orb.AnimOut:SetScript("OnFinished", function(self)
        self:GetParent():SetAlpha(0.0);
    end)
    f[i] = orb;
end

I guess i could make a group for each texture but then it would probably be better to skip the animationgroup stuff and just make my own OnUpdate script. I'm gonna stick to xml

[Choonstertwo]

I just did some quick testing in game and I can confirm that Animations definitely don't have a SetTarget or SetTargetKey method.

I can't see any way to have a single animation group contain animations acting on multiple unique regions without using XML.

[Duugu]

Ups.

Animation:SetChildKey() is inexistent too.

Btw: what's the difference between

<Alpha target="" .../>

and

<Alpha targetKey="" .../>

at all?

[Phanx]

The same as the difference between "parent" and "parentKey" I'd suspect...

[Duugu]

An what is ...

... ah whatever. Doesn't matter at all.

[Phanx]

XML:
<Frame name="MyBadlyNamedFrame" parent="UIParent">
Lua:
CreateFrame("Frame", "MyBadlyNamedFrame", UIParent)

XML:
<Frame parent="UIParent" parent="UIParent" parentKey="badFrame">
Lua:
UIParent.badFrame = CreateFrame("Frame", nil, UIParent)

Therefore I'd assume that target="x" expects "x" to be global name of the object to act on, while targetKey="x" expects "x" to be a key whose value is a reference to the object to act on. Whether the key is expected to be on the animation, the animation group, or their parent frame, however, I don't know. You could probably figure it out easily by looking at the default UI code, but I don't actually care, so I'm not going to spend time going and looking it up.

-----

Also, it looks like WoWProgramming lists several methods that don't actually exist for both Animation and AnimationGroup widgets, and is missing an AnimationGroup method.

Animation

• SetChildKey does not actually exist
• SetTarget does not actually exist
• SetTargetKey does not actually exist

AnimationGroup (generic untyped)

• GetInitialOffset is missing from the list
• IsSetToFinalAlpha does not actually exist
• SetToFinalAlpha does not exist

However, I'm pretty sure I saw a post about IsSetToFinalAlpha and SetToFinalAlpha being new methods for WOD, so it's likely the other methods listed above as nonexistent are also new methods coming in WOD. No idea about GetInitialOffset; possibly removed in WOD?

[sticklord]

Hey don't hurt my feelings!

Yeah, I compared the new WoD template where they for example used childKey="Bg" instead of target="$parentGlow", where childKey is the same as targetKey suppose. And they also use the new fromAlpha="0" and toAlpha="1" so you don't have to hook the script to get the correct alpha I suppose.

Probably best to stay away from this until WoD is released

[zork]

Actually not. Failures move you forward. The more you fail the better.

[sticklord]

What i ment was that i would just use xml until the expansion is released, when it's probably impossible to do control multiple regions with a single group using lua.

On the other hand, I tested the new functions on the PTR and got it working!

local function CreateAlphaAnim(par, key, from, to, dur, order)
    local a = par:CreateAnimation("ALPHA")
    a:SetFromAlpha(from)
    a:SetToAlpha(to)
    a:SetDuration(dur)
    --a:SetChildKey(key) -- "fill"
    a:SetTarget(key) --name.."Fill"
    --a:SetTargetKey(key) 
    a:SetOrder(order)
    print(a:GetRegionParent():GetName())
    return a
end
 
for i = 1, 4 do
    local name = "orb"..i
    local orb = CreateFrame("Frame", name, f)
    orb:SetPoint("LEFT", (i*35)-55, 0)
    orb:SetSize(48,48)
    orb:Show()
 
    orb.fill = orb:CreateTexture(name.."Fill", "ARTWORK")
    orb.fill:SetAlpha(0)
    orb.fill:SetTexture("Interface\\AddOns\\oUF_Abu\\Media\\Frames\\Mage\\Fill")
    orb.fill:SetVertexColor(1, .8, .8)
    orb.fill:SetAllPoints(orb)
 
    orb.glow = orb:CreateTexture(name.."Glow", "OVERLAY")
    orb.glow:SetAlpha(0)
    orb.glow:SetBlendMode("ADD")
    orb.glow:SetTexture("Interface\\AddOns\\oUF_Abu\\Media\\Frames\\Mage\\Flash")
    orb.glow:SetAllPoints(orb)
 
    orb.AnimIn = orb:CreateAnimationGroup("AnimIn")
    orb.AnimIn:SetToFinalAlpha(true)
    CreateAlphaAnim(orb.AnimIn, name.."Fill", 0, 1, 0.2, 1)
    CreateAlphaAnim(orb.AnimIn, name.."Glow", 0,   1, 0.2, 1)
    CreateAlphaAnim(orb.AnimIn, name.."Glow", 1,   0, 0.2, 2)
 
    orb.AnimOut = orb:CreateAnimationGroup("AnimOut")
    orb.AnimOut:SetToFinalAlpha(true)
    CreateAlphaAnim(orb.AnimOut, name.."Glow", 0, 1,   0.2, 1)
    CreateAlphaAnim(orb.AnimOut, name.."Glow", 1, 0,   0.2, 2)
    CreateAlphaAnim(orb.AnimOut, name.."Fill", 1, 0, 0.2, 2)
    
    f[i] = orb;
end

I found out that A:SetChildKey() requires the key of the frame, so if we want to control orb.fill we just use "fill". A:SetTarget() require the name of the frame, so "orb1Fill". Couldn't get A:SetTargetKey() working but it do exist in WoD.

A:GetRegionParent() still returned the parentframe of the AnimationGroup though, but I'm not sure how this is supposed to work.

[semlar]

"key" refers to the name of the key in the table. "glow" is the key in "orb.glow"

[sticklord]

Originally Posted by semlar "key" refers to the name of the key in the table. "glow" is the key in "orb.glow"

Yeah, thats what SetChildKey() uses.

I tried "$parentFill", "Fill" and some more with SetTargetKey() but nope, not a chance. But we still have two ways to set the frame, I'm alright without a third:P

[semlar]

Your key is called "fill" (orb.fill) and is case-sensitive, have you tried that?

[sticklord]

Originally Posted by semlar Your key is called "fill" (orb.fill) and is case-sensitive, have you tried that?

Yeah, tried that aswell. Won't work sadly. But as I said Anim:SetChildKey("fill") works. I can put whatever I want in its arguments and it won't report bad usage:/ I'm just trying to figure out what SetTargetKey() is good for.