Get Started with Movie Scenes
The Movie Scene Tool of ANIMOIDS is where you use existing Sets, Characters, Props, Behaviors, Sounds and Textures and put them together to form a scene for your movie.

During a Movie Scene you can change the shape, size, position, color and texture of your Animoids. You can change the background of your Scene and also start and stop Behaviors.

ANIMOIDS doesn't yet allow you to join Movie Scenes together to form a complete animated movie. But that's on it's way!

In the meantime, you can have fun recording sophisticated movie scenes - as long as you have lots of RAM and a fast PC! (Since you can add lots of stuff to a Movie Scene you can use up a lot of RAM and need a fast CPU to make it display well.)

Clicking the Movie Scene tab in the main tab bar starts the Movie Scene Tool:

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.

Loading Movie Scenes and Sets
When the Movie Scene Tool starts, it automatically re-opens the last scene you edited.

To load a different Movie Scene:   select File, Open from the Main Menu then select Movie Scene from the Select File Type Dialog. Click on a Scene from the Choose Movie Scene window that appears.

If you try to leave the current Movie Scene and it has been changed, you will be prompted to see if you want to save your changes.

New Movie Scene
To create a new Movie Scene, select File, New from the main menu, or click the New File icon:

A dialog will open to let you choose the Movie Set for your Scene:

Although you can add Characters and Props to your movie scene after the Set is loaded, it's often convenient to have the Characters and Props as part of the Set.

Movie Scene Control
The SCENE Control Panel opens automatically when the Movie Scene Tool is selected:

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

The SCENE Control Panel controls both playback and recording of scene actions. (A scene action might load an Animoid or change the shape or position of an existing Animoid.)

• The Reset button reloads the Set to reposition the Scene at the beginning.
• The Play button starts the scene clock running and starts replaying previously recorded actions.
• The Pause/Resume/Start Clock button stops the scene clock. (It does not affect either Play or Record modes.)
• The Record button starts recording any actions you perform on the Scene.
• The Duration field determines when the play clock should stop.
• The Speed list allows you to Play or Record faster or slower than real time.
• The Time slider changes the time of the play clock - the value of which is shown in the adjacent text field.
• The Frame rate list allows you to specify a minimum frame rate for playback. If your computer can't keep up with this frame rate in real time then the playback will occur slower than real time.
• The Real time checkbox disables the Frame rate option and forces the playback to run at real clock speed.

You can Record and Play at the same time. You can also record while paused!

You'll often find it easiest to move the time slider to a specific time and the click Record then Resume to start recording new actions at that time. However, you can also record while playing if you need to coordinate a new action with a previously recorded action.

Recording while the clock is stopped is very useful if you need a long series of actions to occur at essentially the same time, or if you need any action to occur at a well know time.

When the Record button is red, recording is in progress. Any actions from the Action Panel, the Options Panel, from any Control Panel or from the application menu will be recorded.

Most actions are disabled when the Record button is not red.

Tip: When recording is in progress, you can discard a batch of changes by Right clicking on the Record button. (I.e. use your Right mouse button.) You'll still need to manually click the Reset button to restore the original configuration.

If you have a Scene with lots of heavy computation, you'll find that selecting a minimum Frame rate will allow you to view parts of the Scene that can't draw fast enough for real time playing.

If you are trying to synchronize sounds with other actions in your Scene: check the Real time checkbox and set play back Speed to 1x. Although sounds are started by the play clock - once started the sound always runs in real time. So, if the rest of the actions are not running in real time, the sounds may get out of step with those other actions.

If your computer can't keep up with the 5 frame per second setting (i.e. actions appear to run in slow motion) then try switching to the 1 frame per second setting.

Important: when you start a Movie Scene or click the Reset button, all actions recorded at time zero are performed. This allows you to fine tune your Movie Set for the start of the Scene. (E.g. you can reposition characters, resize them or perform any other recordable action.)

Playback Window
When you click the Play button at the start of a Scene (and the Record button has not been selected) then the Scene will play back in a special Synchronized Mode.

This Synchronized Mode is the most efficient way to play a Scene. It should result in the fastest and smoothest playback.

In Synchronized Mode a small Playback Window appears over the SCENE Control Panel:

This window contains only one button - a yellow Pause Button.

In Synchronized Mode all controls are disabled except for the Pause Button in the Playback Window.

If this Pause Button is clicked, the Scene pauses and the Playback Window closes - allowing other controls to be selected.

If you Resume a paused Scene the Scene will not re-enter Synchronized Mode. Synchronized Mode is effective only if the Scene is started from the beginning.

View Edit Scene Actions
The VIEW ACTIONS Control Panel allows you to view a list of previously recorded actions. It also allows you to delete or move any or all of those actions.

You'll often want to drag the bar at the left side of this panel so that you can resize the control to better see the content.

Note that the content of the panel is gray when there are no values in the table.

The pulldown list at the top of the panel (--- all objects ---) allows you to restrict the list to actions for a specific Animoid.

• Go: If you select a record from the table then click the Go button: the scene clock will jump to that time. (This works even if the Scene is playing.)

• Delete: If you select one or more actions from the table then click Delete: you will delete the selected actions from the Scene. (However, you can't delete when the Scene is playing.)

• Move: If you select one or more actions from the table then click Move: you can move the time of the selected records back or forward by specifying a number of milliseconds
  (1000 milliseconds (msec) = 1 second).
  A negative number moves back in time.
  (Be careful not to move smoothed actions out of sequence.)

The Time column shows data in milliseconds.

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

Smooth Motion
You can obtain smooth Animoid motion in a Movie Scene either by using a Behavior that has a velocity setup with the Behavior's Edit Velocity action, or by specifying a series of positions over time and applying a smoothing function to those positions.

This section describes the tool for smoothing a set of position/time measurements.

You first create a set of position/time measurements by selecting the SCENE Control Panel's Record button, then by moving an Animoid with your three mouse buttons while you use the Panel's Time slider to set the time points. (You must also press the Record button again at the end of recording to complete the process.)

Select the Smooth Object Motion action:

This will open the SMOOTH Control Panel:

This Control Panel lists previously created object position actions. (Actions that were created by moving the target object with the mouse while the Scene was in Record mode.)

By using the Smooth button on this control panel or by clicking the individual Start and End checkboxes in the action list, you can link actions so that the Movie Scene smoothly interpolates the object position between the actions.

The Smooth column in the action table tells whether an action is at the start, middle or end of a smoothed block, or whether it is not part of a smoothed block.

You may often want to link all actions in one scene into a smoothed block. However, other times you may not want to move smoothly between all positions - you may want an object to move smoothly for part of your scene, suddenly jump to a new position, then move smoothly again.

The Go button simply moves the clock to the time of the selected record. (It does not play the scene to that time, so characters don't move to the position they would have at that time if the scene was playing.)

The Delete button removes actions selected from the table.

Note that you get smoother motion in a Scene when there are fewer actions that fix the position of the character. So, use the Delete button to get rid of actions that you don't really need.

As you select different Animoids in your Scene by clicking on them the contents of the action table in the SMOOTH Control Panel changes to display the data for the selected Animoid.

If your Smoothed Movie Scene contains Behaviors that have a velocity setup via the Behavior's Edit Velocity action, then the velocity component of the Behavior will be ignored and the smooth interpolation of the Scene will control the Animoid's position over time. For any portions of the Scene that do not smooth the motion of the Animoid in question, the Animoid's Behavior's velocity component will reposition the Animoid.

The Smooth Camera Motion action opens the same SMOOTH Control Panel. However, it displays data for smoothing Camera position.

There are several Camera position actions that must be smoothed separately. A pulldown list at the top of the SMOOTH Control Panel appears when in Camera mode. This list allows you to select the type of action you want to smooth.

In Camera mode, actions created by moving sliders on the CAMERA Control Panel cannot be smoothed immediately. They must first be run by playing the Scene. The process of running the Scene converts the actions into actions that can be smoothed.

Step by step example - creating your first Movie Scene
Take the following steps to record your first movie scene. (This assumes you have just clicked the Movie Scene button.)

• Select File, New to start a new object.
• Select Movie Scene to start a new Scene.
• On the Choose Set Dialog that opens, select the Set you want to use for your Scene by single clicking on the Set's icon or name.
  The Set will load and you'll have the background (if any) and characters and props from the set visible.
• Click the Record button - it will turn red.
• Move characters and props to the positions required for the start of the scene. (You can also perform any other actions like resizing characters or adding new characters.)
• Click the Start Clock button to start the clock. (Or move the Time slider manually to give you better control of the times at which you change the position.)
• Move characters and props and perform any other actions as required for your scene. (You might want to concentrate on one character at a time. You can repeat this process later to control other characters.)
• Click the red Record button to stop recording.
• If you are happy with your scene, use File Save to save it.
• If you want to remove some of the actions from your scene, select the View Actions action from the Action Panel. Then, when the VIEW ACTIONS panel opens, highlight actions you want removed from the table and click Delete
• To add more actions, move the time slider to the desired time, then click Record to start recording more actions...

• Click the Reset button on the SCENE control panel (to reposition the scene at the start).
• Click the Play button on the SCENE control panel to start playing your previously recorded actions.

You can also work through a more complete step by step movie scene example in the Conductor Step by Step Example tutorial.

Hints

• Set the "set rotation" at the start of the scene. You never know what other users will have for default.
• Make sure you don't use an "untitled" Set. (Which can happen if you don't go through the step of assigning a Set to your Scene.) If you use an untitled Set you can't upload your Scene for contest entry. (Also, the actual Set that appears will change depending upon which Set you used the last time you edited a Set in the Set Designer section of ANIMOIDS.)
• A sound recorded at time 0.0 will play when the Scene is loaded or Reset. (I.e. before the Scene starts to play.)
• To have a sound start when the Play button is pressed: record the sound shortly after time 0.0. E.g. at time 0.100 (100 milliseconds).

More
Go to the start of the Tutorial.

Try the QuickTime Movie tutorial.