/\/\|GGYBYTE Imagine Tutorial ** Part 2/4 ** Forms Editor, Cycle Editor Animation, Stage Editor and Action Editor By Rasta Billy Skank Forms Editor I was working in the forms editor on an object, and loaded it into the detail editor for modification. However, I can't seem to be able to get it back into the forms editor! Help! Simply put, you cannot load objects saved from the detail editor back into the forms editor. The reason is the forms editor requires a specified object structure which the detail does not. Thus, saving an object in the detail editor loses that information. When you work with the forms editor is recommended that you keep a spare copy of the FORMS OBJECT saved separately from any detail object. In this way you can then go back and make modifications in the forms editor. Cycle Editor I made this really great animation sequence in the cycle editor, but when I set it up in the stage/action editors, the motion of the overall object isn't there! When using the cycle editor, Imagine only remembers changes in size, position, and so on in relation to the main parent. Thus, if you make a change to the parent object, it gets forgotten. What this means is if you make a nifty robot jumping cycle, and make it in the cycle editor so the robot actually move up etc... all that will be remembered is the changes to the legs, arms and anything OFF of the PARENT. The overall rotations and movements to the main object will be gone. Two solutions exist. One is to simply make those changes in the stage editor each time you need to. The second is to group a plain axis before you start to your object. (ie: Make the parent have a Null link). Then, you can rotate everything by rotating the main child grouped right under this null axis. This way you aren't moving the "parent", and everything will be remembered. Animation, Stage Editor and Action Editor Even though I move an Object/Camera/Light to a new POSITION/ALIGNMENT/SIZE in the STAGE editor, Imagine seems to 'forget' what I did! All objects must have timeliness split wherever there is a change in position, alignment or size. If you do not set this up, Imagine will forget the changes no matter what. Rather than going back and forth to the ACTION editor and adding , you can have Imagine automatically create the properly so everything tweens as normal. There are the "Position Bar", "Alignment Bar" and "Size Bar" commands under the OBJECT menu in the STAGE editor. So, if you have just gone to a frame and are making a new POSITION, ALIGNMENT or SIZE for an object (or camera or light) to tween to, press RIGHT AMIGA and 7/8/9 respectively. Or use the respective bar commands >from the OBJECT menu. This will extend or put a 'split' in the timeline for you (you can check this in the ACTION editor). Also, don't forget to "Save Changes"if you want to keep the motion! How do I use the Grow Effect? To use the grow effect, create an object in the DETAIL editor that you wish to have 'extrude' over time. Create a spline path as normal in the detail editor. This will be the path the object extrudes along during the animation. GROUP (not join) the object with the PATH AS THE PARENT. If you do not make the path the parent, it will not work. To do this, select the path, then hold shift and select the object, then select group. Save your GROUP for loading in the animation. Finally, add the effect in the ACTION editor for the grouped object. How do I use the Tumble Effect? The tumble effect is used to tumble 1 or more objects during an animation. To tumble an object, create your object or objects in the DETAIL editor. Still in the detail editor add an axis. Group (not join) the AXIS to all the objects you want to tumble with the AXIS AS THE PARENT. Then load the GROUP into the STAGE/ACTION editor and add the effect as normal. NOTE: The reason for the null object (axis) as parent is that Imagine does not TUMBLE the PARENT, just the children. How do you get something to roll (at the right speed!) while following a path? Getting an object to spin (like a plane doing a barrel roll) is easy- you align to path, then set Y rotation to be from 0 to 360 and it will do a complete spin. This is not in the right direction for a rolling ball, though. [Annoying feature- you can't say from 0 to 720 for two spins, or 0 to 3600 for ten.] To get it to roll I created a second path, which was basically a larger copy of the first, so the first path was just inside of the second path. I had an axis (a track) follow this new, outside path, then used "align to object" to make the sphere point to the axis. Thus, as the ball moved along its path, one end (the positive Y axis direction) was always pointed at right angles to the direction of motion. Is this clear? Now using the "initial Y angle" and "final Y angle" I set them to 0 and 360 and it rotated as it rolled. As a special effect, I raised the "track path" a little in the Z direction so the sphere looks a little bit like a top rolling around, since the spin axis was not horizontal any more. An alternative would be to make a cycle object, rolling around the X axis. This is equally valid, but I did it this way first. When I move a tracked Camera in the STAGE editor, it doesn't realign and draw the Perspective view correctly! If you have Imagine 2.0 or higher, press RIGHT AMIGA and the K key together, or select "Camera (Re)track" from the OBJECT menu. This will make the camera repoint to the track from the new position and will redraw the perspective view. If you have an older version of Imagine (or if you just want to) you can press RIGHT AMIGA and the C key or select "Goto" from the FRAME menu. Go to the current frame you are already on which will cause imagine to redraw everything. I have found that after creating a scene in the Stage editor, and then deciding that I want an animation and adjusting the highest frame count, my scene gets mangled in the first frame. Why? Well, it seems to me that this will happen if you don't split your channel bar from the first frame (where you want stuff to be exactly) to the second frame. I usually setup my scenes so that I have the first frame all set as it should be and then I do my transformation >from frames 2-whatever. In this way, the first frame is ALWAYS where it's suppose to be no matter what changes I make in the remaining animation. If you look at your channel it should have a break between frames 1 and 2 and then be continuous (if that's the way your animation works out) from 2 on. ===================================================================== This is the end of the second part of my Imagine tutorial, Until next Time We meet Keep On Skankin' ===================================================================== Smoke me a kipper I'll be back for breakfast - Ace Rimmer End ===