Get Ready
The Move Point options are available to users who select Skill Level of Intermediate or higher.

The Move Points tutorial expects you to be able to select and position a segment of an Animoid as described in the Basic Motion tutorial. So if you can't remember how to select an Animoid and move a segment where you can clearly see it then go back to that section for a reminder!

When you edit points on an Animoid you work with one segment at a time.

Before you select and move points on a segment it's frequently useful (or necessary) to hide the segments you don't want to see. You also typically want to see the points on the segment - as opposed to the solid surface of the segment. The next two subsections describe that process.

What's the Point?
I.e. what does it mean to move a Point?

The solid surface that makes up the Segments of an Animod is built up of small triangles. You can see those triangles when you view a segment in Wireframe mode.

The Points (or more correctly Node Points) we refer to in this tutorial are the corner points of those triangles.

In most cases one point will be part of six triangles. (You can see that from the images below.) But some points may be part of many more or less triangles.

Moving one point will change the size and orientation of the triangles connected to that point. The smooth surface that is formed by those triangles will also change.

Hide a Segment
You have two options if you want to hide some segments of an Animoid. You can hide segments one by one by clicking on them or you can chose to hide all segments except the one you pick (click on).

In both cases you need to setup the action you want to perform on the pick. Both setup actions are available directly from the Action Tree:

The above picture shows the three related actions:

• Hide Segment On Pick
• Hide Others On Pick
• Show All Segments

Now, if you start clicking on the arms and legs of your Animoid they will start to disappear!

When you are ready to see all segments again you'll need to click on the Show All Segments action in the Action Panel.

Next try selecting (clicking) the Hide Others On Pick action. You'll immediately see the Action on new Pick field change to: hide others.

Now, if you click on an arms or leg of your Animoid, everything except the segment you click on will disappear!

Again, when you are ready to see all segments, you'll need to click on the Show All Segments action in the Action Panel.

Reminder: Although you can pick segments by clicking on them, you can also pick them by selecting them from the Selected Target pulldown list. Sometimes that list is easier to select - especially if the segment you need is hidden by others.

Wireframe Mode
The Segment Controls folder of the Action Panel shown above lists three options that can change the display mode of one or more segments. They are:

• Set Wireframe
• Set Solid
• Show All Segments

Select Set Wireframe then click on a segment - you'll see the red framework of nodes that form the structure of the selected segment.

However, if you really wanted to work on this lowerBack segment, you might want to hide all other segments (as described above) and then zoom in on the selected segment to get a clearer picture of it's detail. It might then look like:

Pick Points
In the tutorials leading up to this you have frequently had to pick a segment. Now we are going to pick individual nodes on a segment. (You can manipulate nodes on one segment at any one time.)

The portion of the Action Panel of interest here is the Point Controls folder. In this folder select Pick Point (or Move Point).

Now you can start clicking on the wireframe segment you setup earlier in this tutorial. As you click on nodes (intersection points) in the frame they will display as little balls.

• Blue balls for a normal (left) click are nodes you can move.
• Yellow balls for a right click are reference nodes that don't move.

Some selected points might look like:

As you learn to move points (in the next sub-section) you'll probably find that it's often convenient to have some fixed (selected yellow) points for reference as you move the blue selected points.

Note that the Show All Segments action described above will remove all selected points.

You can also clear any picked points by clicking the Clear icon located just above the 3D Canvas.

Move Points - Control
You can choose to move points either using the MOVE POINT Control Panel, by dragging a point with your mouse or by manual editing.

This sub-section deals with using the MOVE POINT Control Panel. The next sub-section deals with using your mouse.

For manual, single point editing see Manual Editing of Texture Coordinates and Node Points .

When you selected either the Pick Point or Move Point action from the Action Panel the MOVE POINT Control will appear:

After you have selected some moveable points (blue balls) on your segment you can use this control to move them.

Since the points can move in three dimensions and you can only see two dimensions at any one time you'll find you need to frequently use the CAMERA Control to reposition your segment to see what adjustment you have made to your points.

After selecting one or more points to move, you move them as follows:

1. Adjust the three (center zero) Normal, Axial and Radial sliders to determine the size of the move.
2. Click the Apply button to apply the adjustment.
3. Keep clicking on the Apply button to apply the adjustment again and again.

You can adjust the sliders either by moving them with your mouse or by entering numeric values into the text fields at the end of each slider.

Every Animoid Segment has (or at least starts off with) a long axis. The three motion sliders are all relative to that long axis:

• Normal for motions normal to the long axis. (Changes the thickness of the segment.)
• Axial for motions up and down the long axis of the segment.
• Radial for sideways motions relative to the long axis of the segment. (Around a circle of constant radius.)

(You are often much safer making lots of small adjustments rather than one big one.)

If those descriptions don't help you much then the best bet is to just try moving a point and see what happens!

Until you are more sure of what you are doing, it's strongly recommended that you adjust only one of the three motion sliders at one time - keep the other two central on the zero mark.

You'll find that, as you make small changes, you'll end up changing from wireframe to solid as well as using the CAMERA Control to see your changes from different angles.

The colored text field to the right of the Apply button shows how many points have been picked. (Remember that you can move points on only one segment at one time!)

Reminder undo is not supported for all actions! Save good changes often by selecting File, Save from the main menu, or just click on the file save icon:

If you make a change you don't want, you might need to reload the previously saved Animoid.

Move Points - with your Mouse
Click the Node Point icon     on the MOVE POINT Control Panel or the Point     icon above the 3D Canvas to enable moving points with your mouse.

Once selected, the icon above the 3D Canvas will show a green border to indicate it is currently selected. (However, the icon in the Control Panel will not change.)

You continue to pick points as described earlier in this tutorial. However, by clicking and dragging your mouse on the 3D Canvas you can move the selected points.

Note: once the points are selected, you don't need to click on them to start dragging the mouse. Click anywhere on the 3D canvas and then drag - the point motion will be relative to where you started to drag your mouse.

The directions for dragging with the mouse are identical to the three axes described above:

• The left mouse button can rotate Points about the long axis of the Segment by dragging the mouse left and right.

• The left mouse button can move Points up and down the long axis of the Segment by dragging the mouse up and down.

• Selecting the right mouse button and dragging the mouse up and down will move points away from or towards the long axis of the Segment. (Use the ALT key along with the left mouse button if you don't have a center button.)

Edit Segment Points
Action Edit Segment Points is a convenience action that does several things that are useful for editing points. If you select a Segment then select this action:

• All other Segments are hidden.
• The Segment is displayed in it's wireframe mode.
• Top and Side views are enabled.
• The mouse is changed to Move Point mode.

More
Go to the start of the Tutorial.

Try the Add Points tutorial.