Animation element

[alfonso moreno]

Newbie question, sorry.

Does someone could explain me how to use the Animation element or
in which situation it is more useful ?

I don't understand the purpose of this element. It is for doing frame by frame animation ?

Thanks

[blanius]

That is exacly what it is for. It can be usefull, but you can do it with a child movie so not sure why you'd use it.

[cyber reaper]

Description : An animation elment in 3DFA is a movie of its own ,it contain its own timeline and its own paint elements ,also , it can contain action scripts in a certain frame of it to make it do all kind of things such as go backward or even effect its parant movie.
An animation element will run according to the parant movie's FPS rate

NOTE:when a script within an animation element operat an action on the animation itself the command must be : this.command ();

Usage : the animation element is used when you want an element (such as a paint , or even a button) to move around without any relation to the parant movie ,the animation will play all the time unless it will get a command to stop ,it is a useful element for animated buttens to making a slide show with stunning effects (flashing lightbolt which turns on and off ,rotating element etc...).

When should i use Animation and when a child movie :
Child movie
animation element can be replaced with a child movie ,however you must make sure bouth (the parant movie and the child) have the same FPS rate.
the advantage of using child movie insted of an animation is that you cant
creat a "move to" command type in an animation ,which means all motions will be FBF (frame by frame animating).
to put it simple ,you use a child movie over an animation in cases which you want a solid motion ,such as sliding elements and constant rotation or shrink and stretch.

Animation
You WANT to use animation element over to have a child movie when you to creat an element which is FBF animation and will either operate all the time or will be placed later (such as blood squirt for a game ,explosions etc...)
in that case the animation element is better used than child movie since an FBF in a child movie will require lots and lots of show and hide commands , a thing which isnt neccesary with animations

hope thats enough info

Regards.
Cyber Reaper.Animator

[alfonso moreno]

Yes, thank you. it was very clear. I would like that the manual will be as complete as this explanation. :-)