| ThingMaker Documentation Chapter 3) Introductory Tutorials

| Adding Frames to a Sequence ThingMaker lets you modify animations by adding Frames to a sequence. 1. If you can't see the Gallery Tab, move it so that it and the Settings Sheet are both visible. 2. Make sure the Scene is in Edit mode, the Settings Palette is open and the Thing is selected.

3. Choose MouseOver and click on the Editor Tab.

4. Click and drag the Thing labeled "dog" from the Gallery to the sequence editing tray of the Editor.
When you drag a Thing to the Settings Sheet, it will shrink to a small icon. Then the yellow insertion arrow indicates where the new Frames will be inserted.

5. Release the mouse.
ThingMaker will insert the Frames of the Thing labeled "dog" into the sequence. The Thing labeled "dog" is actually an animation composed of three individual Frames.

You might like to play the Scene and see how the Thing has changed.

For this project, we simply added Frames we had already imported, but you can always also add Frames by importing them as a new Thing into the Gallery and by dragging that Thing or Things to the Animation Editor.

When you drag a Thing to the Editor, ThingMaker takes the media from the Default State of that Thing and adds it to the Frames in the Editor - regardless of the State to which you are adding the Frames. (To learn more about the Animation Editor, see "Adding Frames to a Sequence" in "Animation Editor Settings Sheet" in the Reference.)

Adjusting Frame alignment
If you preview the Frames you just added, you will see that they are aligned correctly. But in this part of the tutorial, you're going to play with Frame alignment so you can learn how to adjust it yourself when the alignment happens to be off.

1. Click on the fifth Frame in the Frame Sequence Editing Tray in the Editor Settings Sheet.
Make sure you have stopped the Scene if it is playing. Go to the Tray and select the fifth Frame. When you click on the Frame, you will also see it in the Scene Window.

2. Click and drag the image on the Scene to change alignment of the Frame.
You changed the alignment of the Thing in its different States by clicking and dragging or you used the cursor keys. Now you can follow the same procedure for aligning individual Frames.

Don't move the Frame too far away from the other Frames or you will have problems with switching States just as you did when we were working on the alignment of the States.

When you drag the Frame, you will see the previous Frames displayed as a ghost image, just as you did when working with alignment for the separate States. This ghost image is called Onion-skinning, and is turned off and on with the Onion-skin parameter in the Editor.

3. Test the Thing by playing it in the Scene
The Frame you moved should jump when the sequence is playing.

Changing the Timing of a Frame
The Animation Editor lets you adjust the amount of time an individual Frame plays in a sequence. Use this parameter when you want one Frame to play for a longer or shorter period of time than other Frames within the sequence. If you want to change the playback speed for all the Frames in the sequence, then you must use the Speed slider in the Animation Basic Settings Sheet.

1. Go back to the Editor for the MouseOver animation.

2. Select the Frame whose alignment you changed.

3. Change the duration field.
When you click on the Frame, a field appears above the Frame; this is the time associated with the Frame. Increasing this number increases the length of time that Frame is displayed, decreasing it shortens the length of time that the Frame is displayed.

Change the number. We suggest you try a number like 500. You may also want to experiment with the Frame duration. Notice what happens when you set it lower and higher.

What does that value represent?
In theory, this number represents the number of milliseconds the Frame will be displayed, but this is only true if the Speed slider in the Basic Settings Sheet is set to normal. If the slider has been moved, it will effect the actual display time. The numbers for each field then become a relative indication of each Frame's duration rather than an actual value.

4. Test the Thing by playing it in the Scene
The Frame you edited should pause for an extended period of time in the Scene.

Deleting Frames from an Animation
Sometimes you want to delete a Frame or Frames that you added to a sequence.

1. Select and drag the last Frame from the Frame Sequence Editing Tray to the Trash Can.
The Frame is deleted.

2. Repeat the process for the other two Frames that you added to the Thing.

Finishing the Thing
You have now completed the tutorial for Animation. If you want to find out more about Animation, turn to the "Animation" section in the Reference.

In the next Tutorial, you will add sound to the Thing that you have just created, so save the Scene by choosing Save from the File Menu. The program will save a *.tms file for you.

<--Previous | table of contents | Next -->