Get Started with Movie Sets
A Movie Set forms the background for a scene of a movie. The goal of a Movie Set within ANIMOIDS is to make it easy to position Props (and Characters) so that they are easily used in an ANIMOIDS Movie Scene.

This Movie Sets Tool is designed for advanced users. Other users might simply use pre-existing Movie Sets in their movies.

In previous tutorials we used the Characters and Props Tool to edit individual Animoids and the Behaviors Tool to create reusable behaviors for the Animoids. In this tutorial we'll use the Movie Sets Tool to load, edit and save Movie Sets.

The Movie Sets Tool is started by pressing the Set Designer 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.

Loading Sets, Characters, Props and Behaviors
A Movie Set allows you to position a number of Characters and Props (Animoids) on the screen and optionally assign Behaviors to those Characters and Props.

To load an existing Movie Set: select File, Open from the Main Menu then select Movie Scene from the Select File Type Dialog. Single click on the desired Scene from the list that appears.

You can add a new Animoid by clicking the Moid button     and selecting an Animoid from the list that appears.

Remove an Animoid from the Set by using the Edit, Cut command (CTRL-X) or by selecting the Animoid to remove then clicking the (Remove) Moid button:

You can start a Behavior on the currently selected Animoid by clicking     and selecting a Behavior from the list that appears.

Remove all Behaviors from the currently selected Animoid by clicking the (Remove) Behav button:

Save any changes to the current Movie Set by selecting the File, Save menu item or the File Save icon:

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

Editing a Movie Set
Editing a Movie Set basically consists of positioning the objects on the Set. That work is typically done using your mouse.

Make sure the Move Animoid with Mouse button has a green border (if not, click it)

then click and drag any Animoid object to move it:

• Left click and drag to rotate the object.
• Right click and drag to move the object side to side, up and down.
• Center click and drag to move the object back and forward.

A new Movie Set neeeds to be be populated with at least one Animoid. When you start a new Set the Choose Animoid dialog will open to let you choose the first Animoid in your Set.

Just click the desired Animoid from the list.

If you later decide you don't want that Animoid in your set then add a different Animoid then delete the original one with the Edit, Cut command.

(You must keep at least one Animoid in your Set.)

Background
You can change the color of the background of a Movie Set or you can use an Image or Texture file for the background.

Use the following actions from your Action Panel in the Movie Set Actions group:

• Set Background Image - to select an Image (.gif or .jpeg) file for the background.

  Note that this Image may hide any color previously selected for the background.

• Set Background Texture - to select an Animoids Texture file (combination of Image and Color) for the background.

• Set Background Layout - to determine where the image is painted on your 3D canvas.

  After selecting this option, use the Scale pulldown list on the BACKGROUND Control Panel to actually make the selection.

• Set Background Color - to determine the background color when there is no image or an image that does not cover the entire 3D canvas.

More
Go to the start of the Tutorial.

Try the Movie Scene tutorial.