For A-Frame (and anime.js), how do I change the animation speed mid-animation?

Question

I am working on an example using A-Frame. The scene consists of a floating object (that bounces between two invisible boundaries). This is achieved using an animation mixin as below:

<a-mixin id="bounceX"
   animation__bouncex="property:object3D.position.x;  to:5; dir:normal;
                        loop:1; dur:3600; easing:linear;
                        startEvents:bouncex;pauseEvents:holdx;resumeEvents:bounceOnx"
></a-mixin>

I reverse the direction by listening to the animationcomplete event and setting:

mixin.data.to *= -1;
el.emit(...)

Now, for interactions with the floating object, when the mouse-cursor hovers over the object, it should slow down, if the user clicks it, it should stop. If the mouse-cursor leaves the object without a click it should resume moving at its original speed. I am able to capture the mouseenter, click and mouseleave events and log them to console trivially.

The problem part of the code is: How to update the animation mid-flight to slow it down? I tried updating the values (duration,dur) in el.components.animation__bouncex.config and el.components.animation__bouncex.data without luck. This doesn't work, the speed doesn't change till the animation completes.

The AFrame>components>animation.js mentions the following:

* The component manually controls the tick by setting `autoplay: false` on anime.js and
 * manually * calling `animation.tick()` in the tick handler. To pause or resume, we toggle a
 * boolean * flag * `isAnimationPlaying`.

Glitch snippet here : https://glitch.com/edit/#!/loud-quilt-marsupial

Answer 1

You can use my animation-speed component (example) which allows you to provide a speed factor:

// speed up <a-box animation="" by 2x
element.setAttribute("animation-speed", "multiplier", 2);

Since anime.js is updated with the 'time passed since last renderloop', the component just adds a multiplier.

---

If it's a simple animation, You can create a custom component. In the tick(t, dt) function You can write a simple motion equation:

// called on each render loop
tick: function(t, dt) {
  // grab the underlying three.js objects position
  const pos = this.el.object3D.position
  
  // position = speed * time
  pos.x = this.speed * dt; // this.speed can be set anywhere in the component
}  

If we add some boundaries for the object to 'bounce' and change the speed, we end up with something like this:

<script src="https://aframe.io/releases/1.2.0/aframe.min.js"></script>
<script>
  // component declaration
  AFRAME.registerComponent("foo", {
    init: function() {
      this.xMax = 4;  // x upper boundary
      this.xMin = -4; // x lower boundary
      this.speed = 0.005; // base movement speed
      this.dir = 1;   // animation direction 
      
      // hovering over the sphere will change the animation speed 
      const sphere = document.querySelector("a-sphere")
      this.speedUp = this.changeSpeed.bind(this, 0.01);
      this.slowDown = this.changeSpeed.bind(this, 0.005);
      sphere.addEventListener("mouseenter", this.speedUp) // hover
      sphere.addEventListener("mouseleave", this.slowDown) // leave
    },
    changeSpeed(spd) {
      this.speed = spd;
    },
    tick: function(t, dt) {
      // grab the underlying THREE.js position
      const pos = this.el.object3D.position
      // check if the object has passed the boundaries - if so, change the direction
      if (pos.x > this.xMax) this.dir = -1;
      if (pos.x < this.xMin) this.dir = 1;
       
      // update the position using the direction and speed
      pos.x += this.dir * this.speed * dt;
    }
  })
</script>
<a-scene cursor="rayOrigin: mouse" raycaster="objects: a-sphere">
  <a-box foo position="-2 0.5 -3" rotation="0 45 0" color="#4CC3D9"></a-box>
  <a-text color="black" position="-1.75 2 -3" value="hover to speed up"></a-text>
  <a-sphere position="-1 1.5 -3" radius="0.25" color="#EF2D5E"></a-sphere>
</a-scene>