›–» Articulating your Avatar
So
lets say you've created your avatar now, here he is:
Looking
good! But he's got a long way to go yet before he'll be running
happily around in Active Worlds. First things first lets get him
down to scale, select all your objects, then select the object resize
tool ( 
). Now click and hold with both buttons and drag until the
height of your avatars (Z size value in object properties) is somewhere
between 1.2 and 2 meters. Depending on how tal lyou want your avatar
to be. (Make sure you have bother world and object units set to
meters, like in the picture above!)
Next
we need to set the axis for each part of the avatar. This is the
point on which the part of the avatar will rotate, so for example
the axis on a hand would be at the point where it connects to the
wrist. To do this, click on each part of your avatar, then click
on the Axis tool ( 
) and a little axis should appear within your object somewhere.
Use the Object Move tool ( 
) to
move it to the right place (the point where it should rotate). So
for example, below, on the left is where it might pop up and on
a knee, on the right is where you should move it to. Its important
you do with for every object.
Now hes the right size and all the joinst have been places, we need to articulate him. This is probably the most complex task you'll learn with modelling. Once you get the hang of it though, its easy.
Unselect
all your objects (add a new cube or something then delete it), then
open up the keyframe editor
( 
). You'll see a window like this:
Here is where you will do all your work. Ignore the grey part on the right, this is for animating objects within trueSpace, you can make SEQ files this way, but for now you don't need it. You need the list on the left. All of the items with a green cube next to them are the objects parts in your avatar. Right now they all have default names and are all individual objects. We need to rename them so Active Worlds can reconise them and then group them into a hierarchy.
First go through the list, clicking on each item and seeing which part of your avatar it is and then renaming it accordingly, to rename an object, right click on it in the list and go to 'rename'. Here is the diagram of which parts of your avatar to name what again:
Make sure you've read section 13 for tips and tricks relating to naming your avatar parts. Note: The only part required for an avatar is the pelvis (aw_pelvis), your avatar dosent have to have arms or legs or even a head, but its usually a good idea. Now you've named all your parts, its time to build a hierarchy.
A hierarchy is just a structure. Its like making a tree. You have roots, leading up through the trunk and out to the branches. In an avatar, the pelvis is the root part. The lowest down in the hierachy (or the highest up, however you look at it). So basically aw_lfankle belongs to aw_lfknee and both of those belong to aw_lfhip, and so on.
Getting the hierarchy right is tricky, to create a group of objects, drag the CHILD objects onto the PARENT object. For example drag L_HAND onto aw_lfelbow to create a group where they belong together. The two objects will dissapear and a group will be created at the bottom of the list. Its a picture of a yellow and a green cube next to eachother and you expand the group to see the two objects within.
First you have to group the left arm then the right arm, then the left leg, then the right leg, then the head and neck. All as separate groups at first. So for example, you drag L_HAND onto aw_lfelbow, then drag the new group that is created (e.g. NoName,1) onto aw_lfshoulder. Then do this for the right arm, then for the legs and head and neck. So you have the Torso, Pelvis, Arms, Legs and Head/Neck as separate bits at this point. Like so:
It dosent matter what groups are called. So long as the individual objects have the proper names. So now we have are limbs are grouped and ready to rock, we need to stick them together to create the final masterpiece.
Drag one of the arms onto aw_back. Dont expand the new group created, instead drag the other arm and head/neck onto it. So you have something like this:
For the sake of it I've renamed the new group to Upper Body. Now drag one of the legs onto the pelvis, then the other leg onto the new group created. So you are left with two groups, Upper Body and Lower Body. Finally drag Upper Body onto the Lower Body group so your left with this:
Rename Lower Body to aw_avatar and you've finished creating your hierarchy. Incase you a bit confused, heres what the entire finished thing should look like:
This may take some time to achieve. Its probably the most difficult part. But it needs to be just right or your AV will not animate properly in Active Worlds.
Finally you need to do two last things. First is to select your avatar and set the Location to 0.000 0.000 0.000 (in objects properties) so its exactly at the center of your workspace (otherwise your AV will be off center in AW) and the second is to rotate your avatar 90 degrees (in object properties) so that he's lying on his back. After this your object properties box should look something like this:
Finally do a quick check and make sure you've named everything right and all the axis are right, then save your model!