The Animation Mode Window allows you to create animations and animate models. You can change frame counts and frame rates as well as set skeletal keyframes or frame vertex positions. You can also play animations from this window. Animation playback only works for 3D viewports.
While the Animation Mode Window is open you can use the view window's toolbar to manipulate the model in animation mode. Most selection and manipulation tools work the same as they do in model edit mode, though some (such as the rotate tool in skeletal animation mode) will behave differently.
The behavior of various tools in animation mode is described in the Tools documentation.
The Animation Mode Window has two tabs, one for Skeletal animations and one for Frame animations. The combo box in the tab page will list all of the animations of the animation type for the tab you have selected. All operations (with the exception of the New button) operate on the animation that is named in the combo box.
You can use the frame slider to select the animation frame that you want to view or edit. All viewports on the view window will display the frame of the model you have selected.
You can use the selection tools to select vertices for Frame animations or bone joints for Skeletal animations. You can use the move or rotate tool to change the position or orientation of selected primitives.
In Skeletal animation mode the rotate tool works differently than it does in standard edit mode. The rotation only applies to one bone joint, and the rotation is always centered on the joint. In other words, you are rotating the bone joint itself, not the position of the bone joint. In Skeletal animation mode, the delete command also behaves differently. The delete command will delete any translation or rotation keyframes for all the selected joints in the current frame. Keyframes in other animation frames will not be affected.
You can use Undo and Redo from the Animation Mode Window just as you would in the standard model edit mode. You can select Undo and Redo from the menu on the View Window, or use Ctrl-Z and Ctrl-Y from either the Animation Mode Window or the View Window.
For more information about creating animations with Misfit Model 3D, see the Animations section of the usage document.
The New button creates a new animation. It will prompt you for an animation name. The new animation will be a skeletal or frame animation depending on the animation type tab you are working on.
The Rename button change the name of the selected animation. It will prompt you for a new animation name.
The Delete button will delete the current animation.
The Frames Spin Box will change the frame count of the current animation. You can use the up and down arrows, or type the number directly in the box.
The FPS Text Box will change the frame rate of the current animation.
The Frame Slider will change the current frame of the current animation. You can use this to edit the model position for any frame in the animation. The Copy Frame, Paste Frame, and Clear Frame buttons also operate on the current frame.
The Copy Frame button saves the position of the model primitives in the current frame of the animation. You can then select another frame or animation and use the Paste Frame button to copy the position and orientation of the model primitives to a different animation frame.
For skeletal animations only joints that have keyframes set are copied and pasted. Any joints that have keyframes set in the target frame will not be affected if the source frame did not have a keyframe for that joint. If this is not desired behavior, you can use Clear Frame on the target frame before using Paste Frame.
The Paste Frame button takes the animation data saved from one animation frame by the Copy Frame button and copies it into the current animation frame.
For skeletal animations only joints that have keyframes set are copied and pasted. Any joints that have keyframes set in the target frame will not be affected if the source frame did not have a keyframe for that joint. If this is not desired behavior, you can use Clear Frame on the target frame before using Paste Frame.
The Clear Frame button clears all position information for the current animation frame. All model primitives will be restored to the same position they occupy in model edit mode. In the case of a skeletal animation it deletes keyframes for this frame. In this case joints will be interpolated between the keyframes in previous frames and the keyframes in following frames.
The Play button runs the current animation at its specified frame rate. The Play button becomes a Pause during playback so that you can pause an animation and resume it later. Paused animations resume from the time at which they were paused.
Use the Stop button to stop an animation completely. Use the Loop Checkbox to control whether the animation should start from the beginning again when it completes.
Animation playback only works in 3D viewports. Orthographic viewports will not animate. This is for performance reasons, and may become a configurable option at a later time.
The Stop button will stop a running animation. An animation that is stoped and then played again will play starting from the first frame.
The Loop Checkbox controls whether the animations loops when it completes or not. If the animation completes and the Loop Checkbox is checked, the animation will restart from the first frame. If the animation completes and the Loop Checkbox is not checked, the animation will stop.
If you have loop checked, skeletal animation keyframe interpolation will wrap to the first frame. This interpolation begins on the last keyframe set for a given joint and ends on the first keyframe for that join. If you have an animation with 10 frames and a rotation keyframe on Joint A for frames 1 and 10, then the animation will interpolate from 1 to 10, and then from 10 to 1. If Joint B has keyframes in frames 3 and 7, it will interpolate from 3 to 7, and then again from 7 to 3.
The Close button will close the Animation Mode window.