The Animation Sets Window allows you to create and organize animations. You can copy complete animations, split them into separate animations, and join multiple animations into one.
The Animation Sets Window has a combo box that lists animation types, a list box that lists animations of the selected type, and a set of buttons to perform operations on animations. Many buttons operate on all the animations selected in the animation list box.
The animation type combo box allows you to select between skeletal and frame animations. When you select an animation type you will see all animations of that type listed in the animation list box. You can use the standard Ctrl-Click and Shift-Click mouse operations to select multiple animations to operate on.
For more information on animating a model, see the Animations section of the introduction.
Some operations only work on certain types of models.
The Up and Down buttons allow you to re-order existing animations. Select the animations you want to move and click Up to move the animations closer to the top of the list or Down to move the animations closer to the bottom of the list.
The New button creates a new animation. It will prompt you for an animation name and whether to use skeletal or frame animation mode. It also specifies the frame count, frames per-second, and whether to loop the animation (interpolate between the first and last frame).
The Edit button opens a window to change the details for the selected animations. It can change the name, frame count, FPS, and looping. The mode cannot be changed.
The Delete button will delete all selected animations.
The Copy button will create a copy of the selected animations. A new animation is created for each selected animation and contains the same position information, frame count, and frame rate as the original animations. The newly created animations are appended to the end of the animation list.
The Split button will split a selected animation into two separate animations at the frame you specify. The specified frame and all successive frames will be removed from the original animation. The new animation will begin with the specified frame and contain all successive frames.
You will be prompted for a frame number for each selected animation. The new animation will appear immediately following the animation you are splitting.
The Join button will combine all the selected animations into one animation. Each animation will be appended to the one preceding it.
The Merge button will combine two or more animations into one animation of the same length. For example if you have two skeletal animations on a model with two arms and one animation moves the right arm while another moves the left arm, you can use the Merge button to have both arms move at the same time. In order to merge two animations they must have the same frame count.
This button only works for skeletal animations.
The Convert To Frame Animation button will take the currently selected animations and convert them into frame animations. The original animation remains unmodified. This button is useful if you have a set of skeletal animations and want to export the model as an MD2 or MD3, which only support frame animations.
When you select this option you will be prompted by the Covert To Frame Window to provide a name for the new animation and the frame count. The skeletal animation and the frame animation will take the same amount of time to complete, so the frame rate (in frames per second) depends on the frame count of the new animation. In other words:
anim1_frame_count * anim1_fps = anim2_frame_count * anim2_fps
This button only works for skeletal animations.
The Ok button will close the Animation Sets window and keep all of your changes.
The Cancel button will close the Animation Sets window and undo all changes you made since opening it.