Chapter 3. Quick Start

Creating the Initial Setup

Here you will learn how to create a setup for the animUI.

Of course, you need to have an object to set up. Note that this object doesn’t need to be the node with the attributes to animate.

• Create the object that should be animated. For this example, a simple primitive like a cube or sphere is enough.

• Create a locator as the control object and call it “myCtrl”.

• Open the animUI by clicking on the shelf button you’ve created during installation. If you don’t have a shelf button, simply execute: DPK_animUI 1;

  This will open the (initially empty) animUI.

• With myCtrl selected, choose Add Selected Object from the drop-down list in the bottom left corner of the UI. The myCtrl object should now be selected in this list.

• In the Sections list, do a right-click and choose Edit Sections/Attrs… from the popup menu. This opens the Section Manager.

• Select the object you want to animate (e.g. the cube or sphere you created).

• In the Section Manager, choose Import… from the right-click popup menu of the right list.

• In the window that was opened, select the three translate attributes and click the Import button. This will import the attributes into a new section.

• Select the section and choose Rename… from the right-click menu of the left list.

• Enter “Translate” as name and click OK.

• Right-click in the left list once more, choose New Section…, and enter “Rotate” as name.

• Double click this new section to show its attributes. Since it doesn’t have attrs yet, the attribute list (on the right side) will be empty.

• Choose Import… from the right-click menu in the attribute list and import the three rotation attributes.

• Close the Section Manager.

After the last step, the animUI will update and show the sections and attributes with sliders etc.. You can now start to animate the attributes.

Creating Presets

The real power of the animUI lies in the flexible usage of presets. In this chapter, you will create two presets and learn how to apply them to the attributes.

• Use the animUI to set all sliders to their default of 0.

• In the Presets list, choose New Preset… from the right-click menu and enter “Neutral” as name.

• Translate and rotate the animated object into a nice pose (well…).

• Create another preset using New Preset… from the right-click menu of the preset list.

• In the Sections list, select both sections and double-click the Neutral preset to apply it to their attributes.

• Select the Translate section and the second preset. Then drag the preset slider (above the preset list) and move it up and down. You’ll see that only the attributes in the selected section are affected.

Closing Words

The example in this Quick Start doesn’t really show what the animUI is able to do and cannot demonstrate the intuitive mixing of presets that is possible on a fully articulated facial rig. But it is an entry point for a really flexible setup with very fast control over a big number of attributes.

For further information about the individual options, mirroring, syncing, and the preset library, please take a look at Chapter 4. UI Reference.