Flip-Book

I’ve been focused on learning more about Blender but alas I don’t like the whole polluting the timeline.

The guides work but you really have to know what you’re doing, the Riggify add-on is a must have and it needs 3 bones connected for the spine, the problem is that removing/dissolving bones messes with this.

I asked an AI how to do the flip-book [from Friction Graphics] in Blender (1 object at a time) and it suggested Collections:

**Flipbook (one object from a group at a time) in Blender**

1. **Create the group (collection)**
   - In the **Outliner**, select the objects you want to animate.
   - Press **M** → **New Collection** and give it a name (e.g., *Flipbook*).

2. **Add a *Visibility* driver**
   - Select the first object in the collection.
   - In the **Object Properties** panel, find **Visibility → Show in Viewport/Render**.
   - Right‑click the *eye* icon → **Add Driver** → **Manually Create Later**.
   - Repeat for each object in the collection.

3. **Set up the driver expression**
   - Open a **Drivers** editor (e.g., the **Graph Editor** → mode *Drivers*).
   - For each object’s driver, set:
     - **Variable**:  
       - Type: **Single Property**  
       - ID: **Scene** (or an empty object you’ll use as a controller)  
       - Path: `frame_current` (or a custom property if you prefer)
     - **Expression**:  

       ```python
       int(frame_current == N)
       ```

       Replace **N** with the frame number on which you want that specific object to appear (e.g., `1` for the first object, `2` for the second, etc.). The expression evaluates to `1` (visible) only on its assigned frame and `0` (hidden) otherwise.

4. **Optional: Use a single controller object**
   - Add an **Empty** (Shift +A → Empty → Plain Axes) and give it a custom integer property called **step**.
   - Drive all objects from that property instead of `frame_current`:
     - Variable → **Single Property**, ID → the Empty, Path → `["step"]`.
     - Expression → `int(step == N)`.
   - Animate the **step** property with keyframes (1, 2, 3 …) to switch the visible object.

5. **Turn on *Playback* settings**
   - In the **Timeline**, set the **End** frame to the number of objects (or a bit higher).
   - Press **Space** to play; each frame will show exactly one object, creating a flip‑book effect.

6. **Render as an image sequence (optional)**
   - In **Output Properties**, choose a folder and format (PNG, JPEG, etc.).
   - Make sure **File Extensions** is checked.
   - Click **Render → Render Animation**; Blender will output one frame per object.

**Quick summary**

- Put objects in a **Collection**.  
- Add **Visibility drivers** to each object.  
- Drive visibility with an expression that checks the current frame (or a controller’s custom property).  
- Animate the controlling value so that only one object is visible per frame, producing a flip‑book animation.

Silly me that’s what he uses in the video.