1. Refining our Animations
Parameters and Editing
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2. 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
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3. 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
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8. 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
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9. 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
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11. 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
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13. 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
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15. 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
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17. 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
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19. 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
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21. 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
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22. 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
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23. 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
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24. 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
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25. Open Sub-Object
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26. Add Do In Order
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27. Turns
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28. 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
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29. Duration
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30. Now Set
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31. 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
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32. Exercise Make your scene more interesting
Make parts of the actors move in a way that is complementary
Put in a say or think
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