Penguin in the lake

[chriskcox]

I had a difficulty making the penguin drop into the lake. I understand how Alice works, but I have trouble choosing the correct movements in Alice. I plan on getting more practice.

[chickentree]

Originally Posted by chriskcox

I had a difficulty making the penguin drop into the lake. I understand how Alice works, but I have trouble choosing the correct movements in Alice. I plan on getting more practice.

Hi Chris, I haven't posted this for a while but it is my general recommendations for how to figure out how to move an object.

Actions in general.

1. Do the action you are trying to model and think about what is changing / moving at different stages during the exercise.
2. Method 1 - Programming the action
   1. Translate those movements into individual steps for the object you are using.
   2. Try to use roll and turn actions on sub-objects whenever possible.
   3. Be VERY careful when moving sub-objects. Sub-objects usually have their vehicle set to the next highest sub-object in the object, or to the object itself. Moving a leg for instance usually results in the leg becoming detached from the character but still moving when the character does.
   4. Look for what actions have to happen at the same time - do together - and what groups of actions happen one after another - do in order.
   5. Start out ruff and get it working. Break your action down into 3 or 4 major steps and get those working. Then go back and look at each step and see what you can do to make it better.
   6. CRUCIAL when your movement is done ensure that the object is back in its initial position. It may have moved, turned around or whatever but the sub-objects should all be positioned with respect to the main object as they were before the move.
   7. If this is not the case your movement will cause the object to gradually "fall apart" in some way. One or two repetitions of your actions might look okay but 100 reps will cause some weird behaviors.
   8. This is especially true if you have moved a sub-object.
3. Method 2 - Use Poses.
   1. Alice allows you to position a character the way you want and then capture that position as a pose. When, during the movie you change from one pose to the next Alice will not just "flip" from one position to the other but will morph giving a smoother appearance than you would expect.
   2. Caveats
   3. Before you move the object capture an initial pose. This allows you to return to the objects initial "configuration" i.e. all the sub-parts are back in place.
   4. Before capturing a pose ensure the object you want is selected. If you move an arm, an leg and a foot and then capture the pose, that pose will likely be created on the object's foot. Later when you look for it on the object it won't be there. The pose still exists but you are looking at the whole object if you navigate to the foot you will see the pose.
   5. Name the pose. While pose 1 and pose 2 might be fine if you only have two poses in the movie, when you have 6 poses you will be tearing your hair out trying to remember whether it was pose 2 or pose 4 that you want to use. This is especially true when you are trying to use something in week 7 that you created in week 4.
   6. Remember you can move an object or sub-object during development either by using the mouse or by right clicking on the object/sub-object, selecting the action (turn, roll...) I find that sometimes the mouse is better and sometimes using the instruction is better depending on what I am trying to do.
4. You can use a blend of instructions and poses to accomplish your objectives.

Use these steps incrementally. Don't try to get everything working at the start concentrate on one part. Once that is done start looking at the next part.

This means that in general the mistakes you see are a result of the code you just wrote. Since you know the last step was working. Going for the all in one approach leads to a situation where, if the action does not work as expected, you have no idea where to start looking for the problem.

[Riencrehe]

Hi,
I am new here, I joined on this forum this week.