Interface Tutorial

From Moviesandbox

Revision as of 23:31, 4 December 2011

Tools

Tools work a bit like in Photoshop. They allow you to manipulate certain aspects of your scene, depending on the tool selected. For example - you cannot select objects when using the navigation tool. You can also think of the tools as Modes or States that Moviesandbox is in. Right clicking on a Tool usually reveals additional options. Keyboard shortcuts in brackets next to tool name.

Select Tool (i)

Allows you to select objects you want. Right click objects for additional menu options. Click on the Gizmo that appears after selecting to move/rotate in a specific axis. Hold SHIFT to multi-select. Right click on the tool icon and select "Select Particles" to select individual particles from within a drawing. A drawing must already be selected for this to work.

Navigate Tool (TAB)

Toggles - when pressing TAB again you will switch to the last selected tool! Allows navigation through space in the x, y and z axis, click-left and drag for turning, click-right and drag for movement (hold shift for z-axis movement). Arrow keys or the q, w, e, a, s, d characters also always move. (Tip: the arrow keys and the characters are active in all tools!). Right-click on the tool icon and select Orbit to switch navigation mode. Orbit mode will allow you to move around the selected Object.

Grid (g)

Toggles - when pressing TAB again you will switch to the last selected tool! Allows you to position the grid in space. Grid will snap to mouse 3D coordinate when clicked anywhere within the scene. You can change the grid plane in the Brush Inspector. Tip: to change the grid axis press the period "." key.

Draw (p)

Lets you draw particles and thus create objects in your scene. Will modify the currently selected object or auto-create a new drawing. click-and-drag-left to draw particles, click-and-drag-right to erase them. Change brush size and color in the Brush Inspector.

Bones (b)

Lets you add bones to your objects. You must have a drawing selected for this tool to work. When Bone Tool is selected, left-clicking in your scene will create a bone and set its parent to the previously created bone (or the selected drawing if it is your first bone). Right clicking on a bone allows parent change with the "SetBase" button. Right-Clicking also deselects or selects a specific bone. Right-clicing on tool icon allows switching to Paint Weights Tool. Click on Bone to select, then click-and-drag-left to paint weights for this bone on particles. click-and-drag-right to erase weights. Supports up to 3 weights per particle. Particles without weights will be hidden from view!

Unsorted info from here...

Props menu: this button displays the menu for props. 

Place mesh: by selecting this button and clicking anywhere in the world you can place  an actor. You can also drag and drop the icon anywhere in the world. By default the last loaded actor will be placed, in order to place another actor just click on the props inspector button on the right hand side menu and drag the actor you would like to add on top of the default one.

Spawn meshes: this is a quick way to place several actors in the world.

Place character: This places a character in the world, just click with your mouse wherever you want to position.

Place camera: place a camera anywhere in the world.

Place dummy: place a dummy.
Place light: place a light anywhere in the world.

Draw: Select to display the drawing menu.

New drawing: Create a new drawing.

Draw particles (p): Select this tool to draw, to change the attributes of the brush go to the brush inspector.

Draw calligraphy:  Draw with different stroke weights

Select drawing: Use to select a specific drawing.

Select particles: Use to select specific particles within a drawing.

Import Kinect: Select to start using the Kinect as imput (remeber to have the Kinect connected!)

Import bitmap: what it says
Merge drawings: 

Scale Z x2: Double the size of your drawing
Scale Zx 0.5: Shrink your drawing by half.

Save

Save as

Clear drawing: Clear the world from drawings, this does not delete them, just clears the space.

Bones: opens the bones menu
Add bones: Select to add bones to your drawings by clicking where you wish to add the bone.
Paint weights: with this tool you attach the particles of your drawing to the bones. Simply click on the bone and draw on top of the part of the drawing you wish to be a part of that bone.
Load bones: if you previously made bones or are sharing files with someone else you can load them here. 

Node menu: Select to display the node menu
System menu.

Property inspector: this tool allows you to see and edit the properties of your actors. You should have an actor selected for it to show the properties.

Brush inspector: You can change the size of the brush its intensity and the color you are drawing with with in this panel.  

Texture inspector: This panel shows the textures available in the Moviesandbox project. You can import new textures and add them to the library by using the import button in this panel.

Mesh inspector: Has a list of all the drawings and meshes available in the project. 

Action inspector: Displays a list of the available actions and allows you to import new ones.

Prefab inspector:
Layers inspector: Gives you a list of all the actors in the project. Each actor is in a layer so you can have various options to play with them. 

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Initial Descriptions by Carolina Vallejo!