The Main concept of the program is to observe the standard conventions of:
All the user actions take place in a cubic volume called the Working-Volume. A 3D Cursor may be placed anywhere inside the Working-Volume by moving it in one or more of the view windows.
The Animator and Designer modules have two main user interface components, Tools and Actions. Tools are appropriate for repeated use and actions are usually applied one at a time. When a tool is activated it stays active until another tool is selected. In the Designer, actions are normally prohibited unless the default tool is in use.
The language of the Animation and Modelling
We use a "Triangular Faceted" model of the objects that are to be animated.
Objects can be anything you like, a car, a plane, a spaceship, a cup, a box of breakfast cereal, a dog or a human figure.
The triangular faces are joined together to form the surface of the models and the more numerous the triangles, the more realistic the representation of the object the model is.
Deciding how many triangles to use in the model is not an exact science. The triangular faces can be given additional attributes such as color and texture to make the models look realistic. They can even have a picture or another animation painted onto them.
The triangular facets (faces of the model) are positioned using a vertex at each corner. Each triangular face is surrounded by three edges. The edges make up a "wireframe" description of the model.
You use the mouse to move the vertices of the model in 3D space and thus change the shape of the model. There are many tools and actions to help you.
The action takes place over a number of 'frames', a movie usually plays 24 frames per second, conventional cartoon animation usually shows 12 different frames per second. A reasonable animation will consist of about 60 frames. But it could stretch to nearly 1000 frames for just one shot!
Models are built inside a cubic region of space called the "Working-Volume". The size and position of the "Working-Volume" is easily changed.
A Keyframer specifies costume, movement, orientation and scale in "Keyframes". Animations are rehearsed in "wireframe" in the Animation module before the drawing is rendered in full color, frame by frame. Each frame may be compressed together into an FLI or FLC animation file.
In an animation the term "Actor" is used to describe each directable element. An Actor can be a "Star" which performs in front of the camera, the Camera from which the animation is viewed, one of a number of lights, or a path along which smooth and accelerated motion is possible.
The "Star" Actors wear a "Costume" which is an model created in the Designer. Actors can change costume during the animation. (This allows model morphing - changes of shape, for example. a fish can turn into a bird).