Keyframers make dolly pans and intricate action in cinematics and ingame poissible.
"I want a drop ship to fly through the sky and chase after a
predator ship. I want it to shoot missiles, I want it to look amazing"
Everybody want to make things look cool. The best way to do it in Dedit
is with a Keyframe. You basically create a brush, bind it to a door
object. You then attach the model in the door's attachment field, and
use the Keyframer to move this door object and everything attached to it
through the keyframer's path.
.
The two impoortants for a Keyframer to work is the
KEYFRAMER Object, and the individual keys which are placed to set the
path on the map. There are some basic rules that you can follow that
will help you keep track of your work. Place the Keyframer at the start
of your objects motion path.
Lets look at some of these fields in the properties tab for the keyframer. The big ones are;
OBJECT NAME; this is the name of the door object we are
using. It may be visible and textured, or it may be invisible with an
.abc model in its attachment field
BASE KEY NAME; This is the name of your first key minus
the numbering. In our case it is movera, and the first key will be
named movera0. pretty straight forward, but this is where most the
errors happen. Keyframers are finnicking about being exactly set up
with consistent names and numbering.
Most of the other things are self explanatory. START ACTIVE
LOOPING, all situation specific. If you have read the other
tutorials then you are already familiar with these and I don't need to
re explain them.
Now lets add some keys.
Lets add some keys the keys will define the path your
keyframed object will follow. The key defaults to the name key0, change
the name to your basekeyname, and if you copy/paste, you'll get a
sequential list of keys that will only need a small adjustment in
naming.In the Nodes window add a new container and name it moverstuff or
what ever you named BaseKeyName set it as your active node, and then
add your first key in the same place as your under your KeyFRAMER
Let recap cause this stuff can get messy.
Name your first key your BaseKeyName. Something short,
and unique, in case you decide to have more than one keyframer you wont
get confused. Place your second key where ever you like a short
distance away. Note for you keyframer path to work numbering is
important. If your numbers at the end of name are not double digit
(apart from the 0) it will not work, therefore lets look at the syntax.
Quick note on the Keyframer syntax?
Keyframe Key syntax
Some simple rules, more to help the engine have a standard pattern of numeration to interpret for a working framer:
Base Key name: "movera"
Keys in order of 0 to 22
"movera0"
"movera01"
"movera02"
...
"movera21"
"movera22"
Always start with a "0" for the first key, and put a 0 in
front of the number 1, so 01, 02, .... guarantees a numeric consistency
when you are under 10. If you think you will hit a 100+ keys (though
there is no reason why you would have that many, you could adapt the
numbers) but don't do it.
NOW if you go into the node tree and rightclick on the
keyframer, mine here is named moverframer, you get the option to set
path. This gives you the visual representation of the path in the floor
view.
When you go to your node window and highlight your node
with your keys in RMB and setpath this will give you a visual
representation of your path highlighted in yellow. You now have the
option to adjust the curve of the motion at any of these points.
Each Key has a BezierPrev and a BezierNext field.
You can alter that path route by being in object editing
mode (Ctrl+h) then holding down LMB+P this on alter the path between
this node. You simple press P and move your LMB over the key and one
of two arrows indicating prev brezier and next brezier will create a
tangential arm with an arrow on it. Move it around as you want. If
you can't get the arms, place a value in the brezier field to get you
started. vectors of (1 1 1) will work.
KEYFRAMERS are influenced by time
Keyframers are about time and distance. You are moving an
object, usually a door or transluscentWorld Model over a distance over
a period of time. The keys set the distance. The time can be set two
ways.
Each individual key has a TIMESTAMP option, the amount of
seconds you place in there is the time it takes to get to this key from
the previous key. You can punch in a value of 4.00 seconds. Using this
method gives you more control on setting a Keyframe time.
The other option is to set the overall time of the entire
keyframer in the Waveform sub menu. you can set total length time the
keyframer takes to travel the total length of the path.
Two options, appropriate for different situations. Practice will figure out which is appropriate.
MESSAGING
The last big thing Keyframers can do is , send a message
when the keyframed object gets to that particular key. So if for
exmaple you have a plane flying thorugh the air with your keyframer ,
and now you set the brevier curve to send it hurtling into the ground,
the key that is just at the point of impact could send a message when it
gets there to trigger an explosion. You got to love this stuff. I
think you get the idea. It is quite versatile.
Keyframers are used in the CINEMATIC TRIGGER as well, though instead of moving an object it moves the camera that is created. The same basic rules apply.