8
Transition Editor 903
andstoredintheTransitionEditorrepresenting
that transition. If, for example, you create 5
different transitions between two clips for one
script, all of these transitions are available in a
new script that uses the same two clips. Think
of Motion Flow Graph as a data storage area; if
all of the scripts are deleted, the transitions are
preservedandcanbestoredina
.mfe
file.
Automatic Tra nsitions
When you create a script, default transitions are
used b etween the clips. Default transitions use
minimum motion loss and are quick to compute.
However, the best qualit y transitions are the
optimized transit ions. Once the Transition Editor
is open, the first thing to try, before manual
editing, are the optimized transitions (upper-right
corner of the dialog).
Length ( Transition Duration)
Set the duration of a transition in the Length field.
A value of 10, for example, creates a transition
of 10 frames between the source and destination
clips. During the period of t ransition, the velocity
of the source clip is interpolated to the velocity of
the destination clip. If the transition takes place at
the last f rame of the source clip and the first frame
of the destination clip, and Length is set to 10, then
thelastframeofthesourceclipisinterpolatedwith
the first 10 frames of the destination clip.
Editing Tr ansitions Manual ly (Ghosts)
Manually setting the Start Frame for the source
and destination clips offers the most control.
Unwanted motion in either clip can be avoided
and judging the best Start Frames for both clips is
left to you.
The Ghost area Frame spinners allow you to view
andscrubthesourceanddestinationclipsby
displaying stick figures (ghosts); yellow and red
stick figures represent the source and destination
clips. When a suitable Start Frame is located for
both clips, use Set Start Frame in the Ghost area to
copytheFramevaluestotheStartFramefieldsin
the Source and Destination Clip areas.
Scrubbing the time slider over the transition
period enables you to view the biped’s transition
from the yellow stick figure (source) to the red
stick figure (destination).
Other Transition Editor Features
Rolling and Fixed specify whether a clip is rolling
(in motion) or fixed (single frame) during the
transition. Change the direction of the dest ination
clip using the Angle field.
Other parameters in the Transition Editor allow
you to create and name new transitions, scroll
through the s aved transitions, jump to the
transition-starting frame, set automatic transition
parameters, and go to the next transition in the
script
All transitions and their attributes are saved with
a
.mfe
file.
See
Customizing Tr ansitions (page 2–885)
to
manually and automatically customize transitions.
Interfa ce