IClone 4.31 3D Animation Beginner''''s Guide potx

iClone 4.31 3D Animation
Beginner's Guide
Animate your stories and ideas to create realisc scenes
with this movie making applicaon geared towards new and
inexperienced lm makers, video producers / compositors,
vxf arsts, and 3D arsts / designers
M.D. McCallum
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Downloa d f r o m W o w ! e B o o k < w w w.woweb o o k . c o m >
iClone 4.31 3D Animation
Beginner's Guide
Copyright © 2011 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
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publisher, except in the case of brief quotaons embedded in crical arcles or reviews.
Every eort has been made in the preparaon of this book to ensure the accuracy of the
informaon presented. However, the informaon contained in this book is sold without
warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers
and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or
indirectly by this book.
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Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this informaon.
First published: October 2011
Producon Reference: 1171011
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ISBN 978-1-84969-178-9
www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Rakesh Shejwal ()
Credits
Author
M.D. McCallum
Reviewer(s)
Guy Langlois
Susanne and Joe Pass
Acquision Editor
Chaitanya Apte
Development Editor
Reshma Sundaresan
Technical Editor
Pramila Balan
Project Coordinator
Shubhanjan Chaerjee
Proofreader(s)
Kevin McGowan
Linda Morris
Aaron Nash
Indexer
Rekha Nair
Producon Coordinator
Arvindkumar Gupta
Cover Work
Arvindkumar Gupta

Foreword
First and foremost, I would like to thank Mike (M.D. McCallum) for the idea and inspiraon
that has taken to create such an endeavor. This is truly a noble cause that will undoubtedly
inspire many throughout the years.

This all started a while back when Mike contacted me about his idea of wring a book
about iClone. From the get-go, we were completely ecstac that iClone would nally get the
personal treatment direct from the mind and hands of a true producon industry veteran.
From its incepon, iClone has been an untamed breed of 3D soware designed especially for
creave users without prior 3D backgrounds. A soware that, even though was jam-packed
with the latest features and technology, was always missing something. Apart from its heavy
feature-based manuals and tutorial videos, iClone always lacked a proper guide to personally
lead and inspire users to nurture an enre project from scratch.
I am deeply grateful that M.D. McCallum, the author who has contributed so much of
his enthusiasm to the iClone community, has now volunteered to make this book. M.D.
McCallum is the rst featured iClone professional who is honored with several iClone
movie awards, along with being one of the rst users to set up the iClone Wikipedia page.
His kindness and generosity has always permied him to share his knowledge through the
iClone Revoluon website, which he started as a need to address so many iClone inquiries.
Being a senior iClone Content Developer has also allowed him to push the limits of creavity
not just of himself, but also of the enre animaon community.
As most of you know already, iClone is not just a collecon of years of heartbeats and oceans
of fervor from the Reallusion team, but it is also a chest of dreams and collaborated eorts
from dozens of worldwide content contributors who over me have made the world of 3D
producon so much more accessible and inspiring to all of us.
Thanks to Mike's gamut of iClone animaon knowledge, readers can now get a
comprehensive view of what an iClone producon plaorm is, including, how to master
tools, access fast growing content libraries from talented developers, and how to make the
most of being a community member. His work not only holds the hands of beginners who
yearn to explore iClone in a structural way, but it also lends itself as an enjoyable must-read
for any iClone veteran.
This galvanized book has been long overdue and awaited by many users who have spent
hundreds of thousands of man-hours guring out how to get the most out of their iClone,
not to menon those who have hungered to enter the world of independent lm making
with a great self-taught companion.

This piece of work is also a great reward and humbling reminder to the iClone development
team that has witnessed their soware being used across every connent and industry on
the planet. There is so much that our words cannot express… Thank you.
Charles Chen
CEO and Founding Partner of Reallusion, Inc.
About the Author
M D. McCallum, aka WarLord in the iClone community, is an internaonal award winning
Commercial Graphics Arst, 3D Animator, Project Director, and Webmaster with a freelance
career that spans over 20 years and includes over one hundred individual and team-
based awards. M.D. has worked as a freelancer for animaon companies, 3D applicaon
companies, game development studios, indie lm and animaon studios. His experience
with computers dates back to home-built kits in the late 1970s.
M.D. is the author of eleven whitepapers for the Reallusion iClone Developers Center and
has been selected two mes as a Reallusion Featured Developer. M.D. has been a loyal user
of iClone since version one and is a Cered Content Developer and Reallusion Director.
M.D. was previously published as an outdoor writer in naonal magazines before turning his
aenon to full me digital freelancing.
M.D. operates a freelance producon studio in partnership with other highly skilled
freelancers across the world to provide web and television-based commercials, product
presentaons and visualizaon. He also creates and provides quality iClone props
including his innovave Destrucble line of props and iClone freebies and ps at
www.
iclonerevolution.com
.
I would like to thank Charles Chen and Jason Lin at Reallusion for their
unwavering support of the book project. I would also like to thank Shirley
Marn who helped me work out the kinks early on and the technical
reviewers for their me and generosity. I parcularly want to thank Guy
Langlois (BigBoss) for taking the me out of a very busy schedule to
help. And of course, I want to thank the incredibly paent team at Packt

Publishing for guiding me through the wring and shaping this book in
a way that no words could adequately describe. And last, but certainly
not least, my wife Rosemary and stepson Zac. Two people that go out of
their way every day to make sure I have the me to complete my various
projects, meet my deadlines, and otherwise get to have fun doing what I
love all day and long into the night.
About the Reviewers
Guy Langlois is a Computer Engineer with a Master's degree in Business and
Administraon (MBA). He works as an Execuve in an engineering rm specialized in the
development of high-end audio/video and 3D equipment and authoring tools for the Film
and Broadcasng industry. Aside from work, Guy plays in a rock band and is a recognized
Reallusion Cered Content Developer, Director, and Trainer who excels in the creaon of
specialized iClone characters and other derived iClone products.
Guy is known in the iClone industry as "Bigboss". He also manages the "Bigboss's Treasures"
Theme Store in Reallusion City, which features his personal work as well as the work of other
excellent Cered Content Developers, each with their own special aptude for creaon and
design;
/>I would like to thank the iClone community who so gracefully support
my work!

Cheers!
Susanne and Joe Pass discovered their passion for animaon, 3D modelling, and image
eding. Susanne and Joe Pass worked in dierent jobs, she came from the social sector and
he was a workman.
Joe concerned himself more and more with graphic art. His work has been presented in
several exhibions. Susanne was interested in photography.
The couple began to learn how to work with image eding programs like Photoshop and
made their rst ash animaons. In 2006, they completely switched and oered, under the
name digiMagic, services in the eld of Animaon and Web Design, shortly aer they bought
the rst Reallusion products: CrazyTalk5 and iClone3.

They were directly thrilled by the new possibilies that opened. They expanded their service
by content development and training courses for iClone or CrazyTalk Animator in Germany.
Susanne and Joe are Reallusion Cered Content Developers, Trainers, and Directors. You
can nd their content packs in Reallusion Content Store and Marketplace.
They count themselves lucky that they found a job they enjoy and can work together.
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Table of Contents

Preface 1
Chapter 1: Installing and Conguring iClone 7
Installing the program 8
Time for acon – installing iClone 4 pro 8
Time for acon – installing related iClone content 10
Time for acon – exploring iClone opons 11
Conguring work environment 12
Seng up the 3D grid 12
Controlling display informaon 13
Exploring real-me render opons 14
Choosing the shader 15
Manipulang objects 16
Locang Custom Content folder 16
Installing new content 16
Using drag-and-drop 17
Imporng new content 17
Working with zipped les 18
Welcome to iClone 18
Interacng with the iClone community 19
Free iClone assets 22
Exploring the Reallusion Content Store 22
Discovering the Reallusion Marketplace 23
Downloading your trial and purchased items 28
Time for acon – download and installaon steps 28
Exploring the iClone user interface 30
Exploring the workspace 30
Selecng objects in the workspace 33
Summary 34
Table of Contents
[ ii ]

Chapter 2: Creang Your First Scene 35
Let the animaon begin! 35
Exploring your virtual studio 36
Exploring the 3D workspace 36
Time for acon – creang the outdoors 38
Working with Live Plants 39
Time for acon – creang virtual foliage 39
Adding props to the scene 43
Placing props 44
Time for acon – house building 46
Manipulang props 48
Selecng the tools 48
Manipulang objects directly 49
Manipulang with precision using gizmos 50
Handling direct input 50
Working with iProps (interacve props) 51
Time for acon – placing the iProp 51
Animated props 54
Time for acon – imporng animated props 54
Creang props from building blocks 55
What do you see in a primive? 55
Time for acon – building a gazebo without hand tools! 56
Diusing opacity and other maps. 60
Exploring the mapping channels 60
Time for acon – painng the gazebo 62
Time for acon – correcng the texture mapping 63
Painng opon 65
Time for acon – adding re eects to the grill 65
Creang see through material 68
Turning nothing into something 68

Lighng in 3D animaon 70
Light types and shadows 71
Understanding ambient light 73
Manipulang the lights in the 3D workspace 73
Seng the mood with lighng and atmosphere 73
Time for acon – seng the ambient light 74
Time for acon – working with shadows 74
Time for acon – manipulang the atmosphere 76
Time for acon – lighng up the grill 76
Summary 79
Table of Contents
[ iii ]
Chapter 3: Adding and Customizing Characters 81
Developing unique characters 82
Time for acon – loading characters 83
Customizing character features 84
Time for acon – loading a face image 84
Time for acon – correct the lighng 87
Time for acon – customizing our character 88
Time for acon – customizing the head of the avatar 89
Experimenng with model detail 91
Time for acon – giving your character a new do! 92
Time for acon – customizing the eyes and mouth 93
Skin 93
Posioning the characters 94
Using character accessories and aaching props 95
Time for acon – can't be cool without shades! 95
Time for acon – shading the glasses 97
Time for acon – aaching the fork prop 97
Interacng with the iProps 98

Time for acon – grabbing a beer 99
Altering the characters' clothing 100
Time for acon – altering female avatar clothing 100
Altering clothing using color 102
Time for acon – altering the male avatar's clothing 103
Time for acon – modifying the avatar's pants 105
Basics of character dialog 106
Lip-sync 107
Adding dialog 107
Creang dialog using the interface 107
Recording dialog using a microphone 109
Inserng audio les 110
Summary 111
Chapter 4: Animang the Characters 113
Using moons versus animaons 113
Introducing the meline 114
Controlling acon on the meline 115
Time for acon – the meline concept … A mini-tutorial 116
Time for acon – adding basic camera movement 119
Time for acon – changing the speed of the animaon 120
Adding moons to characters 121
Applying moon clips 121
Controlling facial expressions 122
Invoking hand moons 123
Table of Contents
[ iv ]
Manipulang character's ngers 125
Using paths to move objects 126
Time for acon – adjusng the starng frame 127
Time for acon – animang the hands 128

Customizing animaon using the moon editor 129
Time for acon – animang the male character 130
Turn the character 131
Time for acon – animang the turn 131
Time for acon – closing the grill cover 133
Animang the limbs 134
Seng the starng point key frame 135
Time for acon – animang the arm movement 137
Time for acon – scaling and moving the grill 138
Time for acon – copying and pasng the key frame 139
Time for acon – closing the grill 140
Time for acon – nishing out the movement 142
Blending moons 143
Time for acon – animang the female avatar 143
Time for acon – add more me to the animaon 145
Adding more moon to the female avatar 145
Time for acon – creang new moons 148
Building our custom moon library 149
Saving custom animaons as moons 150
Time for acon – saving single clips 150
Time for acon – collecng and saving mulple clips 151
Time for acon – using the Absolute Bone method 152
Manipulang transions 153
Time for acon – polishing character moves 154
Animang paths for smooth movement 156
Time for acon – using a path to animate Benny's walk 156
Using alternave methods of character movement 159
Time for acon – point and click movement 159
Time for acon – using director mode 161
Animang character dialog 162

Time for acon – using dialog with characters 162
Summary 165
Chapter 5: Enhancing Animaon with Parcles 167
Using special eects (FX) wisely 168
Exploring iClone parcles 168
Breaking down an iClone parcle 168
Extending parcle usage 169
Using iClone parcles 170
Table of Contents
[ v ]
Time for acon – cueing mother nature 170
Time for acon – conguring parcle sengs 170
Time for acon – coloring mother nature 172
Aaching iClone parcles to props 173
Creang a torch 174
Time for acon – creang the torch handle 174
Time for acon – loading and manipulang the parcle 174
Time for acon – adjusng and texturing the torch 175
Time for acon – seng up the smoke and re parcles 177
Time for acon – adding the re parcle 179
Adjusng iClone parcles 179
Time for acon – controlling the re 180
Time for acon – adding a smoke parcle to the smoke stack 181
Time for acon – posioning the smoke stack parcle 182
Using visibility with parcles 182
Time for acon – seng the ming for the emier 183
Using parcles with paths 183
Time for acon – creang a magical swirling eect 184
Summary 187
Chapter 6: Working with Cameras 189

Creang cameras 190
Time for acon – creang our rst camera 190
Renaming your cameras 191
Time for acon – naming the camera 192
Time for acon – creang and renaming another camera 192
Using character/object cameras (Follow Cam) 194
Using the Actor Cam 195
Time for acon – seng up the Actor Cam 195
Time for acon – converng Follow Cam to a permanent camera 197
Time for acon – seng up the Face Cam 198
Time for acon – viewing the character from above 199
Understanding the camera lens 201
Time for acon – creang new cameras and picking the lens 202
Time for acon – seng up our main camera angle 204
Time for acon – seng up a lens only camera close up 205
Focusing with depth of eld 207
Time for acon – creang a depth of eld camera 208
Creang more cameras 210
Time for acon – creang the Benny cams 210
Time for acon – creang a wide angle camera shot 211
Table of Contents
[ vi ]
Selecng cameras for lming 212
Creang a shot list 213
Understanding camera cuts and ming 214
Time for acon – seng up the camera switch 214
Filming through walls and objects with camera clipping 216
Time for acon – Using camera clipping 217
Summary 220
Chapter 7: Enhancing Scenes with Images and Videos 221

Using the 2D drag-and-drop menu 222
Adding details with planes 223
Time for acon – creang an image plane 224
Billboards 228
Time for acon – working with billboards to add an old barn 229
Time for acon – working with billboards to add a water tower 231
Image layers 232
Time for acon – driving down the street 233
Time for acon – using mulple image layers 236
Using 2D with special eects 240
Time for acon – using planes to mimic volume eects 240
Time for acon – adding mountains 242
Using video to enhance scenes 243
Time for acon – adding video to props 244
Creang and using popVideo 247
Time for acon – playing with popVideo 248
Summary 249
Chapter 8: Rendering our Work 251
Understanding rendering 252
Rendering in iClone 252
Exporng single images 253
Time for acon – rendering our rst image 254
Time for acon – rendering an acon shot 257
Exporng image sequences 258
Time for acon – exporng our rst image sequence 259
Exporng videos 260
Understanding video 260
Codecs versus formats 260
Formats available in iClone 261
AVI 261

RM 263
WMV 264
MP4 for PC 265
Table of Contents
[ vii ]
Flash video 266
Using good video rendering habits 267
Determining end usage 267
Seng screen resoluon as soon as possible 268
Time for acon – rendering our main project video 268
Rendering popVideo 269
3D rendering… got glasses? 269
Understanding 3D stereoscopic rendering 270
Anaglyph 272
Time for acon – seng up the scene 272
Time for acon – rendering the scene 274
Side X Side 275
Top Down 276
Two Files 277
Summary 277
Chapter 9: Animang Outer Space 279
Reviewing the project assets 279
Laying out and planning the scene 280
Determining the purpose of the scene 280
Determining render resoluon 281
Time for acon – seng the resoluon 281
Determining the scene animaon 282
Determining the parcle eects required 282
Laying out the scene tasks 283
Tweaking the project assets 283

Time for acon – adjusng the exisng scene 284
Time for acon – turning outer space into live space 285
Time for acon – lighng the scene 287
Time for acon – imporng scene assets 288
Storyboarding with iClone 291
Time for acon – creang our inial storyboard frame 291
Time for acon – storyboarding the acon at mid-scene 293
Time for acon – storyboarding the shule escape 295
Time for acon – storyboarding the explosion 296
Time for acon – storyboarding the shule leaving 298
Analyzing our storyboard 299
Time for acon – seng up the animated shule path 301
Time for acon – adding parcles 303
Seng up the shot list 307
Time for acon – deleng an exisng camera 307
Creang cameras for the shot list 308
Downloa d f r o m W o w ! e B o o k < w w w.woweb o o k . c o m >
Time for acon – creang cameras 308
Seng up the camera switch 310
Time for acon – seng the camera order 311
Last minute tweaks 312
Time for acon – adjust the movie length 312
Rendering our scene 313
Time for acon 313
Summary 315
Appendix A: Using Personas, iProps, and Helpers 317
Understanding AML 318
Exploring personas to animate a character 319
Time for acon – loading a Persona 320
Using AML templates 322

Implemenng character interacon 322
Time for acon – placing and using character interacon dummies 323
Time for acon – applying the kick me AML template 324
Using operate dummy props 325
Time for acon – Using the character interacon templates 326
Time for acon – using the grab it AML template prop 328
Working with iProps 330
Exploring the home iProps folder 330
Time for acon – geng in and out of bed 330
Time for acon – using the iprop door 332
Working with vehicle dummies 334
Summary 336
Appendix B: Animang with iClone Physics 337
Understanding iClone physics 338
Working with simulaons 339
Baking the physics 339
Tesng versus saving simulaons 340
Touring the physics menu 340
Understanding so bodies versus rigid bodies 342
Rigid bodies 342
Seng the state of the object 342
Object properes 343
Bounding sengs 343
So bodies 343
Preset 344
Property 344
Collision sengs 344
Table of Contents
[ ix ]
Time for acon – dropping the ball 344

Time for acon – seng up the wall 347
Time for acon – knocking down the wall – rst run 350
Time for acon – ne tuning the rst run 351
Time for acon – bang the ball 352
Time for acon – seng up the physics 354
Time for acon – changing the impact object angle 355
Time for acon – adding the aiming site 357
Time for acon – crashing the jeep 360
Time for acon – duplicang rows of boxes 363
Time for acon – seng up an ejecon sequence 364
Time for acon – seng up the eject physics 366
Time for acon – aaching the character 367
Time for acon – creang a chain acon 370
Colliding with characters 374
Aaching dummies 374
Time for acon – preparing a character collision 374
Summary 378
Appendix C: Exploring New Features 379
Discovering new visual enhancements 379
Understanding ambient occlusion 380
Time for acon – using ambient occlusion 381
Exploring the toon shader 382
Time for acon – enhancing the exisng scene 383
Time for acon – seng up the toon shader 384
Time for acon - exploring the NPR post eect 385
Time for acon – exploring the toon shader 385
Removing skin color 387
Time for acon – tooning the characters 387
Time for acon – skinning the character for tuning 388
Using post eects 390

Time for acon – applying blur 390
Time for acon – tesng the other post eects 393
Time for acon – adjusng the overall post eect 395
Seng the light with the mulplier 396
Time for acon – using direconal versus spotlight 396
Discovering the performance enhancements 398
Improving usability features 400
Using the tree brush 401
Time for acon – planng and felling trees 401
Using so cloth 404
Time for acon – tesng a cloth 404
Time for acon – creang a ghost eect 406
Exploring so cloth opons 408
Summary 409
Appendix D: Discovering New Animaon Tools 411
Exploring the modied meline 411
Mixing moves the easy way 415
Time for acon – using MixMoves 415
Using the moon puppet 417
Time for acon – animang Gwynn 418
Time for acon – smoothing the transion between moons 419
Time for acon – walking with the moon puppet 420
Time for acon – stopping the foot sliding 423
Understanding Human IK (pose and reach target) 424
Time for acon – seng up a two-handed rig with Human IK 424
Time for acon – hooking up the dummies 426
Time for acon – using the two handed rig for movement 428
Time for acon – using locking dummies 431
Time for acon – seng up the unicycle 433
Manipulang Direct Puppet 437

Time for acon – puppeteering the character's movements 437
Time for acon – climbing with Human IK 439
Understanding device Mocap (Kinect) 442
Time for acon – installing the Kinect plugin 443
Time for acon – starng the Mocap Device Plug-in 444
Time for acon – cleaning up the Mocap 447
Using moon capture eecvely 449
Using the Prop Puppet 449
Time for acon – building the tank turret 449
Time for acon – animang the radar 451
Time for acon – animang the turret 453
Customizing the transion and me warp 454
Using the Prop Look At 456
Time for acon – grasping the basics of Prop Look At 456
Time for acon – using a praccal example of the Prop Look At 458
Applying iClone 5 techniques to Chapter 4, Animang the Characters 459
Time for acon – animang the grill with new features 460
Summary 462
Table of Contents
[ xi ]
Appendix E: Pop Quiz Answers 465
Chapter 5, Enhancing Animaon with Parcles 465
Chapter 6, Working with Cameras 466
Chapter 7, Enhancing Scenes with Images and Videos 467
Chapter 8, Rendering our Work 467
Appendix C, Exploring New Features 467
Appendix D, Discovering New Animaon Tools 468
Index 469

Preface

Reallusion's iClone is an animated movie making applicaon that allows hobbyists,
machinimators, home-based animators, and professionals to visualize their story or an idea
by seeing it in acon. Years ago, creang animaons and single images would require a team
of trained arsts to accomplish. Now, iClone real me rending engine empowers its users
to instantly view what is loaded into the 3D workspace or preview it as an animaon, if you
have the precise instrucons.
The iClone 3D Animaon Beginner's Guide will walk you through the building and animang
of a complete scene and several one-o projects. First we create a scene with sky, terrain,
water, props, and other assets. Then add two characters and manipulate their features
and animate their movement. We will also use parcles to create the eect of a realisc
torch and animate cameras to give dierent views to the scene. Finally, we will see how to
quickly import images to enhance the scene with a mountain, barn, and water tank. It will
cover some fun stu such as playing with props, characters, and other scene assets. It will
also demonstrate some advanced topics such as screen resoluon, formats and codecs but
mostly, it will deal with doing hands on animaon with precise instrucons.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Installing and Conguring iClone, goes through the installaon and conguraon
process for iClone and discusses the Reallusion iClone community, where to get more assets,
how to use the Content Store and City Marketplace, bringing outside content into iClone
with import and drag-and-drop features, and exploring the iClone interface.
Chapter 2, Creang Your First Scene, we will explore the 3D workspace, create a basic scene
with sky, terrain, water, and props, use Live Plants to create vegetaon, work with standard,
animated, and interacve props. We will build a gazebo prop from 3D building blocks and
texture it, then we'll light the scene to get the mood right.
Preface
[ 2 ]
Chapter 3, Adding and Customizing Characters, we will add characters to the scene and
customize these characters by altering their clothing and type of hair. While doing this, we
will learn how iClone works with external image editors to modify the characters' clothing.
Chapter 4, Animang the Characters, this is a very important chapter in which the meline

will be discussed using key frames to animate our characters. We will work with interacve
props, load and me the dialog between the characters, how to use paths, point-and-click
and director mode for movement, and nally blending and eding moons on the meline,
which can create custom moons from exisng moons.
Chapter 5, Enhancing Animaon with Parcles, this chapter is devoted to fun and eye candy.
We will explore iClone's parcle system. We will learn how to deploy the parcles, aach or
link them, and modify their sengs. Each parcle eect such as re, rain, and dust have their
own control panel with sengs that can be modied for a variety of uses.
Chapter 6, Working with Cameras, a crical chapter in the iClone learning curve. This chapter
devotes itself to the iClone camera system. We'll create cameras, name them, and deploy
them as both animated and stac to suit our needs. We will discuss clipping, depth of eld,
and the important camera switch that allows us to setup a long running shot between
cameras of our choice as the scene plays out.
Chapter 7, Enhancing Scenes with Images and Videos, this is another fun and excing chapter
in which we will discover how we can use two dimensional planes, billboards, and objects
with channel maps to create low poly backdrops and props for our scenes. We will learn to
drag-and-drop video onto objects and why some objects don't want to work properly when
dropping video or an image on them. We'll learn to enhance our scenes with imagery using
opacity maps and other channels.
Chapter 8, Rendering our Work, an oen overlooked but extremely important aspect of our
journey in animaon. We will discuss various types of renders for both sll images and video.
We will cover what video works best for our needs. We will learn what a codec is in comparison
to a container le like AVI, WMV, or MP4, and what container les might t our needs.
Chapter 9, Animang Outer Space, this excing space scene challenges our skills and puts
to use what we have covered in previous chapters. We will learn to plot a path for our
spaceship that explodes as it crosses the screen, but not before we learn to animate a shule
cra escaping from the exploding debris. We also learn to setup two dimensional planes to
create a scene that is alive compared to at background only starelds.
Appendix A, Using Personas, iProps, and Helpers, takes a close look at the Aconscript driven
personas, AML templates and helpers. The secon starts with a basic overview of AML aer

which we explore character Personas, AML driven templates, such as Sit Here and Grab It,
along with helper objects like cars and planes.