Yet another n00b question, hooray!
So here's the problem: I'm writing a visualization for some server data. The data is read and the animation created during initialization. I'm using SpatialTransformers for most of the animation, and it looks good so far. But now I'm trying to add some shapes appearing/disappearing in time with the animation. These shapes need to appear for a brief time, disappear for some (varying) time, then reappear again, etc.
Basically…I have no idea how to do this. I've created the sprites that appear, and the rest of the animation works fine. I'd like to use Controllers and animate the appearing/disappearing from the start like everything else (replay, rewinding, etc are on the plate to be implemented after this); however,
a) none of the controllers I'm looking into (specifically, FadeInOutController and TimedLifeController) have any form of an explanation on how to use them, unlike SpatialTransformer.
b) I don't know if said controllers will give me the timing control/flexibility I want. example: ST lets you define exactly where your Spatial is at a certain time. FIOC doesn't seem to have anything like that, and the API for TLC seems to indicate that once the object disappears, it's gone for good.
There's a lot of code to sift through, but I haven't written much pertaining to this particular feature. The key in everything up until now is that the entire animation is generated from the very beginning; however, if it's not possible or feasible, I can change it.
So…yeah. Does anybody know how to go about doing this? Do I need to post more information? Please help me.
You can use more than one controller on a spatial at a time. One controller does not have to do everything. 
Yes, I know that. But I don't know which controller to use in the first place, if there is one.
I just detach the node from it's parent when I want it to disappear temporarily.
Detaching it from its parent is one way to do it, but by virtue of updating controllers, the controller will no longer be updated. An alternative in the scenario that you want the controller to remain updated is to set the cull state to always