Lesson 35: Velocity Adjustment

The last thing you will do with your animation in this tutorial is adjust the camera's velocity along the path. To do this, you will work in Bryce's Advanced Motion Lab.

Your camera should be selected.

To adjust the velocity:

1. Click the Advanced Motion Lab button.
   
   On the bottom half of the Advanced Motion Lab, the objects and their timelines are displayed. The round button at the upper right of the timelines is the current time display. Because of the length of the animation, you can't see the entire timeline for this sequence.
2. Drag the round Current Time display marker to the left.
   
   The numbers and timeline bars scroll off to the right.
3. Continue dragging left until the marker is at the left end of the timeline.
   
   
4. Drag the Scale tool to the right. (It is located under the preview window.)
   
   The space between numbers decreases, and after a bit, the entire timeline is displayed.
5. Release the mouse button.
   
   
   
   The word camera displays in red.
6. Click the word Camera.
7. Click the word Position. A
   
   dditionally, in the Velocity Controls section (also known as the Time Mapping curve), a diagonal line has appeared.
   
   Next to the window to the right is a camera icon and a light icon.
8. Click the camera icon.
   
   A green light appears and the display in the right window changes to show your scene from the camera's perspective.
   
   
   
   See how the animation preview and the Velocity area work together.
9. Click the Play button under the animation preview window.
   
   The animation plays, while crosshairs mark the current time along the Velocity line.
   
   You'll use one of the preset Velocity curves to put a little variety in the camera motion.
10. Click the slight S-shaped curve that matches the one shown, from the Velocity Controls section.
    
    
11. Click the Play button. The animation begins slowly, moves faster for a time and then slows down toward the end.
    
    When the velocity curve is flatter, camera motion is slower. When the curve is steeper, the motion is swifter.
12. Click the arrow in the lower right corner to leave the Advanced Motion Lab and return to your scene.
13. Save your scene file.

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