Refining our Animations Parameters and Editing Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Standard Methods We have already seen these Almost every object have the following: move, turn, roll, resize say, think, playSound move to, move toward, move awayfrom orient to, turn to face, point at, set pose move at speed, turn at speed These give us ability to make things more interesting Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Say Method Each built in method has its own set of parameters Say will give a word balloon with some contents Next four screens calls Say method for the stingray Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

User-defined methods On the last slide, the stingray had a method that some do not: wag tail This is a user defined method Notice the edit button next to it Comes standard with this object but not all Lilfish also has a waggle method We will be see how to define these ourselves in a subsequent presentation Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Parameters Method calls sometimes need parameters Move requires two: direction and distance There are only six directions There are infinite distances, but only the common ones are suggested The next screen shows a drag in process Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Numbers The most common numbers are on the previous list Other allows any number to be entered with a calculator interface You may click keys or just type in the number with decimal point Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

More… Many methods have a more… button Some of the others include These contain optional parameters Some of the others include Style As seen by Duration Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Editing Once a statement is in place it may be changed The left hand portion of the line has a slightly different texture Right clicking on this gives several options: Make copy – duplicate Delete – remove Disable – leave there but do not execute You may also drag it with this handle Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Composite Objects When an object is drug into use Alice tells you how many moving parts there are Each of these is an object They may move somewhat independently Generally a move is not used This would cause the part to move away from main actor These have a + in object tree Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Heirarchical Object The plus may be clicked on to show the components Some of these may be objects containing objects Bigfish contains: Head, tailstem These contain other objects Topfin, rightfin, leftfin Single objects Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Bigfish’s jaw It has its own methods Turning it forward would open the mouth Turning it backward closes In both cases use a small rotation Most other actions could look painful Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Do In Order Many of the things we have done happen simultaneously A move and turn together look OK Others do not Some actions cancel each other Opening and closing the jaw Turning left and right A Do in order helps this Setting duration may also be needed Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Do in Order Another container This forces actions to be performed sequentially Use Do Together to do things simultaneously and Do in Order to do things sequentially Any of the containers may be in another A Do in Order could be inside a Do Together Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Moving Pieces Problem: When we move an actor it looks like a statue being moved Quite un-natural The solution: cause sub-objects to move as well Lets make a tail flap Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Open Sub-Object Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Add Do In Order Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Turns Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Still a Problem The tail wags after the fish stops The solution is to make sure that the durations match The duration is part of the more… part of the method call By default most actions last one second We need the tail wag to in total take one second Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Duration Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Now Set Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Typical Movie A typical unit in a movie may be ½ to 2 seconds In this unit all things happen simultaneously A movie then becomes a sequence of Do Togethers Each one propels things forward some number of seconds Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill

Exercise Make your scene more interesting Make parts of the actors move in a way that is complementary Put in a say or think Copyright © 2005-2009 Curt Hill