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Grouping tokens and animations

1570473349

Edited 1570473666
Mike deBoston
Compendium Curator
I've seen tokens in the marketplace with animations that are intended to go with a character token, like a birds that fly around them or energy auras for hands and swords . But how do you use them? Is there a way to keep the tokens aligned together (so the familiar flies around the character), and also be able to edit the character token's three status boxes, or shift-doubleclick to open their character sheet? (I can't find an instructions link in the market, or author feedback, or comments from other customers, so I'm posting here.) I tried importing an animated GIF, stacking it with the character token and then grouping them. That's kind of a mess. The biggest problem is that you can't select the character token to edit their stats or token macros, or double-click to access their character sheet. The second problem is that clicking on the character token sometimes moves it independently of the aura token, and sometimes not. I wasn't able to figure out how to make them move together consistently. And sometimes the z-order changes so the character token goes behind the aura. I have similar problems with trying to select both by dragging an enclosing box around them when they weren't grouped. The Roll20 UI seems entirely broken here, even if the aura and token are the same size. But if the aura is larger, the problem gets even worse. Is this a dead-end?
1572828599
Mino
Marketplace Creator
There's a carry token API that I use for this exact purpose. Basically, whenever the main token moves, the attached tokens immediately move accordingly. However, because it's an API, you'll need to be a Pro Subscriber to make use of it. Additionally, it defaults to putting the carried token behind the host token. So, the character token will render over the effect. If the effect is designed for that, it shouldn't be a problem. I make my effect tokens 3x3 for this reason. Anyway, here's the API <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1139582/slug%7D" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1139582/slug%7D</a>
1572832029
keithcurtis
Forum Champion
Marketplace Creator
API Scripter
There's also a Custom Status Markers API for pretty much the same purpose. I can't think of any way besides the quirky grouping feature to do this otherwise. To move a group together is counterintuitive. You select the group first, release the mouse button and then click and drag. A straight click and drag only moves one element. Admittedly, this quirkiness does give the user a choice, but it does require some practice to build up the muscle memory.
1572843287

Edited 1572843330
Mike deBoston
Compendium Curator
Quirky drag... This unique-to-Roll20 gesture should be in your tricks thread. Please dub it the quirky drag. And thank you -- I didn't know it was at all possible to drag a group of tokens in Roll20. keithcurtis said: There's also a Custom Status Markers API for pretty much the same purpose. I can't think of any way besides the quirky grouping feature to do this otherwise. To move a group together is counterintuitive. You select the group first, release the mouse button and then click and drag. A straight click and drag only moves one element. Admittedly, this quirkiness does give the user a choice, but it does require some practice to build up the muscle memory.