Worskhops

Prim Animation with Prim Puppeteer

 

 Trainer: Misy Ferraris

 

First Session: Saturday 27  Sunday 28 at 8AM GMT / 1AM SLT 

 

Second Session: Sunday 28 at 8PM GMT / 1PM SLT 

 

Place: EduNation Sandbox http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation/103/155/24

 

Description

 

Prim Puppeteer is a set of scripts that will help animate your creation. Similar to stop-motion animation, the system works by taking snapshots of your prim's positions and allowing you to play back the recorded snapshots. No coding is required to use Puppeteer.

 

 

Need to Know 

 

To use Puppeteer, you need some basic understanding of the root prim. Here are some quick facts you need to know:

• There is only one root prim per link set.
• A root prim has a yellow border around it during editing.
• Link prims have blue borders around them during editing.
• The Root prim will always be the last prim you select before using the Tools->Link command.
• Puppeteer only moves link prims.
• All movements are relative to the root prim.

Tip: Use an invisible root prim if you wish to create the illusion of the entire object moving.
Tip: Be sure to click the “Edit linked parts” check box in order to move the linked prims. 

 

* Feature Summary *

- Fast drag & drop setup
- Easy menu driven control
- Attachment & sculpty friendly
- Customizable playback behavior
- Built-in low lag optimization
- Unlimited free updates
- Scripter friendly API
- Multiple animation trigger types
- Enhanced theft protection
- Time tested and highly rated
- Ongoing support & maintenance
- Scalable/resizable animation
- Relative positioning support
- No snapshot recording limit
- Add/remove prims at any time
- Records position,rotation,& scale
- Export animation to notecards

* Limitation Summary *

- Puppeteer does not record changes to textures, path cuts, twists, or any other primitive parameters.
- Puppeteer cannot move/animate avatars that are sitting on a linked prim.
- Linked prims can only be moved no more than 10 meters at a time. This is a SL limitation.
- You cannot achieve perfectly smooth animation. Prim movements are always snappy.

Warnings: Do not use shift-copy on objects animated with Puppeteer.  It will not copy correctly and will reset the animations.

 

* Pre-requisites *

 

You will have the following skills:

• Creating (rezzing) a basic building block (a prim)
• Moving and rotating prims
• Changing the size of a prim
• Joining (linking) several prims together to form a more complex shape
• Cloning prims

 

The Basic Setup

The easiest way to setup Puppeteer is by following the next steps:

Tip: Use an invisible root prim if you wish to create the illusion of the entire object moving.
Tip: Be sure to click the “Edit linked parts” check box in order to move the linked prims.

 

You can find a free vendor and a box of not animated objects in Edunation III, Plot 9 Cafè Italia. 

 

YOU CAN FIND KARELIA'S NOTES HERE  (I suggest to download the document)

 

(by Karelia Kondor)

Exercise 1

 

1. Build 5 prims: 2 cubes, 1 sphere, 1 pyramid, 1 cylinder
2. Change their colors so that they are different
3. Edit one of you cube. Go to the texture Tab and set "trasparency" to 100%. This will be your "root prim"
 4. Now select all 5 prims (root prim is the last one to be selected) and link them Tools->Link command.
5. Write the new name in the general tab.
6.  Add all three Puppeteer scripts into the "content tab" of the object you wish to animate.
7. Right click the object and select 'Take'  then re-rez the object back out from your inventory.
8.  Right click the object and select 'Edit...'  then select 'Tools -> Set Scripts to Running in Selection' from the top menu bar. After setup is complete.  The “Puppeteer Link” script will delete itself from the root prim.
9. Now to record snapshots with Puppeteer, type “/32 menu” to bring up the Edit Menu.  

10. Edit linked parts and select the prim you want to move.

11. After moving the prims around, simply click the “record” button to take a snapshot.
A snapshot in Puppeteer is simply a recording of all link prim's position, rotation, and size/scale.  This have nothing to do with actually taking screenshots.
Puppeteer records scale and size changes in addition to position and rotation.  This makes it possible to shrink a prim and hide it within another prim.
Furthermore, after the animation is published, you may resize the root prim and the entire object's animation will scale accordingly.  The root prim can also be scaled on a single axis making the object skinner or shorter.  Scale changes on a single axis may not always have the desired effect.

12. When you finish to record you can see what you have done pressing the "play button" on th eediting menu or typing " /32 play" in local chat.
If you are satisfied you can publish it typing  /32 publish. This command is the same as pressing the “publish” button on the Editing Menu.

 

Chat Commands Puppeteer supports a lot more commands than what is shown on the Edit Menu.  To see all the possible commands, click the “help” button on the menu or type “/32 help”

 

Exercise 2 (using Tutorial Penguin)

 

Following these steps:

1) Rez the Tutorial penguin from your inventory on the floor

2) Add all three Puppeteer scripts into the "content tab".

2)Right click the Tutorial penguin and select 'Take'  then re-rez it back out from your inventory.

3)Right click the Tutorial penguin and select 'Edit...'  then select 'Tools -> Set Scripts to Running in Selection' from the top menu bar.

After setup is complete.  The “Puppeteer Link” script will delete itself from the root prim.

4) Check the option "edit linked" and then select the prim that you want to move.

5) Click the “record” button to take a snapshot of each movement.

6) When you finish to record you can see what you have done pressing the "play button" on th eediting menu or typing " /32 play" in local chat.
7) Publish it typing  /32 publish. This command is the same as pressing the “publish” button on the Editing Menu.

 

Triggers & Playback Customization

 

Triggers are what control the animation playback.  To edit the triggers, either press the “trigger” button in the Edit Menu or type “/32 trigger”.  The triggers are only active after the publish command.

Important: When editing the triggers, please do not use the “ignore” button to close the dialogs.  Stopping in the middle of a trigger edit may cause Puppeteer to handle the triggers incorrectly.  If you wish to close the dialog, please do so after you have returned to the Edit Menu.

Tip: In the Advanced menu there is a “Silent Mode” button.  This button will turn off the instructional messages such as “Click me to toggle the animation on/off”.

 

There are four buttons in the Trigger menu:

- Return (this will bring you back to the edit menu)

- Edit (this will allow you to edit the current trigger)

- Delete (this will delete the current trigger. A must for scripters)

- Advanced (this will bring up the advance menu allowing multiple triggers)

Click the “edit” button to customize the playback settings.  This is one of the most powerful yet under used feature in Puppeteer.  Do not be afraid to experiment.

 

List of Animation Triggers

 

[ On-Touch ]

This trigger will activate when the object is clicked.  Click the object again to stop the animation. This is the default trigger.

 

[ On-Chat ]

This trigger will activate the animation when a specific chat phrase is heard.  After selecting On-Chat, another menu will show up allowing you to customize the start and stop phrase as well as the listening channel.

 

If the start and stop phrase is set to the same phrase, that chat phrase will use as a on/off toggle.

 

This trigger is particularly useful if you wish to control the animation through a remote object such as a HUD or a gesture.  Here is an example of how to create a simple script that can activate the chat trigger remotely.

 

Tip: Use a channel other than zero for faster performance.  Channel zero is the general chat and it can be resource intensive to monitor that channel for chat triggers.

 

[ On-Rez ]

This trigger will start the animation as soon as an object is dragged from the inventory into the world. 

 

Tip: When creating a gift box that opens when rezed, you may use the following script to give away all contents except for Puppeteer scripts.

 

 

[ On-Collision ]

This trigger will start the animation when the object is bumpped into or stepped on.  You can use this trigger to activate an animation when someone is near it by having one of the prims covering the floor so people can step on it.

 

Note: SL's collision detection is not always reliable, especially when laggy.  It is best to use On-collision triggers with play-once style rather than loop or ping-pong.

 

[ On-Sit ]

This trigger will start the animation when someone sits on the object.  Make sure you adjust the set position using another script to get the desire effect.

 

[ On-Chance ]

This trigger will fire based on the percentage and the interval you specify.  It is great for ambient animations.  It will not activate if other trigger animations are currently playing.  There are two exceptions to this, On-rez loops, and On-chance loops.

 

[ On-Fly ]

This trigger will only activate when the animated object is attached to an avatar.  The trigger activates when the avatar is flying.  This is useful for making wings or jet packs.

 

[ On-Walk ]

This trigger will only activate when the animated object is attached to an avatar.  The trigger activates when the avatar is walking.  This is an easy way to create fake attachment based vehicles that animate when you walk.

 

[ On-Typing ]

This trigger will only activate when the animated object is attached to an avatar.  The trigger activates when the avatar is typing in chat. It is possible to make objects that pop up when you are typing and shrink back into the avatar's chest when typing has stopped.

 

Note: The On-Typing trigger will not work if the avatar has the typing animations disabled.

 

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Participants on  Sunday 28 at 8AM GMT / 1AM SLT

1. DeeSnow

2. Cybère will record (from Cybère: Misy could you be there in advance to test sound? yes, I'll do!)

3. Karelia Kondor (Instead of this evening).  Misy: It was wonderful!

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Participants on Sunday 28 at 8PM GMT / 1PM SLT

1. Mary Roussel
2. YT.Upsilon (Lynne)
3. Gwen can not come (we are moving my parents' home) - could anyone of you record this in Adobe if Misy permits?
4. Marius will record (from Cybère: Misy could you be there in advance to test sound? I hope to be there 15 minutes before the workshop)
5. 5.
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10. 10