Simpose-ium: Operation: The "Character" Page

 

 

Characters visible + control

The program internally always has two characters loaded: Sim1 and Sim2. However, the user can control which of them is displayed and which is being controlled.

The droplist controls what is displayed: both Sims, or just Sim1 or Sim2. If both are to be displayed, there is the option of having them appear at the same physical position, or at an offset (in effect on adjacent floor tiles). Basically I don’t know how the animations for character interaction are programmed (is the space between the characters part of the animation, or because they are on different tiles?) so I've given the program both options for the moment.

The radio buttons select the Sim to be controlled. If only one Sim is being displayed, then obviously only that Sim can be controlled. Note that the two Sims may have different background colours, see the Camera/Lights controls.

 

Character

The top droplist lets you select the age and gender of the character controlled

The next two droplists select the required body type and texture.

The last two droplists select the required head and texture.

 

Joint Control

The droplist selects the joint to be modified. The names are fairly self explanatory - but note that not all models have all joints - so some selections may not do anything. Since version 1, I've added the controls for the ROOT and PELVIS. These can have both rotations and translations (i.e. movements in space). You'll see that pretty much the same effects can be achieved with changes to the ROOT and PELVIS. My guess is that the ROOT is used to control the position of the Sim in space (e.g. when walking, the ROOT translation controls how far across a floor tile the Sim has moved), whilst the PELVIS is used to control the position of the Sim relative to objects (e.g. when the Sim sits down, the PELVIS is translated downwards)

The three sliders set the position of the selected joint in the three axes.

The radio buttons select the degree of control the sliders have: Course -180 to +180 degrees, Medium -45 to +45, Fine -10 to +10.

Whenever the radio button selection is changed, or a new joint selected, the sliders return to the mid-position. The sliders give control around the currently set position (i.e. they are not an absolute position - try it you'll soon see what I mean).

 

Animation Time

If a keyframe animation is being displayed by the controlled Sim, a droplist is provided of all the poses that can be adjusted (indicated by time). The user selects the time for the pose to be adjusted and then the Joint Controls adjust the pose at that point in the animation. The influence of the change (from a minimum at the previous keyframe to a maximum at the selected frame, and then a reduction again to a minimum at the next keyframe) is illustrated by the background fading from normal colour to 'selected' colour.

If a CFP animation has been loaded or created, the animation time control consists of three sliders. The middle slider selects the frame to be edited (from the first to last frame of the animation). The 'Pre' slider controls the scope of the effect before the selected frame (from the first frame of the animation to the selected frame), whilst the 'Post' slider controls the scope of the effect after the selected frame. Again, the scope of the change is illustrated by the background fading from normal colour to 'selected' colour.