3D Animation Concepts CS0007 George Novacky

Overview Creating a new world (slides 5 – 13) Remembering camera position (slides )

Traditional Problem Solving in CS Read and understand a problem or task specification Design a solution (develop an algorithm) Implement (code) Test Revise, as needed

Problem Solving in Alice Read and understand a scenario – tell a story, play a game, carry out a task. A princess has been grounded by her father (a wizard) and kept inside the castle. Being a rather rebellious princess, she has ed the local dragon taxi service. The dragon will fly to the princess and she will climb aboard the dragon to escape from the castle – to meet some friends at the village dance club.

Problem Solving in Alice Set up the initial scene in a new world Learning to set up a scene has a learning curve -- play with the scene editor an hour or so! The princess example Setting up the initial scene

Select Template

Add Objects Click on Add Objects button Toggles from code editor to scene editor

Scene Editor Add objects to the world Two options Drag and drop Click on thumbnail; then click on Add Instance button

Position & Orientation Objects are positioned in 3-D space have a sense of orientation have six degrees of movement (directions of movement)

Mouse Control Toolkit To reposition objects in the world, use the buttons in the mouse control toolkit

Pull-down menu methods Alternative technique for positioning object and subparts during scene setup.

Quad View – Relative Positioning

Empty quad view pane? Scroll & Zoom controls can be used (usually) to reorient the camera view.

Controlling the camera Not a part of programming concepts instruction However, it is helpful because Moving the camera during initial scene setup can be disorienting It is fun to manipulate the camera

Using a Dummy Marker during initial scene setup Typically used for: Positioning large and small objects in a scene Remembering camera positions for multiple scenes Remembering where a “good” camera position is

Example Giving the knight a sword

Dropping a dummy marker: Step 1 In the scene editor, click on the More controls button (right hand side)

Dropping a dummy marker: Step 2 Click on the Drop Dummy at Camera button.

Rename Dummy Marker In the Object Tree, rename the Dummy object to a more meaningful name, such as originalPosition (not required, but very useful!)

Using a dummy marker To return the camera to its original position, during scene setup Pull-down the menu for on the move camera to dummy button and select the originalPosition dummy marker.

Save the world This is the world that we will use in continuing presentations in this class.