Animation Export/Import window hasn't hit the mark just yet

[Beartikal]

Recently, the animation export/import window in Studio went through an appearance change - it looks great! Nothing wrong there - but - the usability isn’t quite there yet, let me explain.
As a developer the animation export/import window in studio isn’t quite polished yet and has some easy pitfalls devs can fall into when using it.

Wasted space
First, the export/import window has a weird 25% space-consuming window that just shows the asset status - which is empty and never changes along the entire export/import process - if this is still in-development then it should NOT have been released.

blue circle showing the wasted space on the window in the left hand corner of the screen

Non-changing text for import / export windows
Furthermore, the text doesn’t change making me think as if this new window wasn’t ready for release…

import window says overwrite?

export window also says overwrite - which is good, just the import has issues

This is confusing and also made me overwrite an animation when I thought I was importing, when I was in-reality exporting!! (thank god for animation version history). But this goes to show how dangerous this can be if we mis-click!

Deal-breaker Bugs
Second, there’s a few bug(s):

1. Double clicking the same animation to import/export makes the Submit button fade out, which shouldn’t be the case:
   clicking once
   
   double click same animation
   
   checkmark showing yet the submit button is grayed out

Third, the search, (like some other roblox search bars (library, toolbox,etc.) ) need work.
For example, this search box shows that you can search by AnimationId - not name?? The search box SHOULD allow for BOTH entries to be input and returned - name and id to make it easier, nothing can go wrong with easier usability.

picture showing the search box currently, which should be changed to allow for both name and id to be searched for

There’s also an annoying bug in the search currently which shows that the animation is not present and owned under my group (speaking of which there’s no user feedback to tell me that it’s loading if it is loading? It should say “No matches found” for even greater feedback!)

picture showing that the search for the animation by AnimId under Derpie Studios group is not being found (finnicky, sometimes works sometimes needs to re-paste / refresh)

After reselecting “Derpie Studios” on the Dropdown window, it works!

that’s much better! Still buggy, though.
That means this flaw could be drawn to 2 conclusions:
The window is loading to find the anim by AnimId (cant tell as no feedback is given)
OR
The Dropdown displays the wrong group (buggy dropdown, meaning it can’t find animId) (could definitely be the case as reselecting in dropdown made it work)

Next bug: Copying an animationId - or any text really - to the Clipboard on my pc then opening the Animation Import/Export window makes the clipboard empty ALWAYS - meaning i have to go back to copy the anim to paste it. This shouldn’t be happening, the clipboard shouldn’t be affected by opening a window, but it is?? (Windows 10 Lenovo pc)

picture showing me able to paste 512 over and over (proof)

Now after I open the window, anddd… no more pasting

Whew- that’s 6 bugs or things that should be changed!! This new menu looks super cool, but it came with more bugs than the previous version and overall has some drawbacks that makes me question if it’s even finished? I couldn’t find an announcement on it’s new release so I couldn’t confirm if it’s still in work or not, but if this is final, there’s definitely some improvements that should be made.

Here’s also another user (with a similar thread) requesting for the search to be changed or brought back to its legacy version:

[Anim. Editor] Re-support Importing By ID

With the latest Animation Editor update, you can no longer import animations uploaded by Roblox… You can only upload animations that you own by finding them in a list (you can filter by ID but cannot upload by ID). This is problematic for me because I often import Roblox animations to modify them, add keyframe markers, etc. Now, this is entirely impossible without a previously saved KeyframeSequence in a rig… but who keeps those around? I would like to see the option to import animations uploa…

Note: A lot of these could fit under the bug reports category, in which I would have to upload each bug one by one, but I hope this works as it shows the overall needed change that should be done to the import/export animation window, if this needs to be moved to the Bug reports category, then I can do so, however, but since some of these qualify as suggestions I didn’t know how to separate it or to make it all-in-one kind of thing
If needed, I can make this the suggestions one and then move the bugs over to the bug reports category.

[JollySunbro6]

Hey Beartikal,

Thanks for bringing these to our attention. We are already aware of quite a few of them. The immediate issues being fixed right now are:

• mislabeling of import window saying “overwrite”
• button fading out

The issue with the filter ID box is that only works on animations that have already been loaded onto the screen (scrolling down loads more). I’m working on this as well but it will be a longer fix.

The copy animation id issue is one that has existed before this update. It deals with plugins not having enough control currently over the application clipboard. The only option the animation editor has is to clear it out upon opening in order to prevent conflicts with it’s own copy/paste logic if something already existed in the clipboard beforehand, or we just use a different keybinding than Ctrl + V for pasting. We are working on trying to give built in plugins like the animation editor more control over this so that we don’t have to do that.

[Beartikal]

Thanks for the quick update, it’s very appreciated!