toxi :: ReAnimator3D - the lingo bones player (editor docs)

ReAnimator3D consists of two separate modules. You can find a reference guide for both on this site...

THE EDITOR is the main part of the solution and is a standalone application with easy-to-use GUI, including a director stylee timeline. a description of all interface items follows...

The top of the screen is dedicated to menu bar, offering access to most recurring functions of the application. Alternatively, a great part of them can be accessed via standard hotkeys.

The timeline area should be pretty self-explaining: list of all available bones of the imported model on the left, their respective key frame data on the right. The red line marks the current playback position and can be moved by clicking anywhere in the timeline. Bones can be renamed by right clicking (CTRL+click on Mac) on a bone name in the left part.
Double clicking a frame will automatically create a keyframe. Right clicking a keyframe will delete it.

The main control panel on the left of the screen is used to manipulate key frames, loop points and view settings. Some parts of it are context sensitive and are only available in certain situations (e.g. the X/Y/Z dials are only active if a keyframe is selected) Btw. Motion playback cannot just be controlled via the PLAY/STOP button, but also by pressing SPACE and via the Control Menu.

The 3 dials are used to edit the transform of a bone. Each keyframe a bone can be moved and/or rotated in all 3 directions/axes. Simply click a dial and drag your mouse left or right. Pressing SHIFT while doing this will result in faster changes (steps of 10 instead of units). The results will be visible immediately.

Loop start and end frames can be adjusted by typing in the numbers of their respective frames into the boxes. If there's a logical clash (i.e. loop start frame is after loop end), the previous value will be displayed and the change rejected.

The largest area is dedicated to the 3D viewport. Clicking in it and dragging the mouse left/right will rotate the model around the Y axis. Doing the same up & down with CTRL pressed, rotates around X instead. Use, SHIFT or ALT to zoom and pan the view. Finally, there're buttons to switch to the standard preset views: front, left, right and back. All controls are also available during playback of a motion. For visual reference when creating walkcycles, a groundplane can be displayed with the model. Use "Adjust groundplane..." in the "Edit" menu to change its Y position and scale.

The bottom part of the window is reserved for a status line, giving feedback about the last user action

Creates a blank project. A project can contain up to 16 motions based on an imported W3D model (See below). RA3D will do this automatically on startup if it hasn't been launched by double-clicking a project file.

Note: launching the app by double-clicking documents is only available on PC and after the first run.

Opens an existing RA3D project file (file extension *.lbp for Lingo Bones Player). When you save a project a reference to the used W3D file is stored too. If the program can't find this W3D file when loading a project, you'll be asked to find it yourself.

This feature is only available in the registered full version. Saves the current project under the current filename (Save) or into a new file (Save As). A reference to the W3D file is saved with all the other project data. Note: You cannot save a project if there're no W3D imported or the imported model is incompatible with already existing motion data/bone structure.

tries to import a W3D file in the current project. The following restrictions apply:

1) The W3D file should only contain the model which you want to animate or at least have the main model at index 1 in the W3D model list.

2) The 3D scene needs to be in a format that the positive Y axis is the world's upvector. Most modelling programs work like this by default, but it's worth mentioning anyway. RA3D will work with alternative notions too (e.g. Z axis as upvector), however the editor's camera controls won't be as straightforward...

3) Bone names will only be recognised by the application if they're stored as model userdata (e.g. ShapeShifter3D does this) Other 3d modellers don't seem to export bone names as part of the W3D file. In this case, RA3D will use generic names like "bone1","bone2" etc. However, each bone can be renamed by right-clicking (CTRL+click on Mac) on its name in the timeline.

4) If you are going to import a model into an existing project, the new model can only be used if its bone structure is identical to the one previously used by the project. This means if you wish to apply motions to a range of models, the number and original bone names need to be consistent between them. To avoid corrupted data, you'll not be able to save a project if the currently imported model is incompatible with already existing motion data/bone structure.

This feature is only available in the registered full version. All motions in the current project will be optimised and exported as textfile for use with the RA3D Lingo Player parent scripts in your own projects. Please see separate chapter and sample movie.

Quits the application. You'll be asked if you want to save the current state of the project.

Cuts out the currently selected keyframe from the selected bone. Keyframe data is stored in the clipboard

Copies the currently selected keyframe from the selected bone. Keyframe data is stored in the clipboard

Creates or overwrites data in the currently selected frame/keyframe for the selected bone.

Same function as "Remove keyframe". Clears keyframe data for selected frame/bone. Note: The keyframes at frame 1 cannot be deleted as long as there're other keyframes for that bone.

Opens a dialog to set Y position and scale of the groundplane.
Groundplane will be turned on automatically if it hasn't been prior to using this function.

Opens the dialog to add a new motion to the current project. At current there's a maximum number of 16 motions per project. The motion name can not be longer than 20 characters and not contain any spaces (use underscores instead) or other non-alphanumerical characters.

Also note, that all other functions in this menu only become available once the first motion has been created in a project.

This will create a new motion based on the current state of the selected motion. Provided the project doesn't already use all of its 16 motions, this item will open a dialog to enter the name of the new motion. See "Add Motion" for more details.

Deletes the current motion and all of its keyframe data from the project. Asks for confirmation first.

Brings up a dialog with the most important details: motion name, playback speed, duration in frames and seconds, number of bones animated, loop flag as well as loop start and end. Most of these values can be edited.

Inserts a new keyframe at the position of the cursor in the timeline. If it's the first keyframe created for a bone, the program will automatically place an initial keyframe at frame 1. This keyframe can be edited like any other keyframe, but it cannot be deleted until all other keyframes for this bone have been removed. Once a keyframe is created or selected the dials to adjust the bone transform become active in the control panel on the left of the screen.

Deletes keyframe data for the frame at the position of the cursor in the timeline. See restrictions above.

While adding/removing keyframes is bone specific, this function inserts a blank frame for all bones after the currently selected frame number (the position of the cursor). This means, keyframes in higher frame numbers will be moved to the right.

Opposite of the "Insert Frame" feature. Removes keyframe data of all bones at the selected frame number and moves keyframes right of the frame marker by 1 frame to the left.

Note: You cannot delete keyframes at frame 1 with this function. These need to be removed one by one with the known restrictions applied. If the frame marker is at frame 1 and this function is called, all data at frame 2 is deleted and all other keyframes move left.

Menu items containing the names of motions in the project. Selecting one of these will display the chosen motion in the timeline. The interface on the left will be updated too. The first 10 motions can be selected via keyboard shortcuts: Command+0...9 (Mac) or Control+0...9 (PC)

Start playback of the current motion. Playback always starts at frame 1. If motion is not playing back, pressing SPACE will do the same thing as the PLAY button or selecting this menu item.

If motion is currently playing, this function will stop playback and leave the frame marker at the current frame. If the function is selected and motion has already stopped playing, the frame marker will move back to frame 1. Same behaviour is valid for the STOP button in the control panel.

moves frame marker to next frame and updates 3D view. This can be also achieved by clicking in the timeline and dragging mouse (slowly) left/right.

Same as above, only frame marker moves to previous frame.

Toggles looping playback for current motion. If looping is turned on whilst playing back and the frame marker is beyond the selected loop end frame, playback will commence from frame 1 automatically.

Displays this documentation in the default browser

Displays the documentation for the RA3D Player module in the default browser

Displays ReAnimator credits, version info and registration details.

Brings up dialog to fill in your registration details. Only registered users can export motion data for use in their own projects. See here for more details and benefits.