Get Started with Behaviors
The goal of a Behavior is to record a sequence of actions that you can replay within an animated movie.

In previous tutorials we used the Characters and Props area to edit individual Animoids. In this tutorial we'll use the Behaviors Tool to load, edit and save Behaviors.

The Behaviors Tool is started by pressing the Behaviors tab in the main tab panel:

The layout is identical to that for the Characters and Props Tool. However, some of the controls available are new. The new controls will be described below.

Behavior Control
When the Behaviors area starts, it automatically re-opens the last behavior you edited.

The BEHAVIOR Control Panel opens automatically:

There are two views of the Behavior Control panel - selected with the Time and Steps tabs. The above is the default Timeline view. In the timeline view, the steps are positioned to show the time they start.

The next picture shows the traditional Steps view. In this view, you simply select a step using a slider.

If you ever lose this Control Panel you can reopen it from the Action Panel with the Edit Behavior action:

The > button to the right of the timeline is used to widen the panel. Behaviors with lots of steps can look cluttered with the standard sized panel.

Loading Behaviors and Animoids
A Behavior is not necessarily specific to any one Animoid. That is, once you create a Behavior you can try to use it with any Animoid.

For the purpose of editing a Behavior we require you to select an Animoid. But that's merely a convenience, and you can easily change the Animoid while you edit the Behavior.

Load a Behavior by selecting File, Open... from the Main Menu. Then select Behavior from the Select File Type window and choose a Behavior from the list that appears.

You can change the Animoid used by a Behavior by clicking the (Switch to) Moid button . Choose the new Animoid from the list that appears.

Note that any changes you make in the Behaviors Tool will not change the Animoid that is currently in use. In this Tool, changes affect only Behaviors.

You can save any changes to the current Behavior by selecting the File, Save menu item or the File Save icon:

If you try to leave the current Behavior and it has been changed, you will be asked if you want to save your changes.

Running a Behavior
Assuming that the steps in your Behavior have been setup, just click the Run button on the BEHAVIOR Control Panel.

Until all the steps of your Behavior have been setup, the Behavior will not run - a warning will be displayed (Can't run - the behavior is not setup yet) if you try to run it.

When running, the text on the Run will change to Stop. Click the Stop button to stop the Behavior. (Then Reset to get the Behavior ready to run again.)

If the Loop checkbox is selected (the default) then the Behavior runs forever. At the end of one loop the Behavior immediately restarts.

If the Loop checkbox is not checked the Behavior stops after completing one loop.

Since Behaviors are designed to be run in Movie Scenes , it's up to you to decide whether a particular Behavior should run forever (or until stopped by some other action) or whether it would be most useful if it runs only once each time it's started.

It's fun to change the speed of the Behavior while it's running - try changing the number in the Sec/Cycle field. This determines how many seconds it takes to complete one cycle of the behavior. You can enter decimal numbers (e.g. 1.5) as well as integers (e.g. 2).

Note: if you make the Sec/Cycle number very large (say > 50) the behavior might be so slow that you don't see any significant motion.

When ANIMOIDS runs a Behavior, it interpolates between the steps you define when you create the behavior - so the motion seems smooth. (If it's a looping behavior, it also interpolates between the last and first step.)

New Behavior
To creating a new Behavior select File, New from the main menu, or click the New File icon:

A new Dialog will appear to help you to choose the Animoid to use for the new Behavior.

Just click on the desired Animoid to select it for your Behavior. (You can still change the Animoid later by selecting one from the Local Animoids folder in the Control Panel.)

When creating a new Behavior you can declare the number of steps you want for your Behavior. Enter a value in the Steps field of the BEHAVIOR Control Panel (then hit your Enter key to complete the procedure).

However, you can change the number of steps at any later time by using the Duplicate step button to create a duplicate of the currently selected step, or by using the Delete step button to delete the currently selected step.

The default number of steps is 5. But Behaviors with as few as 2 steps can be quite useful. The fewer steps you have the less editing you'll need to do!

Note: the Run button won't do anything useful until you have set values for all steps of your behavior.

Editing Individual Steps
Before most of the controls become enabled for editing you need to click the Record     button until it's background turns red. At that point the edit controls become usable.

You select the individual steps of your Behavior by sliding the Step slider or clicking on icons on the Time timeline or by clicking the Step     button.

After you have selected a step for editing, you edit the step by using the following:

• The Branch button   to move branches of your Animoid.

• The Segment button   to rotate Segments of your Animoid.

• The advanced Velocity actions.

• Sound actions described in the next tutorial.

Edit Step Times
The steps created for a new Behavior are equally spaced in time. However, if you need to fine tune your Behavior you may need to change the time of the steps.

To do this, first select the step you want to modify, then simply enter a time in the Step time field of the Behavior Control Panel.

You can also change the time of the currently selected Step by clicking the green Step icon on the timeline and dragging it to a new time. (This works only when the Behavior is not running.)

Edit Velocity
Adding a velocity to a Behavior is an advanced option. You are not likely to use this for many of your Behaviors.

Say you create a Behavior that makes a character appear to climb a set of stairs. In addition to the arm and leg movements that repeat themselves every cycle of the Behavior, you might also like the character's position change over time. In this case the character would probably go forward and up.

That change in position over time (i.e. velocity) can be setup by this Edit Velocity action.

Note that you can also move a character smoothly using the Smooth Object Motion action of a Movie Scene. So you need to decide what solution is best for you. If you want a Movie Scene where you control your characters with actions like walk forward or turn left, then use Behaviors. However, if you want to control your characters by setting a series of positions and times, then use Movie Scene Smoothing.

Select the Edit Velocity action in the Action Panel

to open the BEHAVIOR MOTION Control Panel:

This panel allows you to specify a steady velocity that applies as long as the Behavior is running.

Most times you measure velocity in miles per hour or meters per second, etc. In our case we are going to measure it in meters per cycle or degrees per cycle. Where cycle is the duration of one cycle of the Behavior.

The Forward/back, Up/down and Left/Right m (meters) fields allow you to specify a linear velocity. (Motion in a straight line.) Note: the reference direction for these motions assumes that the Animoid faces "forward" when it is first opened in the default camera position.

The Roll, Up/down and Left/Right deg (degrees) fields allow you to specify an angular velocity (a rotation).

Enter data in the fields and click Apply to see the effect on your Animoid. (Assuming that the Behavior is running.)

Be careful - velocities of not much more than 0.1 meters/second can make your Animoid disappear pretty quickly off screen. And 20 deg/sec is a pretty fast roll.

If your Animoid disappears, the Find Animoid button can be used to reposition it back at the origin so that you can see it again!

Since a non-zero velocity can make your Behavior difficult to edit (since the Animoid keeps disappearing!) - you might want to complete normal Behavior step editing before you apply your velocity.

Note: the velocity set in a Behavior is relative to the current orientation of your Animoid. E.g. if a behavior sets a forward velocity and your Animoid is facing right: it will travel to the right. However, if you then turn the Animoid facing left, the same Behavior will move the Animoid to the left.

Summary
In summary, you might typically cycle through the following steps to edit a Behavior

• Load the required behavior.
  • Make sure the Record button is red.
  • Select a step to edit from the timeline.
  • Use the Segment or Branch buttons to reposition segments.
  • Run the Behavior to see what it looks like.
  • Use the CAMERA Control Panel to look from different angles.
• Save the changes using File Save.

Reminder - save good changes often - undo (CTRL-Z) is not supported for all actions!

More
Go to the start of the Tutorial.

Try the Sound tutorial.