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Animation Features

Bryce has several special features that let you add extra effects to your animations:

Time Mapping Curves

Time Mapping Curves are graphical representations of the time mapping filter. The filter remaps the time in your animation, so that the events that occur at specific times in your animation occur differently in actual time.

By adjusting the shape of the curve, you can control how fast events occur. When you create a sharp jump in the curve, you speed up the events in your animation. When you flatten the curve, you slow down key events.

Each property of your scene can have a different curve, so you can have key events occurring at different speeds. Refer to "Time Mapping Curve Editor" for more on Time Mapping Curves.

The curve acts like a filter. Time from the actual animation is remapped according to the shape of the curve to produce the final time. Depending on the shape of the curve, events can occur faster, or slower.

Time Mapping curves can only remap the time available in the animation. You cannot add more time, or reduce the amount of time in an animation.

Editing Time Mapping Curves

The horizontal axis in the editor displays all the time in the animation. The vertical axis displays the time map for the properties' timeline. The key events recorded for an object property are displayed as horizontal dotted lines. The curve in the middle represents the time mapping filter. The point where the curve intersects a key event line tells you exactly when an event occurs.

The default time mapping curve for any property is a diagonal line. In this curve, time is not being remapped since events occur at the same time along both the horizontal and vertical axes.

When you change the shape of the default curve, you're remapping time.

For example, if you make the curve convex, events occur later in the animation, but they're closer together which means the action at that point in your animation will speed up.

Different curve shapes represent different time mapping effects. A flat curve means that no motion is occurring since all the events on the curve are happening at exactly the same point in time.

A steep jump in the curve indicates a sharp increase in speed, as many events occur in a very short time.

An oscillation in the curve, indicates that events repeat, since they intersect the curve more than once.

You can combine any variation of curve slopes to create different velocity effects.

While you're editing a Time Mapping curve, you may want to continuously run the animation preview. As the preview runs, the cross-hairs in the Time Mapping editor move from the beginning of the animation to the end. This way you can quickly see the effects of your edits. Refer to "Previewing Animations" for more on continuous preview.

The counter at the bottom of the editor shows you the current time of the animation. As the animation runs, the counter updates to continuously show the current time.

You can also move the current time by dragging the Current Time bar in the Hierarchy area.

To edit a Time Mapping curve:

1 Display the Advanced Motion Lab.

2 Click the name of the object whose properties you want to remap

3 Click the name of the property you want to remap.

4 In the Time Mapping Editor, click a point on the curve and drag it to a new location.

5 Continue dragging points until you achieve the desired shape.

To zoom into an area of the Time Mapping curve:

1 Move the cursor over the curve in the Time Mapping Editor.

2 Click and drag over an area of the curve. When you release the mouse, the area is enlarged.

To zoom out of an area in the Time Mapping curve:
To pan the Time Mapping curve:

To reset the view in the Curve Editor, press Command/Ctrl + Shift + Click.

Animating Transformations

When you're in Auto-Key mode, every transformation you apply to an object is recorded as a key frame.

In the Hierarchy area you can see where the key frames for these transformations appear in the timeline. By moving these key frames you can control the order in which transformations are applied. For example, you can take an object that grows larger and then moves left, and turn it into an object that moves left and then grows. Several animation techniques, like squash and stretch, can be simulated using transformations.

Refer to "Animating Transformations" for more on animating transformations.

Animating Materials

The Materials Lab has its own set of animation tools that let you animate material properties. You can animate almost any property or texture.

When you're animating between textures, Bryce interpolates between patterns and colors over time. You can have a rocky terrain turn into a desert during the course of your animation.

Refer to "Animating Materials" for more on animating materials.

Animating Terrains

The Terrain Editor has a set of animation tools that let you animate a terrain over time. You can animate the shape of the terrain, or the filtering effects like Erosion or Mounds.

Using these tools, you can create a terrain that changes shape as time passes.

Refer to "Animating Terrains" for more on animating terrains.

Animating Skies

The Sky & Fog palette and the Environmental Attributes dialog have a number of controls that let you set the properties of your environment. By changing these properties over the course of an animation, you can animate your environment. For examples, you can make clouds move, or gradually change the time of day.

Refer to "Animating Skies" for more on animating skies.


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