STEP A: Add a Mesh

1. Import a 12meter Cylinder (Click HERE to get it) .
2. Go to Effect Tab, select Cylinder in object list, Choose Bone_Deform, Click Add Effect button.

Notes:

1. Red outline around main window.  This means that the selected object (now the bone deform) is in stup mode. For bones, setup mode is where you setup the bones, i.e. The bone positions before they start deforming the object.
   It is not a keyframed state, rather, the starting position of the bones in the skeleton.
2. Use Cntl+Alt+drag to reposition the object in the orthogonal views.

Suggestion:

1. Print out the keyboard commands from the HTML Manual.  You'll learn a lot just having them as a reference.

STEP B: Add a Skelton, Pt.1

1. Open the Animate Tab.  You are still in setup mode-note that the "Setup Subtab" is forward.  Click the "Keys Subtab" to see what happens when you go out of setup mode. Go back to setup mode before proceeding.  Click  "Add Child" to add first bone.
2. Set Length of bone to 1. Move Child to Z = -6.

Notes:

1. You now have a 1 meter bone positioned at the bottom (Back, actually), of a 12 meter tube.
2. The tube was laid out on the Z axis so the bones wouldn't have to be rotated to align them to the tube object.
3. With the main window active, use the escape key to turn off the edit spheres (compare to previous screen grab).

STEP C: Add a Skelton, Pt. 2

1. Click "Add Child" 11 more times.

Notes:

1. You now have a 12 meter tube with twelve 1 meter bones placed evenly along the length.
2. F2 and F3 will toggle the file list window (or command list window) between 2 sizes.
3. "a" will center your object in the animation window

STEP D: Get out of Setup Mode

1. Select any bone in the heirarchy (bone deform effect), then select the Keys Subtab.  This takes the whole bone heirarchy out of setup mode and ready to be animated.
   Note how the red line is in the Animation Window has been changed to blue.

Notes:

1. Any individual objects (not sure if that includes all possible item types) in the item list can be in setup mode or keys mode. Use the Keys and Setup Subtabs of the Animate tab to change this state.
2. The bones have been set to invisible (The "N" in the visibility column).  The following modifiers make this easy to do (Thanks to Ron Griswold for posting this):
   
   1. Holding down ctl while changing the visibility of an object will change all of it's descendants as well.
   2. Holding down shift will get the current item and all items on the same hierarchical level that are below the current item in the list.
   3. You can also use a combination of ctl and shift, if you use this combo on the first item in the list you will be effecting all objects in the scene

STEP E: Create a Keyframed Shape

Lets add some keyframes.  Grab the bar where the frame numbers reside and drag it up to expose the graph editor.  Go to Frame 10 by dragging the yellow pointer to frame 10.  Sculpt the tube into the shape of the letter "A".  Select a few of the bones and use rotation, position, and scale keyframes to shape the tube.  Using more than just rotation will be useful in a later part of this tutorial.  Drag the yellow frame indicator between 0 and 10 to see your masterpiece in motion.

Notes:

1. Caution: When editing keyframes in the Animaiton Window, if you don't have the edit sphere displayed, you need to drag directly on the object you want to modify.  If you drag in the Animation Window outside your object, the modifications will be applied to the last modified keyframe.
2. Use the "{}" to change the size of the edit sphere.
3. Use the arrow keys to select items in the object list.
4. Use the "a" to zoom either the Animation Window or the Graph Window to the current object or keyframes
5. Use "0" to cycle Move, Rotate, Scale. Use 1-9, to select invidual channels. Just try'em out.
6. Use "n" to get to the animation window.
7. Use Cntrl + Right/Left arrow to jump to keyframes.
8. Use the middle mouse button to select objects.

STEP F: Use a Motion Clip to copy a keyframe for multiple objects.

MessiahABC05.fxs would be the starting file for this steps F & G.

Next we'll go to F20 and sculpt the letter B, but we'll take the long route. A useful procedure is to be able to copy keyframes from a group of objects in a single step, in this case a heirarchy of bones.  There may be more than one way to do this in Messiah, but one technique is to use a motion clip.  Before we shape the "B", let's reset the object to it's initial position by copying the keyframes from F0 to F20.
Now watch this carefully, because it's VERY USEFUL.

1. Activate the Edit Tab and choose the Motion Clip option from the module sub tab (Shortcut: m).
2. In the Create (i.e. Create Motion Clip) subtab, make sure "selected objects" is the chosen in the popup menu and "Record Descendents" is checked.
3. Select the "Skeleton:Bone_Deform" effect, "Record Descendents" will insure that all the keyframes in the bones in the heirarchy will be copied into the Motion Clip.
4. We are only copying 1 keyframe for all of the objects, so set the in/out points of the graph editor to 0 and 1. Motion Clips can be of any temporal length, but we only want to copy the keyframes at frame 0, setting the in/out points controls this.  If your current keyframe indicator is not at F0, move it there.  This is not necessary at this point, but it will be in an upcoming step.
5. Click the Copy button, note how the message in the animation window says "Motion Clip: 13 Objects".  Cool.  We just copied all the keyframes from the Skeleton:Bone_Deform and 12 bones.
6. Save your file, and lets play around with this a bit more before we move on.  Here we have a function which should prove to be very useful, so lets get comfortable with it.  Consider that the Motion Clip is a motion clipboard.  It stores one motion at a time, just as the Operating System Clipboard stores one piece of digital information.  Select the Camera from the objects list and click the copy button.  Note the message in the Animation Window.  Use the shift key to select the Camera and the Cylinder Object, then click copy - observe the message.  Try one of the bones.  Try 2 of the bones.  Turn off the "Record Descendents" button and try a few more.  Use the "Control" key to select objects which are not next to each other.  You get the picture...
   Okay.  So make sure "Record Descendents" is on and select either the Skeleton:Bone_Deform or the topmost bone to which you have assigned a keyframe (probably Bone_1) and use the copy button to create a motion clip.

Notes:

1. The Motion Clips function could be used to copy and save motions from multiple objects as well.  It has plenty of other bells and whistles that we haven't even touched on here.  Read about it in the manual.
2. There are several ways to set the In/Out points, consult the manual

STEP G: Use a Motion Clip to paste a keyframe for multiple objects.

Now this is a bit tricky, so be patient and be prepared to experiment a bit to become familiar.

1. Activate the Paste Tab of the motion clip module
2. Click "Perform Match" and note the message in the animation window says "13 Objects Matched". The item list shows that for each bone, it has found a corresponding object which matches and will receive a keyframe during the paste.
3. Set the offset to 20, Frames to 1.
4. Click "Reset Clip Range"
5. Move the out point in the motion graph past F20.  It appears that P:M won't paste keys outside the active range.
6. Click Paste.
7. Drag the current frame cursor between FF0-20 or hit the play button.  Your tube should now fold into an "A" from FF0-10 and unfold from FF11-20. Cool.
8. Again, lets consider what is going on here.  P:M has stored our Motion Clip and its still there.  There are other things we could do with it at this point:
   1. If it were more than one KF in length, we could stretch it during the paste.
   2. We can paste it in more than one place.
   3. We could save it in a library and use it elsewhere.
   4. We can use other functions in P:M and when we return, the Motion Clip will still be there.
   5. ....
9. Save your file and try this:
   Note the new bordered rectangle which shows up in the Motion Graph during the paste procedure.  This controls the pasting of the motion.
   1. Grab the green triangle on this box and drag it approximately to F15. Look at the offset box to when you finish dragging to see where it really is.  (The red handle on the box will resize it, which I think will tell P:M to stretch the motion - this wouldn't work in our case because we only have one KF).
   2. Click the "Quantize Keys" box, this will tell P:M to paste the KF on a whole number Frame (as opposed to a fractional frame).  Click Paste again.  Click the play button.
   3. Click on your new keyframe.  The current time marker should jump to it (Jumping to selected keys can be set in the "Keyframe Editing" module of the Edit Tab).  Select your new keyframe by dragging w/LMB in Motion Graph.  The message "1 Key Selected" should appear in the Animation Window.  Press the delete button to bring up the "Delete Key" dialogue.  The current Frame Number should be listed in the "Delete Key" dialogue box, if you need to enter a different number, be sure to press the tab key after entering it, select "All objects", and click ok.
   4.  If you have trouble deleting the keyframe for all objects, go to the animate tab ("n"), click on the keyframe to select it and make sure the current time jumps to it, then press the delete key and choose the "All Objects" option.  This should also work if you want to get rid of a fractional KF

Suggestion:

1. Whenever you want to test out a new feature, put away your complex setup of meshes and bones and create a simple scene with a few spheres which have very simple keyframed motion.  Test out the copying, pasting, stretching, shrinking, etc. w/a simple scene to learn how the functions work.

Step H. Create a new Shapes at F20 and F30.

1. We didnt really keep track of which bones we added keyframes to when we shaped our letter "A"at F10.  But when we shape our letter "B", which is a much more complicated shape than "A", we will probably need to add a keyframe to every bone. You don't really need to know which bones have keyframes at F10, but if you did want to know, you could use the arrow key to successively select each bone in the list while at the same time watching the motion graph.  You would see the keyframes appear for the objects that have them.  What we do want to do at this point is create a keyframe for every bone at F10.  This will insure that our cylinder will hold its shape at that frame.  If we didn't do this, then the bones which didn't have a KF at F10 would move smoothly from their settings at F0 to the settings we are going to add at F20.  This would probably ruin our "A" shape.  To create a KF for all the bones at F10, move the current frame marker to F10. Select bone_1 and press enter.  In the Create Key Dialoge, choose the "Current Item and Descendants" option.
2. Now go to F20 and shape a "B".  Don't worry if it isn't beautiful, that's not the point of this excercise.  Click the Play Button.  It may not be a T-Rex catching a Teradactlyl in mid-air, but it should be interesting...
3. Use the techniques discussed so far to create the shape of the letter "C" at F30.  Play and watch the magic.
4. For purposes of this excercise, we will want a keyframe for each bone when we form the letters, so select bone_1, go to frame 20 and press enter to open the "Create Key" dialog.  Select the "Heirarchy" option.  Do the same at F30.

Step I. So what's all this stuff about CycleMorphBranchFrame and Sliders?

MessiahABC07.fxs would be the starting file for this Step I&J.

So what if these Keyframes were really complex poses that we had spent painstaking hours to compose?  We'd want to get maximum flexibility out of timing them, blending them, repeating them, etc.  The CycleMorphBranchFrame (CBMF) expression allows us to reference the pose at a given frame.  Attaching CBMF to a slider or a complex expression adds greater control and flexibility.  Let's take a look.

1. Start by moving our keyframes out of the way.  Just as copying keyframes simultaneously from multiple objects is very useful, so is moving them.  P:M lets you use negative keyframes, so lets move our 3 poses to keys -1, -2, and -3.  Go to F10 and select the "A" keyframe.  Select Bone_1 in the item list and press the "\" Backslash key to bring up the Move Dialog.  The "Move Key At" field should be set to your current frame (10).   Enter "-1" in the "To" field and be sure to press tab so the number is entered.  Choose the "Current Item and Descendents" option.  Your keyframe should be moved to F-1.  Repeat this procedure, moving the "B" keyframes at F20 to F-2, and the "C" KeyFrames at F30 to F-3.  The navigation arrow next to the "Center" button on the Motion Graph will allow you to scroll the Motion Graph so you can see the Keframe values at the negative Frames.  Click on each of these frames to devance the cursor there and make sure the shapes are correct.  If some of your bones in the original poses weren't keyframed, these keyframes might be off...

Step J. Setting up the expression.

1. Go to the Command Tab and click the "New Expression" button in the Expression Subtab.  In the name field type CBFM -1 or whatever you want to name this first expression.  This first expression will use the motion of the skeleton at F-1 and morph to it over 10FF.  Don' worry about the other settings on this tab at this time.
2. Select the Functions Subtab.  This screen makes it easy to setup the expression.  From the pop out menu choose CycleBranchMorphFrame.  This function has 5 parameters, and they are quite simple:
   1. Source object
   2. Target object
   3. Motion Channels. (In this case we've selected all the motion, but note the other options.)
   4. Frame number from which to copy the motion.
   5. Float = Morph amount.  This can be any legal mathmatical expression.  Even a simple number will work.  When the float is equal to one, the Target object will receive 100% of the effect.
3. For starters, select the options as listed in the picture above, but instead of NOW/10 in field 5, just type in a "1" (No Quotes).
4. Right click next to the pop out menu and the expression will be copied into the Command List and into the "Exp" field.
5. Drag the Current frame marker around the Motion Graph and you should see the "A" shape all the time.  The skeleton is now being controlled by the expression, which is set to look at the motion at F-1, and to Morph to 100% of the value at F-1 because the Float (or Morph amount) is always equal to 1.
6. The Text String NOW (uppercase is important) tells P:M to use the value of the current frame in the expression. For example, NOW would be equal to. 1,2, and 3 at F1, F2 and F3 respectively.  The Mathmatical Expression NOW/10 would thus be equal to 1/10, 2/10, 3/10, etc. as the animation proceeds forward from F0.  When it reaches F10, NOW/10 will be equal to 10/10 or 1, so our Float will be equal to 100% at that frame.  You can change the expression by editing the text directly in the "Exp" field.  Change the value of the float from 1 to NOW/10.  Press enter to change the expression in the Command List.   Drag the Current Time Marker around.  Note what happens after F10 and before F0.  The motion of the skeleton is added to itself (or subtracted on the negative side of the Motion Graph)... or something like that.  Anyway, what is important is that you are controlling the skeleton with a mathematcal expression.
7. Go back to the Expression Tab and hit the "Copy Expression" tab.  A copy of CBFM-1 is added to the Command List.  In the "Name" field, change CBFM-1 to CBFM-2 and hit enter.
8. Go back to the Functions tab, select CBFM-2, and in the "Exp" field, change the frame field to -2, and the float to 1.  The expression will be:
   CycleBranchMorphFrame(Skeleton,Skeleton,motion,-2,1).  You could even copy it from this web page and paste it in.  Now we have setup conflicting messages (2 expressions which take total control of the motion of the skeleton), how do you think P:M will choose?  Drag the Current Frame marker to see.  All we see is the "B" shape.  Does it choose the the bottomost expression?  No. It evaluates all the expressions from top to bottom, and in this case, the value of the bottom expression totally replaces that of the top one.  Want proof?
9. Turn off the CBFM-2 expression by clicking the switch next to the IK cell in the Command List.  Drag the Current Frame Marker around.   CBFM-1 rules!
10. Lets have a bit more fun.  Set the inpoint to 0, outpoint to 100.  Hit play.  The tube is winding itself into a tangled mess. Cool.  Without turning off the playback, click the switch next to the CBFM-2 expression to turn it back on.  P:M immediately updates itself and the tube assumes the "B" shape.  Switch CBFM-2 off and select CBFM-1, the expression for CBFM-1 will appear in the "Exp" field.  Add another "0" to the float in the CBFM-1 expression so that the float is equal to NOW/100, hit enter.  The tube now morphs into the "A" shape in 100 frames.  Don't turn off the playback yet.  Turn CBFM-2 back on.  In the Command List, click on the cell containing "IK" next to CBFM-1, it changes so that its expression will be evaluated after IK.
    
    Now it morphs from the "B" shape to the "A".  I'm not really sure why this happens, but its pretty cool.  Experiment a bit more (try changing the float in CBFM-2 to .5), then take a break.

Notes:

1. You can do lots of stuff during playback in P:M.

Step K. Adding a Slider

               Slider before hiding and renaming channels

                     Slider after hiding and renaming channels

1. Go to the File Tab and add a slider using the "Add" Subtab.  Rename the slider to "LetterShape" using the "Name" Subtab.  Note that when the slider is selected, it appears in the Animation Window.  Go to the Animate tab, and with the LetterShape Slider selected, right click on the colored boxes next to channels 4, 5, and 6.  This will turn off the display of those channels in the Animation Window.
   Rename the xpos channel to A, ypos to B, and zpos to C.  Note that the slider has a drag box and a resize box.

   Notes:

   1. If the slider disappears while you're working, go to the animate tab and select it from the item list.

Step L. Setup the sliders to control the animation

1. Go to the Command Taband turn off CBMF-2.  Activate the Functions Subtab .  Select CBMF-1 and change the float to [LetterShape:xpos] so that the expression reads:
   CycleBranchMorphFrame(Skeleton,Skeleton,motion,-1,[LetterShape:xpos])
   This will cause the value of the float for CBMF-1 to be obtained from the xpos channel of the LetterShape Slider.  Note that even though we renamed the xpos of the LetterShape Slider to "A", you still need to call it by it's default channel name (in this case, xpos) in the expression .  Set the current frame to 0 and drag the slider "A" back and forth. Observe how the slider now controls the tube changing into shape "A".  Set it to 0.  Change the outpoint and the current Frame to F10 and drag the slider "A" to 1 (all the way to the right).  It will create a keyframe for the slider.  Hit play.  The keyframing of the "A" channel of the slider now controls the bending of the object into the "A" shape.
2. Turn CBMF-2 back on and select it.  Change the float to [LetterShape:ypos] so that the expression reads:
   CycleBranchMorphFrame(Skeleton,Skeleton,motion,-2,[LetterShape:ypos]).
   This will cause the value of the float for CBMF-2 to be obtained from the ypos channel of the LetterShape Slider (which we have renamed to B).
   Just as before, the shape of the tube is controlled by both expressions, but now the float in both expressions is controlled by a slider.  At each frame CBMF-1 is evaluated first, which bends the tube to some percentage of the "A" shape, then CBMF-2 is evaluated.   CBMF-2 starts where CBMF-1 left off, which is some percent of the "A" shape.
3. Setup a simple animation to bend from "A" to "B".  Go to the Animate Tab, expand the LetterShape Slider in the item list and select "B".  Go to F10 and hit enter.  This will create a keyframe for "B" with the value of 0.  We don't want the tube to start bending into the "B" shape until it has finished bending into "A".  By making B = 0, the float for CBMF-2 will also be 0.  Click the Linear Button for linear interpolation.   Change the outpoint and the current Frame to F20 and drag the slider "B" to 1 (all the way to the right).  It will create a keyframe for the slider.  Hit play.  The tube bends to the "A"shape from F0-10, then to B from F10-20.
   Quick reminder:
   Slider B=0 from F0-10, so it causes CBMF-2 to equal 0 during those frames.
   Slider A=1 from F10 on, so as the expressions are evaluated from F10 on, the tube will be bent all the way to the "A" first.

Step L. Finish the animation, play around a bit more, Go start your masterpiece.

1. Go back to the Expression SubTab of the Command Tab and select CBMF-1.  Use the Copy Exp button to make a copy and rename it to CBMF-3.
2. Activate the Functions Subtab .  Select CBMF-3.  Change the Frame number to -3, and change the float to [LetterShape:zpos] so that the expression reads:
   CycleBranchMorphFrame(Skeleton,Skeleton,motion,-3,[LetterShape:zpos])
   This will cause the value of the float for CBMF-3 to be obtained from the zpos channel of the LetterShape Slider (which we have renamed to C)
   This adds a third expression which also controls the shape of the tube.  Based on our previous setup and discussion of expressions we know:
   1. The expression CBMF-3 will bend the skeleton to the shape at F-3, which we setup as a "C" shape.
   2. CBMF-3 will be evaluated after the other 2 because it is at the bottom of the list.
   3. The value of the float for CBMF-3 will be obtained from the slider C.
3. Add a bend from "B" to "C".  Go to the Animate Tab, expand the LetterShape Slider in the item list and select "C".  Go to F20 and hit enter.  This will create a keyframe for "C" with the value of 0.  We don't want the tube to start bending into the "C" shape until it has finished bending into "B".  By making C = 0, the float for CBMF-3 will also be 0.  Click the Linear Button for linear interpolation.   Change the outpoint and the current Frame to F30 and drag the slider "C" to 1 (all the way to the right).  It will create a keyframe for the slider.  Hit play.  The tube bends to the "A"shape from F0-10, then to B from F10-20, then to C from F20-30.
4. Okay, we're done, we've explored some of the basics.  Before you go back to working on that masterpiece, try one more goofy thing.  With the use of expressions, math can become another experimental tool, just like a photoshop filter.  If your so inclined, you can play with it.  Delete all your expressions and slider keyframes.  The best way I've found to delete multiple keyframes from multiple objects is to use the motion clips panel ("m"). Set the in/out points to include the keyframes you want to eliminate.  In the Create Subtab, , select the object (in this case the slider), then click the cut button.  Go to the Command Tab, create a new expression and try this (copy and paste):
   CycleBranchMorphFrame(Skeleton,Skeleton,motion,-2,([LetterShape:ypos]+[LetterShape:xpos])*(1/atan([LetterShape:zpos])))
   Then move the sliders around and watch the tube twist.  What we have is a complex mathmatical equation being used to control the combination of the 3 Keyframed states.  It is developed by goofing around.  It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to look cool.
   Have fun.