Tutorial 13: Object Animation

Transcription

1 Tutorial 13: Object Animation In this tutorial we will learn how to: Completion time 40 minutes Establish the number of frames for an object animation Rotate objects into desired positions Set key frames for these positions Use Visual Model in conjunction with Renderize Live Run our animation Starting out : Open Project from File in the main Menu Bar. Load "tutor13.eye". Click on. Drag-drop View 1 into the View Well. Before starting we should plan our animation. In animating the "3D" logo object, we want the "3" in "3D" to enter from the right side of the screen at frame 1 and arrive at its proper location by frame 40. We then want the "D" in "3D" to enter the scene from the left at frame 20 and arrive at its proper location by frame 60. Then, at frame 60 the word "Graphics" will start to drop down on our scene and will finish by frame 90. All this time water will ripple in the background through the use of an animated texture map. As in any animation, we need to define the number of frames it will contain. As we produce our animation we may decide to change the number of frames in our animation but for now a starting number needs to be defined. We need to define this number of frames in the "Camera Animation Designer" - even though it is not the camera that will be moving. From the Menu Bar select "Edit", "Camera Animation". On the right side of the "Camera Animation" window, in the "Number of Frames" type-in, enter the number "100". Now click on the next to the "100". Notice that each of the individual frames are now listed in the frame list. You have now defined a 100 frame animation. Drag and drop "View 1" into the 'Set Key' well. You thereby establish the view point of our animation. Click on "Save" followed by "Replace". Tutorial 13: Object Animation 149

2 Drag and drop the animation icon from the Views resource list into the View Well. The main viewport now shows a top view of your animation. As you can see the camera remains stationary in front of the scene we plan to animate. Now close the "Camera Animation" window. Select from the main button bar to view the "3D1" animation from the front. Click on the Resource palette. Drag-drop object "3" from the resource list into the Move Well. Notice that ther object "3" is highlighted in the main Viewport. Right mouse click on the object "3" in the Move well and select the "Animate" command. The Frame Counter field on the Animation Control Window currently indicates "1K". Click inside the field and replace "1K" with "100". Figure 79. The Animation Control Well Click on. Notice that the "100" becomes "100 K" (for keyframe 100). Figure 80. Setting the Object Animation keyframes 150 Tutorial 13: Object Animation

3 Remember that when animating objects that are going to end up at a specific location it is often easier to work backwards from the end of the animation. This is why careful planning is so important. Each time you select Set Key it confirms the position of the chosen object at that given Key Frame. Make sure that whenever you move the object to a new location that it is carefully placed. For each new position you choose you will be clicking on Set Key. Click again in the Frame Counter field and change the value from "100K to "40". Click on "Set Key". The the Frame Counter window should now read "40K". Now reset the Frame Counter again, this time to "1" (for key frame #1). On the Move Commands Bar, click. Rotate the object 180 from left to right. Notice that only the highlighted object rotates. Click on. Drag the object to the left - just outside our Viewport. Press "Set Key" in the Animation Controller. You have now set the object in that position for Frame 1. Notice the animation path trace in the Viewport between the original and final positions. This trace clues you into the path of all the in between frames that will be animated for you between the Key Frames. From the still active Object Resource Palette, select object "D" and drag-drop it into the Move Well. Drag and drop the object "D" from the Resource well in the Animation Controller Well. Now turning our attention back to the Animation Controller window we reset the Frame Counter to a value of "100". Click on the "Set Key" button. Notice that the "D" in the Viewport is highlighted and that the "100" is now "100K". Set the Frame Counter to "60". Click on "Set Key". Set the Frame Counter to "20". Notice that the Move Bar is still open, so go ahead and click on the button again. For this Key Frame we want "D" to be rotated 180 degrees from left to right. Now select and move the "D" to the right just outside the Viewport. Click "Set Key" in the Animation Controller window. Your object is now set for that position for this Key fame. De-select the "Animate" button on the Animation Controller. By deselecting the "Animate" button the animated object does not get updated in the Viewport while we change the frame counter. Type "1" in the Frame Counter. Re-select the "Animate" button on the Animation Controller. Click "Set Key". This will keep our object off screen when we start our animation (at Key 1) until it is ready to appear at Key Frame 20. Tutorial 13: Object Animation 151

4 Both "3" and "D" are now animated. We will now animate the word "graphics". We will use Visual Model to create the deformation we want to use in our animation. Do NOT exit Renderize Live and do NOT minimize it - we will need it as we work in Visual Model. Launch the Visual Model program. Arrange the viewports to make them all viewable and usable (if all where open when you last exited Visual Model). Drag and drop "graphics.ged" from the still-open Renderize Live resource list into the Visual Model Viewport. Draw a bounding box around the object "graphics" to select it. Select "Munge", "Envelope" from the Visual Model control bar. A "deform" window now appears. Click. Notice the red line bounding box. With the left mouse button pushed down, draw a rectangle around the three control vertices on the left side of the text object. Notice the flashing yellow bounding box that appears during this procedure. When you release the mouse button this box will freeze and go back to red. The three vertices on the left will become highlighted in yellow. Repeat this procedure for the right hand side. We have now selected these vertices. Click on the Move Button. Pointing the cursor at either side of the object, click and hold down the right hand mouse button. Drag it down. The object will gradually begin to fold. Fold it by about 30 degrees. The object "graphics" should now appear 'bent' within a folded bounding box. Three vertices on each side should be highlighted yellow. If you wish you may try, at this point, to repeat the procedure several times just to get the feel of working with changing the shape of an object within Visual Model. When you are done simply return the object back to the position we were creating here originally. Figure 81. Use the Envelope function to bend a text object 152 Tutorial 13: Object Animation

5 Click on. Select to bend object along a curved instead of a broken line. Click "OK". Click "Edit" at the Visual Model Menu Bar and select "Copy To Renderize". A prompt will appear asking if you will be morphing. Select "Morphing". At the next prompt select "Rename". Notice on the Object Designer Palette of Renderize Live that a new image/icon has appeared called "graphic 1". Close Visual Model. Select "OK" at the first prompt. You may be prompted whether you want to save the file. Select "NO". Drag and drop the object "graphics.ged" from the Resource list to the Animation Control well and in to the Move well. Type "60" in the Frame Counter. Click the "Morph" button on the Animation Control Panel. Another drop-in well becomes visible. Drag and drop the object "graphics_1" from the Resource list to the Object Morph well. Click "Set Key". As a result the object "graphics" will gradually morph into "graphics_1.ged". Now we will put water in the foreground of our scene and animate it using a Bump Map. Select 'File / Load movie' from the Menu Bar. Load the "WATER.FLC" file from the..\eyes\tutor directory. Select on the Resource palette. Drag and drop the "Water" material into the Edit well. Select on the Resource palette. Drag and drop "Water_" into the the Bump Texture well on the Material Designer. Select "Save" on the Material Editor panel and confirm "Replace". Close the Material Designer. Select on the Resource palette. Drag and drop the "water_" model from the Resource List into the Edit well. Set the "Bump Ht" to 20 and set "Blur" to 1 (both type-ins can be found in the lower right corner of the Object Editor). This will give the water texture a nice wavy appearance. Select "Save" on the Object Editor panel and confirm "Replace". Tutorial 13: Object Animation 153

6 Select on the Resource palette. Drag and drop "WATER.FLC" from the Resource list into the Animation Control well to include it into our animation. We are now ready to render our animation to a Video for Windows.AVI file. Define the image quality you desire by changing the Rendering options, e.g. Select. Select and set it to "TEST=1". Set the Render to File to X=320 x Y=240 and to anti-alias our animation file. Drop the animation icon into the Edit Well. Click "Redo Floor Reflect" on the Camera Animation panel. Click the "Render" button on the Camera Animation panel. The "Save As" window appears. Type in "Logo.avi" and press 'Enter'. Figure 82. The Video for Windows format window You are prompted to select the Video for Windows file format. Select '24 bits per pixel'. The options menu also allows you to select from the available compression algorithms or CODECs as well as adjust the compression quality. For this animation we will use the default settings. Press "OK" to start rendering the animation to the file. The status line in the upper left corner of Renderize Live gives you the progress of the animation creation. Once finished we can view our animation using the Microsoft Windows Media Player Launch the Media Player and load the "logo.avi" file. Figure 83. Starting the Windows Media Player Simply select play to see the animation run. 154 Tutorial 13: Object Animation