To move the camera, click on the camera button at the bottom right of the animator window. When the camera button is depressed, holding the mouse button down and dragging the cursor upward in the window moves the camera forward. Dragging the cursor downward on the screen makes the camera move backward.
The camera can be moved sideways in the world by holding the shift key while dragging the cursor. Side to side movements of the cursor mode the camera horizontally. Up and down movements of the cursor move the camera up and down in the world.
To rotate the camera about the origin of the world, hold the control key (ctrl) down while dragging the cursor. While the control key is down, dragging the cursor sideways rotates the camera horizontally, that is pans the camera. Dragging the cursor up and down tilts the camera up and down.
To roll the camera, hold the control and shift keys while dragging the cursor side to side.
To move the figure, press the figure button at the bottom of the screen. The camera button, if depressed will become un-pressed when the figure button goes down. When the figure button is depressed, the cursor can be used to select particular links in the figure. A link is any of the segments in the body of the figure. A hand is a link, a foot is a link as are the calf and femur. When a link is selected, the animator program attempts to create a chain of links. The chain contains a series of links from the selected link on up the figureÕs hierarchy until a link with more than one child link is found.
Once a chain has been created, it is highlighted as follows: the distal link or end effector is colored red. Any children of the end effector are colored pink. The links in the chain above the end effector are colored blue. A set of coordinate axes is superimposed over the origin of the end effector. Any remaining links in the figure which are not contained in the chain are colored gray.
The selected end effector link can be moved in 3D space in any one of the principal directions, x,y or z. To move the end effector in the x direction, for example, click on the red x axis of the small coordinate frame on the end effector. The red x axis then turns yellow indicating that it is selected. Drag the yellow x axis left or right. This will drag the end effector in the desired direction. As the end effector moves, the animator program calculates the rotations of all the links in the chain to effectively bring the rest of the chain along with the end effector. Follow a similar procedure to move the end effector in the y or z directions, clicking on the green (y) axis or blue (z) axis to select one of them. The child links of the end effector, if any, maintain their original configuration relative to the end effector. That is, the child links behave as one though they were a single fixed structure that rides along with the end effector.
As the chain is dragged, the higher links in the chain follow the end effector as best they can. When the reach limit of the chain is reached, the chain may become unstable and flip in a different direction. This is due to the fact that the algorithm used to move the chain cannot solve for the unreachable end effector position.
A chain can have a series of links or, in the simplest case, can have only one link. When the chain has only one link, selecting the x, y or z axis gives you rotational control in that axis over the single link.
Even when the chain has more than one link, you can rotate the end effector alone by holding down the control (ctrl) key while dragging one of the principal axes.
You can drag the entire figure in one of the principal directions by selecting the root link (pelvis in this case) and then selecting and dragging one of the coordinate axes on that link. This will allow you to translate the figure as a whole in the world. Again, to rotate the entire figure, you can hold down the control key while dragging one of the small coordinate axes.
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