Edit Block
From Animate Me
You can use this block to edit an animation (e.g., raise the arms), or pose a character. This block offers forward kinematics (FK) handles on each of the joints for rotation, and inverse kinematics handles (IK) on the hands, feet, and hips for positioning.
First, click on the character you want to pose to select it, then right-click on it, and choose Create > Edit. This will create an edit block in the timeline. Click on the edit block to select it. (Remember that you can click on any image to see a larger version.)
Let's create a keyframe in the edit block. Double-click on the block, and click on the "Keys" tab. By default, the edit block already has one key inside of it, indicated by a dot at the center. Move the time marker so that it's over the dot. You should also see a skeleton overlaid on your character.
The skeleton's pose indicates the pose of the character at the keyframe. In the image above, the blocks on the hands are IK handles. Clicking and dragging on an IK handle will change the position of the limb it's attached to.
You can rotate any of the joints by picking its FK handle, represented by a small sphere. Clicking on the sphere will select the joint for rotation. You will see a rotation handle.
Clicking and dragging on the sphere will rotate the joint freely in all three dimensions. Clicking and dragging on the red circle surrounding the ball will rotate the joint only around the X-axis. The green circle is for rotation around Y, and the blue circle is for rotation around Z. The yellow circle is for rotation in the image plane, and the light blue circle is for rotation perpendicular to the image plane.
When you are done rotating the joint, press the escape key on your keyboard to unselect the joint. Then you can click on another joint to select it.
You can create multiple keyframes in the edit block, and Animeeple will interpolate between the keyframes to animate your character. To delete a keyframe, right-click on it.
This block has a weight curve associated with it. The weight curve is most commonly used to ease in and ease out of a block. You can adjust the weight curve by double-clicking on the block to select it. The "weights" tab is shown by default.
To adjust a key, drag it. To add a key, left-click on an empty space. To delete a key, right click while hovering over the key you want to delete. A smooth spline curve will be created.
Properties
When you double-click on the edit block, an element called "Edit" will appear in the navigation bar. Hover over it to see the edit block's properties.
- Editing flags: Modifies the behavior of the edit block
- Symmetric: Changes you make to the orientation of a joint are also made to its symmetric partner.
- Hold left hand: Keeps the left hand in place while you're making changes to the pose.
- Hold right hand: Keeps the right hand in place while you're making changes to the pose.
- Hold left foot: Keeps the left foot in place while you're making changes to the pose.
- Hold right foot: Keeps the right foot in place while you're making changes to the pose.
- Hold orientations: Keeps the orientations of end effectors unchanged.
- Name: A descriptor so you can identify this block easily
- Enabled: Whether the block is enabled or not
Actions
Most components in Animeeple, such as objects and blocks, have actions you can perform on them. When you select something, you can access its actions by clicking on the selected component's type in the menu bar. You can access the same menu by right-clicking on the component in the scene. See the user interface description for more details.
The actions for the edit block are:
- Reset block: Reset the block so that there is not edit to the animation
- Reset selected joint: If you have a joint selected, this will make sure the joint orientation is reset back to the original.
- Save this pose: This will save the current key's pose into your pose palette
- Copy this pose: This will copy the current key's pose into the clipboard
- Paste pose: If the clipboard has a pose, this will paste it onto the current key
- Copy: Copies the pose of one limb to the other. This is useful for making symmetric changes.
- Split into two: Split the block at the current time.
- Cut this block: Remove the block and put it on the clipboard
- Copy this block: Copies the block onto the clipboard
- Paste into this block: Pastes into the block
