Description
This rollout provides the core functionality of the program. The user is able
to manipulate animations here, save them, load them, and modify them. An animation
is merely a set of rotations about various axes. The axis of rotation is defined
by one of the existing bones, and the rotation center is defined by one of the
joints. Each bone to be included in the rotation must be specified.
In skeleton view, the user can see various aspects of the current rotation visually. Every bone is displayed in blue, each joint in red. If the joint is the rotation center, it is colored yellow. If the bone is the rotation axis, it is colored cyan. Bones to be included in the animation are colored green.
The various colors of the bones/joints.
If the Use current animation checkbox is selected, then more visual description is available in bone view. The bones are drawn as normal, but additionally, all bones are drawn again in gray but at their positions after the end of the rotation (including the rotation that is being modified/created). This ending time is specifed by the End Time Spinner. The regular bones are drawn up to the Begin Time Spinner point in time. This allows the user to see what will happen to the animation after adding the current rotation, and how it will affect the animation. This is updated dynamically, so adjusting the various elements of the rotation will show what happens dynamically. Since the end time bones oftentimes draw over the begin time bones, the axis of rotation is colored differently in the end time bones to make it easy to see.
The bones and the bones after the current rotation is applied.
Use this animation Checkbox
This checkbox allows the user to be able to display the animation that is
being edited. When selected, the Animate! and Fully Animate! buttons will
work, and the Animate! button from the Animation Rollout
will animate this animation as well.
Animations Dropdown Menu
This dropdown menu is used to select an animation to load. Once loaded, the animation
can be modified.
Load Button
This button will load the animation that is selected in the Animations dropdown menu.
The Rotations dropdown menu will be populated with all the rotations from the
selected animation.
Save Button
This button will save the animation that is currently being edited. If the
Animation name textbox contains a name that already exists, that animation will
be updated, otherwise a new animation is created. If the Auto save checkbox
from the General Rollout is selected, then the
skeleton will be saved back to disk (so future executions will contain the
changes to the animations).
Animation Name Textbox
This textbox contains the name of the animation being edited. If an animation
is loaded, this textbox is modified to have the loaded animations name. When
an animation is saved, this textbox's text is used for the animation's name.
Rotations Dropdown Menu
This dropdown menu contains all the rotations for the animation being edited.
There is an additional entry called "--Add New--" which is used to create a new
rotation. When a rotation is selected from this menu, all the rotation options
are populated with the values of that rotation.
Save Rotation Button
Pressing this button saves the rotation to the animation being edited. If the
Auto save checkbox from the General Rollout is selected,
then the modifications are writen to disk, as with the Save button. If the Rotation
Name textbox contains a rotation name that already exists for this animation, then
the rotation is updated, otherwise a new rotation is added.
Rotation Name Textbox
This textbox specifies the name of the rotation that is currently being edited.
Using a name that already exists for this animation will update that rotation
when the Save Rotation button is pressed, otherwise a new one will be created
with this name.
Rotation Angle Spinner
This spinner specifies the angle of the current rotation. The spinner range is from
-360.0 to 360.0 (it is represented in degrees).
Begin Time Spinner
This spinner specifies where in the animation the current rotation should begin at
(in milliseconds). For example, if this value is 0, then this rotation will begin
when the animation starts. If this value is 1000, then this rotation begins
1 second into the animation. The spinner range is from 0 to the value of the
End Time Spinner - 1.
End Time Spinner
This spinner specifies where in the animation the current rotation should end at
(in milliseconds). For example, if this value is 1000, the rotation will finish
at 1 second into the animation. If the value is 2000, the rotation will finish
at 2 seconds into the animation. The spinner range is from the value of the Begin
Time Spinner + 1 to an arbitrarily large number.
Rotation Axis Dropdown Menu
This dropdown menu is used to specify which bone will act as the axis for this
rotation. During the animation, as the bone changes, the axis will change for the
rotation accordingly. The menu contains a list of all bones specified by the
loaded skeleton file.
Rotation Center Dropdown Menu
This dropdown menu is used to specify where the center of rotation will be for
the current rotation. This is in the form of a joint. As the joint moves during
the animation, so will the center of rotation for this rotation. The menu contains
a list of all the joints specified by the loaded skeleton file.
Animate! Button
This button will only work if the Use current animation checkbox is selected.
If it is selected, then this button will animate the skeleton with the animation
currently being edited. The animation will begin at the point specified by the
Begin Time spinner. NOTE: the rotation currently being edited will NOT be
included in the animation, because it is not technically a part of the animation
yet. When the Use current animation checkbox is selected, presing this button is
the same as pressing the Animate! button from the
Animation Rollout.
Fully Animate! Button
Like the Animate! button, this button only works if the Use current animation
checkbox is slected. If it is selected, then this button will fully animate the
skeleton with the animation currently being edited. The animation will begin at
the start of the animation. NOTE: the rotation currently being edited will NOT
be included in the animation, because it is not technically a part of the animation
yet.
Bones Rollout
This rollout contains a list of all the bones specified by the loaded skeleton file
with a checkbox. If the checkbox is selected beside a particular bone, then that
bone will be included in the rotation currently being edited, otherwise it will not
be included.