Using The New Timebox Animation Clips

Making a realistically animated 3D scene or movie has traditionally required complicated software plus hard-won animation expertise. But now Timebox 3D Collage Maker version 8.3 makes it easy for everyone to create amazing animated 3D scenes and movies.

Some 3D models have included short clips of animation created by the model's designer that you can use with Timebox or other 3D scene making apps. For example, models of animals may include clips for idling, walking or running.

Before Timebox, it's been difficult or impossible to combine multiple animation clips together to create seamless sequences of animation.

For example, a sequence of a horse idly standing, then turning, then running a short distance and then bending down to eat some grass. In Timebox 8.3 it's  simple to make a sequence like this.

Getting Started with Timebox Animation Clips

1. To start, make a new 3D collage in Timebox using any template, for example "Indoor” or “Building", or use one of your existing 3D collages.

2. Tap the Add ("+") button and choose an animal 3D model which multiple animation clips, like the free "Tabby Cat" which includes 31 animation clips or the free “Zebra” which includes 13 clips.

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Using Animation Clips

1. When you add a 3D model like the Tabby Cat or Zebra that has animation clips for walking, Timebox automatically creates two animation steps for you: a Model Clip for a "Walk" clip to show the animals feet moving and a Go Forward step to actually move the animal model across the floor or ground.

2. To customize the animation, tap the 3D model then the Customize ("paintbrush") button and then tap Animations. You'll see a list of Step Types that you can use as well as any Steps already in the animation sequence for this model. You can add another Step to the sequence by tapping a Step Type.

3. When you first Customize the Animations for a Tabby Cat model, you'll see in the Steps: Model Clip, Walk Forward IP 1 sec" and connected to it, the next step "Go Forward, 1 sec." This means that the cat will "walk" in-place for 1 second and also move forward for 1 second at the same time.

4. If you want the cat to walk more than 1 second, the best thing to do is increase the Repeat count of the Model Clip step, for example from 1 to 3. When you do this, Timebox will automatically update the associated Go Forward step to 3 seconds to match the time that the "Walk" clip will now run.

5. If you also want to make the cat walk more (or less) distance in the 3 seconds, tap on the Go Forward step and increase (or decrease) the Distance. It's also good to adjust the Distance if the movement of the feet of the animal don't seem to match the distance being moved, for example the animal seems to be sliding across the ground or just not quite right.

6. Sometimes it takes a bit of experimentation to get the "walk" or "run" animation clip to visibly match the Go Forward (or Go Backward) movement Step.

Changing Clips

1. If the 3D animal model includes other clips you can change the current clip to a different clip by tapping the Model Clip step in the Steps,  then tapping Clip to Play and then choosing, for example in the Tabby Cat model, "Run forward IP" or one or more in-place "idle" clips like "Eat 1" or "Drink" or more action-oriented clips like "Attack" or "Hit."

2. When you change a Model Clip step from a "walk" clip to a "run" clip, Timebox automatically increases the Distance for the connected Go Forward step.

Other Clip Settings

1. You can also adjust the playing Time for a Model Clip step. However, it may seem a bit counterintuitive how it affects your model's animation. When you increase the Time for a clip, Timebox will stretch out all the model motions in the clip to fill the increased time, slowing the motions down a bit like slow-motion. Conversely, when you decrease the Time for a clip, it will speed up the motions to fit them all in the decreased time, a bit like fast-motion.

2. The Play next step at the same time setting on a step basically joins one step with the following step so they both play their animations at the same time. This setting is automatically enabled when you add or change a step with a “walk” or “run” clip, joining it with a Go Forward or Go Backward movement step. You can set it yourself on a Model Clip step when a model like Horse includes “Turning R” or “Turn L” clips and and you want to join them with Turn Right or Turn Left movement steps.