I got to thinking, if you are going to use Alive! for your project, I really
need to document animating objects not created in Alive!. It can be done with
simple objects that you just want to move around or characters that walk, bend
and flex.


1. Create an include file for the object. Below is a stripped down version of
what I used for Blobman as Laura Croft.

#ifdef(Head_R)
     #declare BM_Head_Rot=Head_R;  // Set to Alive! action angle
#else
     #declare BM_Head_Rot=<0,0,0>;  // Set to Blobman defaut
#end
#include "bmpeople.inc"
#include "croft.cdf"
Blob_Man(Female,70)
object {BlobMan
        scale Croft_SCAL
 rotate Croft_ROT1
 rotate Croft_ROT2
 rotate Croft_ROT3
 translate Croft_TRAN
 }

Essentially you are creating an object (BlobMan) that is transformed by the five

you are simply moving an object like a sphere.



After changing the name insert the include file from above. Alive! now will
display the character and create files to manipulate it with the Croft_SCAL,
Croft_ROT1, Croft_ROT2, Croft_ROT3 and Croft_TRAN variables. You can see how the


If you want Alive! to auto size the character to the window and display a

the Sphere to a box. Make that box approximately the size of a bounding box

cover the character.

You can now use the character in the Actor module to create actions that will
move the character around in the animation.




length of the bone. It also has a 3D vector Head_R with x, y, z variables for
motion of the joint. You can see above that my include file linked the Blobman
BM_Head_Rot variable to my Head_R variable in Alive!.  That way I can create
actions in Alive! that move the Blobman head. Any variable in your character can

you have variables in your character.



Sorry to take up newsgroup space with info that should be in the documentation.

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