AML Template Tutorial

 

 

Elevator Up Down

�Going Up?! 3rd floor- Home apparel, Women�s clothing, Children�s toys and iClone3.�

In this lesson, you will learn about alignment so that a character can get on or off an elevator or any other moving surfaces that you can think of� like escalators, conveyor walkways, or my personal favorite� magic carpets!

With this lesson, we can create the up and down movement for our elevator. Then, create the link between the elevator and the character. Now your character can go up and down with the elevator. But wait, how do we get off the elevator!?

 Set another unlink to unlink your character so that the avatar will leave the elevator when needed.  So let�s get started�

Move Elevator Up and Down

Since the elevator has the motion itself. We will now create the move types (Upshift and Downshift) in Move Command to make the elevator move up and/or down.

  1. Let's start with the elevator moving up. Add Move Command from the command drop down list.
  2. In the Move Template floater, select "UpShift" from the Type drop down list and direction "Upward". Type sets the hot key combinations for when you are moving the elevator in Director Mode. You can then use the WASD to control the elevator in iClone.

         

  1. Now you have defined the direction of the movement. It is time for you to define the speed for the command in selection.

         

  • Max Speed: defines the maximum move speed (cm/sec). Once the elevator has accelerated to the maximum speed it enters into constant condition mode. Then it continues to move at the speed defined in Max Speed value. The object enters decelerate mode when the object reaches to its destination or when you release the hotkey.
  • Accelerate: The object enters the selected mode when the speed is smaller than the MaxSpeed definition. It keeps to accelerate until it reaches to the speed defined in Max Speed.
  • Decelerate: When the object is stopped given the move command, the object will begin to slow from whatever its speed was to final stop. The Decelerate speed will define how quickly the object can slow to a stop.
  1. So we have set the up motion, let�s do the same for downward motion. Add another move command for the elevator to move downward. Using the "DownShift" as the Type. Then, select the direction "Downward". You may set the same speed for the Down move command. Here you go, you have an AML contains up and down movements.

         

Control the Character

The elevator is moving, but where is my character? Set Operate Commands for the character to get in and out from the elevator. The following is a short step by step process of how to set the character to interact with the elevator.

Get into the Elevator

We have to first tell our character to get on the elevator, or he is going nowhere.

  1. Create an Operate Command for the character to get into the elevator. Rename the command "Into_The_Elevator".

         

  • Lock Operate: When this command has been checked, when the selected command is in progress it denies all other commands from interrupting. This includes the Move Command hotkeys. The lock is only effective in Director Mode, especially when you are using the hotkeys in Director Mode.
  • HotKey: In Operate Command, the hotkey (DefStart) allows you to Ctrl + Click the iProp to start interact with the target iProp. This is only active in iClone's Director Mode.
  • ActionRadius: via defining ActionRadius in Operate Command you can ask the character to move into the target spot from any angle.

         

  1. By just standing the character on the elevator platform is not enough. We want the elevator to actually carry our character. Therefore, we must link our character to the elevator. Create a link clip to the Operate Command which links the character to the elevator. Once the character is linked to the elevator, the avatar will move up and down with the elevator while you control the elevator.

         

  • Target Type: Choose Rider. Rider means the character that is linked to the elevator. Since the character now is effectively linked to a parent prop, the property of the character changes to Rider. �$� stands for the root of the character. When the character is linked to the elevator, no matter where the character is, the elevators movements will affect the character. Once the Rider is unlinked from the object, it becomes a normal character, be able to walk out of the elevator and the movements will no longer effect the character.
  • ParentType: defines the parent to the target in the target type. Since the character is linking to the elevator, then elevator would be the parent of the character. Once the relationship is set between the character and the elevator, then the character will be moved with the elevator.

Get out of the Elevator

So far in this tutorial we have made the character to get into the elevator and then ride up and down. I already alluded to the fact that in order for the character to �get off� the elevator, we must not forget an important step which is unlink the character from the elevator.

Once a character is linked to its Parent Prop, the character�s property becomes Rider, so here we need to select Rider as the target type for Unlink Clip. After we have unlinked the character from the parent elevator, thus the actor can walk freely without being controlled by its parent elevator.
  1. Add an Operate Command for leaving the elevator.
  2. Leave the same settings as the first Operate Command.
  3. Create an Unlink Clip for the selected command. Once a character is linked to its Parent Prop, the character�s property becomes Rider, so here we need to select Rider as the target type for Unlink Clip. Select "Rider" as the Target Type.

         

  • Rider defines the target type that the character is linking to a certain iProp. So the iProp is the parent to the character.

Now you can link or unlink your avatars to any prop and then have your avatar affected by that prop�s motion giving the effect of the avatar riding that prop. Just remember, after your character gets off something, you must also unlink him or he will keep on being affected by the motions of that prop.