DriveWorks Pro 22

Animate Scale

Animate Scale

The Animate Scale entity lets you animate the scale of a Node in a 3D scene over a given time period. The entity lets you set the animation type, the time frame and the new target scale. When the entity is enabled the Node will scale to the new target scale as specified in the animation.

The Animate Scale entity is great for animating models in a scene. It can be used to make your models more interactive and animated. The Animate Scale entity can be used to animate the size of models in your 3D scene.

The example above uses the Animate Scale entity to change the size of the filing cabinet. The uprights, sides and drawers will show the scaling in size animation when the measurements of the cabinet are altered. The top of the cabinet uses an Animate Translation entity to move the top of the cabinet to correspond with the scale of the other models.

In the above example the drawers also use Animate Scale. They have been scaled down to 0 in the Z and Y axis to give the impression that the drawers disappear into the model.

The Animate entities use Easing Curves to perform the animations. They are commonplace on the web and in 3D. They are basic forms of animation that allow you to add further realism to a model or scene.

Information Panel

With the model Node selected and the Animate Scale entity added to the Node, the following will be displayed in the Information Panel:

Animate Scale Enabled

Enable and disable the Animate Scale entity. Disabling the entity will stop any animation being run and the Node will stay at its current scale.

Target

Target is the new scale or target for the Node to animate towards. Target can be specified in two ways. You can target another Node in a DriveWorks 3D Document or you can enter the scale as a pipe delimited list (X|Y|Z).

• Target a Node

  Root\Model\Model-1

• Target a scale

  20|90|30 - X|Y|Z

Duration

Duration controls the length of the animation in seconds.

Ease Type

Animate Scale uses easing curves to perform animation. They are predefined curves that control the animations behavior. Ease type is the type of curve to use. They are split into "In | Out | InOut | OutIn". These effect the behavior of the chosen curve.

Ease Curve

Ease Curve is the animation curve you will use. This defines the path and animation behavior for the Node. Easing functions are common in web and 3D animation. You can find out more about Easing Functions here.

On Complete Macro Name

On Complete Macro Name is used to specify a Specification Macro Name. This runs a Specification Macro at the end of the animation letting you trigger other events or further animations.

On Complete Macro Argument

One Complete Macro Argument is used to specify an argument for the Specification Macro that is running. This argument is passed into the Specification Macro like any other Specification Macro in DriveWorks.

Parameter Panel

With the model Node selected and the Animate Scale entity added to the Node, the following will be displayed in the Parameter Panel:

• Animate Scale Enabled

  Animate Scale controls the enabled state of the Animate Scale entity. Enter either TRUE or FALSE to control the enabled state of the entity.

• Target

  Target is the new scale or target for the Node to animate towards. Target can be specified as a Node path or as a scale (X|Y|Z).

• Duration

  Duration controls the length of the animation in seconds. Enter a number.

• Ease Type

  Enter the type of Ease Curve you want to use. These can be one of the following: Out | In | InOut | OutIn.

  This specifies the type of curve to use. This alters the behavior of the curve.

• Ease Curve

  Ease Curve defines the animation curve to use.

  These are as follows:

  • Linear
  • Exponential
  • Circle
  • Quadratic
  • Sine
  • Cubic
  • Quartic
  • Quintic
  • Elastic
  • Bounce
  • Back
• On Complete Macro Name

  On Complete Macro Name is the name of the Specification Macro to run once the animation completes. Enter the Specification Macro name as a string.

• On Complete Macro Argument

  On Complete Macro Argument is used to pass an argument into the Specification Macro Name above.