Select node when clicking node name in AnimationPlayer timeline / Animation tab

[lostminds]

Describe the project you are working on

A project with animations, sometimes in scenes with many nodes (like UIs)

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project

Editing keyframes is sometimes cumbersome since you need to interact with multiple panels (Often: animator timeline, the scene tree, the inspector) requiring you to look for and interact with controls that are far apart.

One particular issue is when editing existing keyframes, which currently changes the inspector away from the selected node to select the keyframe. So to edit the node again you need to find it and re-select it in the scene tree.

Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation

This is a simple usability improvement proposal for the animation timeline editor. Simply allow the user to select nodes by clicking the node name headers above their tracks in the timeline.

Clicking the node header in the Animation timeline (currently does nothing) should just change the selection to that node. This will make it easier to quickly find and select the nodes you're currently animating to adjust properties or add more keyframes in the Inspector without needing to find it in the full scene.

Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams

Clicking the node header in the timeline (currently does nothing) should just trigger the same event as selecting the node in other cases (like clicking in the scene tree or in the scene preview).

If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?

No, this is a usability improvement for working with animations in the editor.

Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?

It's a (small) part of the basic animation editing interface.