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  Animation workshop (1)
  Prim Objects * Useful websites
 

Bach Zhaa(#360197) has started with hosting some classes about animations and other building techniques. These workshops has been organized in view of the EBTS contest, which will start on 1st of February . Also because for this years contest, the jury will look with special attention to the animations in the building areas. These workshops/classes are organized to show which are the possibilities to make nice and good animations. For this event, there has been used VOIP, which makes it possible to explain things more quickly , instead of having to type all information in the chat window.

Location of the Workshop : AWSchool 33N 110E

Voice chat controls

First there has been talked about the VOIP settings. In order to be able to listen via your speakers (or talk via your microphone), you need to go to the Voice Chat window. Type F9 then go to the tabscreen "Voice Chat", on this window you need to click upon Voice Chat Controls, and here click upon the "configure" -button. Below on this settings screen, you will find "Playback audio device" and here you select "speakers" and press ok, and check if the voice chat works. Otherwise try out the other Playback audio device options. Then also do the settings for the "Capture audio device" and select your microphone , and try it out too.

 
Useful websites for building in Alphaworld
In the middle of the Animations Workshop area , there are some cube sign-objects containing website links. By clicking upon a cube ,then a sites name is displayed in the chat window and by doing a CTRL+click you could open the link of the websites in an external window. Those sites are :
1. the AW Wiki pages http://wiki.activeworlds.com/index.php?title=Object_Scripting
2. the Alphaworld OP http://objects.activeworlds.com/aw/
3. AWPortals http://www.awportals.com/opsearch/aw.php
4. AWschool. http://host.activeworlds.com/awschool/links.html
5. SW City Builders Academy http://www.swcity.net/academy/index.php
1. The AW Wiki pages
The Wiki pages contain important information about object scripting. First of all you need to choose the trigger which is suitable for the command that will follow.
http://wiki.activeworlds.com/index.php?title=Object_Scripting
 
Triggers : Each trigger is made for a specific function.
Create = for all commands which will be executed when entering the 3d scene
Bump = when your avatar hits the object with this trigger, the command will be executed
Collide = concerns only physics
Enter zone / Exit zone = only for zones
Adone = in combination with astart (adone is the trigger and not astart)
At = a trigger used in combination with the timer command
 
Commands : a wide range of commands, on this object scripting page you can see for which purpose you can use each command. By clicking upon each command you will see the syntax for each command with examples of it.
 

Syntax and arguments : for combinations of commands you need to use the , and the ; . If not correctly applied, the action will not work.

User guide
When type F9 , you will see the tabs window, and here you select the tabsheet "user guide". Here you click upon "building" and then you can click upon "triggers" .
This will bring you to the wiki page about object scripting.
 
The trigger "create"
Avoid using the trigger create for animations : the reason for this is because in Activeworlds, when entering into a scene, the objects load randomly. You also need to build at the distance of the visibility of the other users/visitors : "create animation"-objects (name, loop, ...) will not work if you put them at a distance of 200 meters, whereas the visitor has set visibility at 100. At the visibility of 100 the objects will load differently into the cache of the computer of the visitor and will have another effect.
2. The Alphaworld OP
OP= "object path" = the list of avatars, models, textures, sequences , sounds and groups, which are used in a specific world . Almost every world has a different object path.
"Groups" or "presets" contain AWG files, these are groups of objects obtained by selecting multiple objects and choose in the building mode for "save object group". These group files have been stored into the group/preset map of the object path.
For Alphaworld the OP can be found here :
http://objects.activeworlds.com/aw/

Apart from this you can also visit the objects and texture yards, e.g The SWCity texture yard made by TartSugar(#331363) in Alphaworld on position 27405S 12712E.

3. AWPortals
AWPortals is a website which isn't updates since 2010, but which is still very useful ::
http://www.awportals.com/
The website contains a search function of the objects that can be used in Alphaworld.
http://www.awportals.com/opsearch/aw.php
"Prims" or "prim objects"
The Alphaworld OP also has the "Prims" or 'Prim object set" : these name is referring to "Primitives" : primitives are used in modeling programs and are basic modeling tools like a sphere, a cube , a cylinder , a torus, etc..But here the "prims" are a modeling set which are very easy to use for building and for which you have great builing results.
They are easy to use because the object names are logically structured. Examples :
w1 w2 and w3 indicate the texture pattern of the model :
w1pan_400g -> the texture is repeated 1 time
w2pan_400g -> the texture is repeated 4 times
w3pan_400g -> the texture is repeated 16 times
The size of these 3 objects is equal as the pp01 object, but they have a different way of texturing. If you add the action command : create texture tv , then you will see the difference.
The numbers at the end indicate the width of the model :
w2pan_050g -> the model is 0.5 meters wide
w2pan_100g -> the model is 1 meter wide
w2pan_400g -> the model is 4 meters wide
w2pan_500g -> the model is 5 meters wide
w2pan_1000g -> the model is 10 meters wide
The last letter is for the height of de model :
w2pan_400e -> 1 meter high
w2pan_400f -> 2 meters high
w2pan_400g -> 4 meters high
w2pan_400h -> 5 meters high
w2pan_400i -> 8 meters high

This prims model set contains only flat panels .In the traditional model sets however, you will find thick panels, which also have a logical structure: The first number indicates the texture number. Building which thick panels have some advantages, but the prims have more possibilities.

wall01s1 wall01w1 wall01f
wall15s1 wall15w1 wall15f
wall30s1 wall30sw wall30f
     
wall01s2 wall01w2  
wall15s2 wall15w2  
wall30s2 wall30w2  
There are 2 ways to view the prim objects set :
 
1. By viewing on a website : the website Awportals.com
http://www.awportals.com/opsearch/aw.php?
On this webpage you can select "search path" and then you will see category "models", followed by narrow category, where you will find "Alphaworld Update" and also "Primitives", and in both categories you will see the images of the prim objects.
2. By going to an object yard (OY) where the prim objects are displayed :
The world Uberpath on position 3N 51W
The world Winter on position 693S 703W
The world Alphaworld on position 27455S 12568E (TartSugar OY)
The world Flagg04

Some objects in the traditional OP have a blank, invisible backside , prim objects have textures on both sides. Also here you have a lot more possibilities with the prims :

traditional prim objects:  
other texture : other size : other texture pattern :
flata9 flat1a_e flat2a_e
flatb9 flat1a_f flat3a_e
other model : flat1a_g other model:
flata10 flat1a_h flat1a_h
flatb10   flat1b_h
flatc10   flat1c_h
flatd10  

Also some other models are logically structured . For some sign-objects there exists also a picture-object ::

sign-object picture object:  
button pbutton  
button_2 pbutton_2  
button_4 pbutton_4  

Advantages of the prims object set ::

* Easy to use , because logically structured building set
* 3 texture pattern levels
* several width levels and height levels (+equal measurements)
* can be used for textures and for picture commands as well
* the object texture faces are dubble sided