Animate a group as one

Reviewed

A group animation is one pivot track for the group's placed models, lights, sounds and looping effects.

In the menus: ESC → Design → Manage → GROUPS → ANIMATE

Select the GROUPS tab, highlight a group, then press ANIMATE.

The panel works like the single-entity panel. Animate a placed thing covers its playback modes and tickboxes.

What differs is the subject. A key describes the group's pivot pose, a position and a full three-axis rotation. Each animatable member keeps its own offset from that pivot.

Capturing the group's pivot pose

Select PLACE KEYS IN WORLD.

You are put into noclip and key 1 is set at the group's own pivot.

The mode starts with your body as the cursor. Press X to use the surface under your crosshair instead.

Use MOUSE1 to drop a key, E/Q to select a key, R to remove the last key, and MOUSE2 to return to the panel. Selecting a saved key loads its travel, dwell and pivot angles.

Adjust the dials, then press MOUSE1 to update it where it is.

Press Backspace to clear the selected key.

Hold CTRL and press MOUSE1 to move it to your current cursor instead.

TAB cycles Travel, Dwell, Pitch, Yaw, Roll, Z, X and Y, while the mouse wheel adjusts the selected dial.

Travel and the pose dials carry into the next key. Dwell resets after every drop. Pinned key 1 offers only Travel and Dwell.

Re-seating the members

Adding a member during playback keeps the current pivot and the existing members' poses.

Key 1 is the seating reference. Every member's offset is measured from it, so re-setting key 1 re-seats the whole group where it stands.

Move members around after building the track and the keys stay good while the seats go stale. Re-take every member's seat without touching a key:

Playing and stopping a group

  • PLAY needs at least two keys and at least one member that can be animated, meaning a model, a light, a sound or a looping effect.

  • STOP halts the group where it stands.

  • RESET sends it back to the first keyframe.

  • CLEAR deletes every key and leaves the members where they are.

The console-only pause freezes a running group where it is and resume continues from that point. STOP ends the run, so the next PLAY begins again at key 1.

Prefer the console?

Every button sends one /group animate <name> … line. /group itself and the rest of its verbs belong to move things together as a group.

/group animate <name> key <n> remove
/group animate <name> mode <once|loop|pingpong|repeat>
/group animate <name> path <straight|smooth>
/group animate <name> ease <on|off>
/group animate <name> autostart <on|off>
/group animate <name> play|stop|reset|clear
/group animate <name> pause|resume
/group animate <name> rebase