Animation Player has the ability to load a selection of mocap and Timeline animations in the current scene using the characters we select.
Animation Player does not store the scenes, it only has a small database that indicates how to blend them into the current scene. The plugin will show a message if you try to load an animation that you don't have installed and it will ask you to go to the author's download page.
The advantage of using this plugin is evident:
Without Animation Player:
- Load one scene
- Customize the characters
- Play the animation
- Load another scene
- Customize the characters all over again
- Play the animation
- and again... and again ...
With Animation Player
- Load one scene
- Customize the characters
- Select and play animations.
Mode of use
For testing purposes you can try the Animations scene first which comes with the plugin (it should appears in your scene list) it have some basic floor and one default male and female.
- Start by defining the spawn point. Press Setup Spawn Point and wait till the plugin create and select a small blue sphere. Place this sphere wherever you want. The animations will be located around and above the center of this sphere.
- Return to the plugin and choose your characters, expand the menu from each popup and select each person you have.
- Press Open Animation to select an animation. Then press the play button (Start Playback) in your Virt-A-Mate main toolbar to start the animation.
Included animations (v1.0)
In principle Animation Player allows to load the animations that come with Virt-A-Mate by default. Just in case you don't have them or you have deleted them, I include a zip with 3 .var files (CC-BY license by MeshedVR) drop them into your AddonPackages. The plugin will notify if you don't have them.
The animations are separated into 3 categories:
- The root folder which contains the most basic animations that does not require creating any new objects.
- The Asset Animations folder which contains animations with some sort of furniture, like a bed or a chair. It is recommended to locate the spawn point on a place with a large empty space around it.
- The Environment Animations folder which contains animations with almost everything from the original scene. Some scenes work or makes sense only this way. It is recommended to play these animations over empty scenes as they need a lot of free space around. Note that some environments are slow to load.
Keybindings
Animation Player is integrated with Keybindings (this is not mandatory, use it if you want). Keybingdings is an Acid Bubbles plugin that allows to assign keyboard shortcuts to more than 200 Virt-a-Mate commands. You can download the plugin here:
https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/keybindings.4400/
- Add Keybindings as session plugin
- Search for "animationplayer"
- Adjust keyboard shortcuts to your liking. You can map Setup Spawn location and Open Animation.
- Remember to press the Save button to save the changes!
Tip: to clear a binding, click on the box and then click outside.
Future versions
To finish I want to say that the main objetive is to start adding more and more animations to build a huge library to play with. Additionally, I want to automate the import of new scenes, so you can add your own, which is not an easy task since every animation is different but I'll find a way.