In most cut-scenes, it is far easier to bring in authored animation on characters and even objects from a DCC tool such as 3ds Max.
To be able to play these animations back in the Track View is a valuable tool as it allows for more customization in what they want to achieve.
Let's play some animation on an entity in the Track View:
- Add an object of interest to the scene, for the camera to focus on.
- In this example, you will add a human character, with a simple animation.
- Select the AnimObject in the RollupBar and drag it into the level. With the AnimObject selected, click Entity Properties in the RollupBar and set the string of the model to a human character.
objects/characters/neutral_male/sdk_character_male.cdf - In the Track View, click the Add Selected Node icon. With the AnimObject added, you can now add an animation track to animate the character.
- Right-click the entity and on the Add Track menu, click Animation.
- Select an animation for the character.
- Double-click at frame 0 to add a key in the event track, and then select the key to bring up the Key Properties section.
- Then, from the drop-down list, select the standup_tocombat_nw_back_01 animation:
The AnimObject entities can have the animation track, which allows us to add pre-authored animations to the entity in the game. This is preferable for many cut-scenes where AI would be inefficient or difficult to perform the exact same movements at the right times.
It is typical to hide an AI entity and then to unhide the AnimObject version of the AI for the cut-scenes.
You may want to know how to set up a looping animation or how to adjust the start time and time scale for the animation on the entity.
Should you want the animation asset to loop on the character, you can simply set the loop Boolean to True. This will loop the asset until told to stop.
