Basic Concepts UT2k4

From Moviesandbox

Revision as of 01:48, 29 June 2007

General information

Moviesandbox is and will always be a tool in development. There will be bugs and problems that you encounter and it might take some time until they get fixed. Just so you know.

Basic Workflow

Moviesandbox is an Action based Character and Camera scripting tool, which means that instead of using keyframes and a timeline, you control the objects in your scene through actions.
Controllable objects like Pawns have their own Rootnode to which you can link all the actions that the pawn should execute sequentially.

The Interface

The user interface lets you spawn Actors, Props and Actions with a simple mouse interface. Once placed, you can move, rotate and scale the actors as you see fit. All Actors have their own property menu that you can access by simply right-clicking on them. You can switch from Mouse-Mode to flying mode through clicking on the "fly" icon or by pressing the "Alt" key. The Icons and the position and shape of the menu can be customised and you can assign hotkeys to every command. Hitting the "Spacebar" Key starts or stops your script.

Interface Icons

toggles flying mode on and off (shortcut->Alt Key)


opens the "Pawns" submenu. Pawns are controllable Actors and have their own RootNode (see below). The menu also gives access to the Camera spawn button and the posing editor.


opens the props submenu. Props are helper Objects or meshes that can be used as decoration. If desired, they can be controlled through ScriptRoots and Actions.


opens the system menu where you can save and load your projects and execute Consolecommands.


opens the actions submenu. Here you can spawn a ScriptRoot to start a new action sequence or actions that can be attached to Rootnodes to control your characters, cameras and objects.

Special Objects

Pawns

MovieSandbox Pawns come in two flavors - 3D and 2D. While the 3D Pawns is pretty much like the average unreal player Model, the 2D Pawn consists of textures or texture sequences. Both Pawn types have Root-Boxes that enable you to control them by linking specific Actions to them.

Actions

Actions are small Boxes that you can Link with your Pawns or Objects and that make them perform certain tasks, e.g. let them move to a certain point. Actions are executed in a chronological order and can be linked to each other, so that you can draw your own queues and link them to a Pawn. Actions can also be executed independent from Pawns using a ScriptRoot.

Cameras

MovieSandbox has a special Camera that you can place in the Level. The camera has a realtime preview window when moved around, so you have an idea of what your shot compostion would look like. You can assign a path to your camera by placing keypoints in your scene and Link them together. Also, Cameras support Depth of Field. When a focus object is selected, the Camera blurs all objects that are not in focus.

Targets and other Helper Objects

Target Points can be placed in the Level for different purposes. For example, they can be assigned as Movetargets or Looktargets. Other helper objects let you specify paths for Objects to move on or help you organise your scene.