"Can a single character appear under two different Character Groups in the timeline view simultaneously?"

Q & A
#1

“Can a single character appear under two different Character Groups in the timeline view simultaneously?” If so how do I do it? I am able to expose a character group section in his profile in inspector and it shows both Humans and Group protagonists there. Screen capture.

#3

Hi Alan,

Thank you for your patience while we looked into this further.

Based on the screenshot provided, Ahmed is currently nested under the “Group Protagonists” Character Group, while also having Character Group relationships to both “Humans” and “Group Protagonists” in the Inspector.

These are two separate systems within Aeon Timeline, and they behave differently in the Timeline view.

The Timeline view follows the nesting hierarchy, so Ahmed can only appear under a single Character Group in the Timeline at a time. In your example, that is “Group Protagonists”.

While a character can be related to multiple Character Groups through the “Character Groups” field in the Inspector, those relationships do not currently cause the character, or that character’s events, to automatically appear under multiple Character Groups in the Timeline view.

To directly answer your question, there is currently no way for the same character to appear under multiple Character Groups simultaneously in the Timeline view.

If it is important for Ahmed to effectively participate in multiple Character Group timelines, the closest workaround is to use the Character Group relationships shown in the Inspector and create separate Timeline tabs for each Character Group.

Each Timeline tab can then be filtered to display the relevant characters and events for that group. While this requires some manual setup, it allows a character such as Ahmed to be included in multiple group-based timeline views.

Follow the guides below on how to create and configure these Timelines.

Sidebar filter setup:

  1. Click on the “Characters” icon on the left-hand side sidebar
  2. Click on the “3 sliders” icon to open the dropdown menu

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  1. Click “Show 1 parent type”
  2. Untick the box next to “Character Groups”

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  1. Click “Group” - this may be different if you have any current groups selected
  2. Untick all options, then tick “All character groups”

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  1. Click on “Quick access buttons”
  2. Click on “Filter view” to enable

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  1. Next to your characters will now show under all the character groups they have been added to. You will also see a number next to their name.

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  1. Done

How to add new Character Group timeline tabs:

  1. Click “+ Add tab” in the view header
  2. Select “Timeline”

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  1. Click the downward-pointing arrow next to “Timeline”
  2. Select “Rename”

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  1. Enter new name (in the example, I used “Humans Timeline”)

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  1. Next, we need to clear all “Group” and “Filter” settings

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  1. Click on “Group” then “Clear all groups”
  2. Click on the filter, then “Clear all filters”
  3. The view header should look like this now:

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  1. To show all “Humans” events, hold down “control” or “command” and click on each of the numbers next to the characters listed under “Humans”.

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  1. You will now see all events “Humans” are linked to

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  1. Repeat these steps for “Group Protagonist”

  2. NOTE: Timeline name should reflect this is for “Group Protagonist”

  3. NOTE: Select only Ahmed under “Group Protagonist”

Here is an extra guide if you would like both character groups to show on the screen at the same time.

How to add a split timeline view:

  1. Create a new timeline following the guide above
  2. Rename accordingly (in the example, I used “Humans + Group Protagonist”)
  3. Click the “3 dots” icon on the right-hand side of the view header
  4. Select “Split view”

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  1. Select “Timeline” then “Split View”

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  1. You will now have 2 Timelines on your screen

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  1. Click in the top timeline and then select all the “Humans” characters as per the guide above
  2. Click in the bottom timeline and select Ahmed under “Group Protagonist”
  3. You should end up with a view like below

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  1. Done

I’ve also attached my example file for reference. Example file Alan.aeon (141.5 KB)

If you have any questions or run into any issues while setting this up, please feel free to contact us again.

#5

Thank you for your detailed response.

It is much appreciated.

Cheers,
Alan