Hello.
I have an animated shader I created using a ‘time’ node, which I’ve divided the value by 2. I assume that means one animation cycle of my shader takes 2 seconds (assuming the base time value is 1 second ?)
Based on that, I set up an animator controller for my object (since I want to animate other things alongside the shader itself), set my timeline to seconds, created a 48-frame segment, and placed my shader in the timeline : time node divided by 2, 2-second timeline, it seems logical, though perhaps I’m completely off track?
However, when I trigger this animation from a previous one, the shader animation doesn’t start at the exact same moment as the main animation ; there’s a variable time offset. It’s almost as if the shader’s time has a life of its own, and when the animation calls the shader, it picks up the time based on wherever the shader’s calculation happens to be at that moment. That might not actually be what’s happening, it’s just my impression 
Do you have any ideas on how I could synchronize the timeline animation with the start of the shader animation?
Hello,
You’re probably running into the difference between global shader time and animation timeline time. The shader’s Time node usually keeps running from the moment the material/shader is active, independent of your Animator timeline. So when the animation starts, it doesn’t reset the shader time — it just uses the current value of the shader’s clock, which creates that offset.
Best Regards
Hello Craig,
I put a float somewhere and animated it form 0 to 1 in the timeline to simulate time, and it worked well. Thanks a lot for your answer, I better understand this now.