Kinemac - Support - Inspector panel




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The Inspector panel

Open/Select this window with Command-4. In this panel you will edit values and properties in your animation (as stage size, objects coordinates, texture and colors,...). Usually you will manipulate the objects directly on the stage window, as for example, their position or rotation. But if you need more accuracy you can enter a value in the inspector panel. Moreover, you will use this panel to assign texture images and colors to the objects, to set the background, to assign the scrolling direction to a text object, to define a script, a static light and to manage a sprites cameras. And, most important, you will create key frames on the parameters you want to animate.

The Inspector panel is composed by several tabs. You can set each tab clicking on the icons on the top of the panel. Also, you can click on the following icons holdind down the Command key (don't drag) to detach that tab in a brand new window. You Inspector panel features the following tabs:

	Stage
	Geometry
	Textures
	Parameters
	Scrolling Text
	Static Lights
	Alignment
	Script
	Cameras


		Stage panel On this panel you can set properties as the stage size, the background color, the background image/movie, the antialias, the master volume and the duration of your animation.

		• Stage Size

		You can set the size of the Stage window entering the widht and height values or choosing one of the size from the "Size" pop-up menu . You can also resize the Stage window dragging the bottom-right corner of the window itself. To resize the window proportionally hold down the Option key when dragging the mouse. The values shown in the fields "Width" and "Height" represent the size of the "live" stage without the title bar nor the tool area. If you mark the check-box "Show TV Safe Area", you will see on the Stage a rectangle defining the "Safe area" of the PAL and NTSC screen.

		• Background with fill color, color gradient or transparency

		Fill Color. You can set one background fill color choosing the menu item "Fill" from the Background Color pop-up menu. Then click on the color well and choose a color from the Color palette. Alternatively you can open the Color palette with Command+Shift+C then drag a color from the Color palette onto the Stage window.

		Gradient Color. Select the item "Gradient" from the Background Color pop-up menu. Then click on the color wells and choose the 1st and the 2nd color from the Color palette. Last, rotate the direction of the gradient acting on the "Angle" wheel.

		None. Select the item "None" from the Background Color pop-up menu to set a transparent background. To preserve the transparency (alpha channel) when exporting to a QT movie (File:Export Movie), choose the "Animation" Codec with "Millions of Colors +". To preserve the transparency when exporting to a still image (File:Export Frame), choose the "tiff" or the "png" image format.

		• Background Image/Movie You can set a background image/movie dragging an image/movie file from the Finder onto the "Image/Movie" field. Also you can set a background image/movie dragging an image/movie file from the Finder onto the Stage window holding down the Option key. To delete the background image, click on the "Image/Movie" well then press the "Delete" key. You can choose the way the background image will be mapped on the Stage choosing one of the items from the "Scale" pop-up. Click on the "Options" button to set more options (like a repeating pattern or the volume of the background movie).

		• Antialias If your video-card supports, you can turn on the Antialias and get a smooth image on the Stage. Depending on your video-card implementation you will be able to set different qualities of antialias. Please note that the antialias is a time-consuming feature therefore it could slow down the animation speed, especially if set to "Best".

		• Master Volume In the Inspector/Stage panel you can now set the Master Volume of the animation. This value belongs to the application preferences and doesn't affect the animation file nor the volume of the embedded media files. It just affects the master volume of the animation during the playback.

		• Animation Duration You can set the duration of your animation by entering a value in the field Animation Duration. Depending on the choise made in the Kinemac Preferences panel, you can enter a value in ticks (1 second corresponds to 60 ticks) or in seconds. Alternatively you can change the duration of your animation in the Sprites window (see how).


		Geometry panel When you select an object on the Stage window or on the Sprites window, the Geometry panel will give you the geometric information about that object at the current time point: position, rotation, size and center. You can enter new values in the Inspector fields or, faster, you can move, rotate and resize that object directly on the Stage window (see how). You can use the infinite sliders under each text field (or call them wheels) to quickly set any value just by dragging the mouse. Drag the slider to left or right to change the value using a 1 unit step. Drag the slider holding down the Option key to change the value using a 0.1 unit step. Drag the slider holding down the Control key to change the value using a 10 units step. Drag the slider holding down the Command key to snap to a 10 units grid. Double click the slider to enter the zero value. Double click holding down the Shift key to enter the zero value to X, Y and Z values. Also you can enter a value clicking on the Steppers. Just click on the stepper to increase the value to 1 point. Hold down the Option key to increase the value to 0.1 point. Hold down the Control key to increase the value to 10 points. In the Size fields area you can activate a lock and get that size change proportionally with the other locked sizes. More than geometric information this panel reports the Opacity value and the Volume value (if the object contains media objects like a sound or movie). If you want to make your object transparent, set the "Opacity" field to zero. Last, you will be able to edit the Start time point, the End time point and the Duration of the sprite in the animation. These values are expressed in ticks (1 second corresponds to 60 ticks). When modifying the End or the Duration of a sprite entering a value in these fields, the sprites key frames will be not resampled (learn more).

Think about your animation like a series of still images, projected one by one, at 60 frames per second speed. To animate an object you would just assign to the object a different position for each frame.
For example at the frame 1 the object is at the X coordinate 10, then at the frame 2 it is at the X coordinate 20, at the frame 3 it is at the X coordinate 30, and so forth. When you play the animation you will see your object moving along the X axis from the point 10 to the point 30.
This could be quickly done when the frames are so few, but it becomes long and boring for e.g. 1000 frames. Moreover, it comes so evident that at the frame 9 the object will be at the X coordinate 90. So the computer can save your time creating all the frames in between the first frame and the last frame. Thus all you need is to define the position of the object at the first frame, and the position of the object at the last frame. These 2 frames are called key frames.

In the geometry panel you will be able to create key frames simply clicking on the button Key Frame

corresponding to the parameter you want to animate, for example the position X. Kinemac will create a key frame for that parameter at the current time (look at the

position of the Time Marker in the Sprites window). After the key frame has been created the key frame button icon will switch to the "On" state

meaning that the selected object, at the current time point has a key frame on that parameter (e.g. position X). You could try to select an object containing some key frame then move the Time Marker forth and back in the Sprites window and see how the Key Frame buttons of the Inspector panel will switch to "On" and "Off" telling you when a given parameter has a key frame on a given time point. To quickly create the 3 key frames for the position x, y and z, just click on the key frame button "Position". To remove a key frame click on the key frame button holding down the Option key. To remove all the key frames of a given parameter click on the key frame button holding down the Option-Command keys. To remove all the key frames of all the parameters click on any key frame button holding down the Control-Option-Command keys. See how to create an animation defining key frames.


		Textures panel On this panel you can turn on/off the surfaces composing the selected object. Also you can apply a color, an image and a movie textures on any surface and set some quality of the surface like the Specular, Shininess and Reflection effect. To apply more than 2 textures and to set more texture-parameters, double click on a texture well (image or movie) or press Command-5 to open the Texture Options panel. To show/hide a surface just mark/unmark the check-box reporting the surface name (e.g. Front). To assign a color to a surface just click on the color well and choose a color from the Color palette. You can even open the Color palette with Command-Shift-C then drag a color from there to the Color well of the Inspector panel. If you choose a color with opacity e.g. 50% you will get an half-a-transparent surface. Hold down the Shift key when choosing a color to assign the same color to all the surfaces of the object. You can set how much a surface has to look like metal by dragging the Reflection slider (top slider). Hold down the Shift key when dragging the slider to apply the changes to all the surfaces of the object. At the same way, you can modify the Specular (second slider from the top) and the Shininess (bottom slider) of any surface. You can vary these last 2 values and get effects like a matte or a shining surface. Decrease the Ambient value from the current lights (e.g the Static Lights) to get a nicer surface effect. You can apply a texture image on any surface of the object. Just select an object on the Stage window or in the Sprites window then drag an image file from the Finder onto an "Image" field in order to apply the image upon that surface. You can also select an "Image" field and paste an image copied earlier from a graphic application. You can copy an image texture from a surface to another one just dragging the image from a well to another well. To remove an image from a surface, just click on the "Image" field and press the "Delete" key. Kinemac support the following image formats: jpg, tiff, png, pdf, psd, gif, bmp, tga, targa, pict and more. You can apply a texture movie on any surface of the object. Just select an object on the Stage window or in the Sprites window then drag a movie file from the Finder onto a "Movie" field in order to apply the movie upon that surface. You can select a "Movie" field and paste a portion of a movie copied earlier from e.g. QuickTime Player application. You can copy a movie texture from a surface to another one just dragging the movie from a movie well to another movie well. To remove a movie from a surface, just click on the "Movie" field and press the "Delete" key. Kinemac support the following movie formats: 3gp, avi, dv, gif, m2a, m2s, m2v, mov, mp4, mpeg, mpg, pls, sdp, sdv, smil, swf, vob, vro. You can modify the position and the size of the movie texture upon the surfaces of Rectangles and Cubes. Firstly select the object on the Stage clicking on it. If the object is nested within a folder, click on the object holding down the Option key. Now select the movie texture clicking on the "Movie" well on the Inspector panel. Simply drag the movie texture onto the Stage to move the movie texture to a different position. Drag the movie texture holding down the Command key to resize the movie texture.


		Parameters panel The Inspector:Parameters panel shows the controls over the parameters of the selectd object (e.g. 3DPath, Chart, Sphere, Pie, Cone, Cube, Rectangle...).


		Alignment panel The Inspector:Alignment panel features several kinds of alignments on each axis: left, rigth, center and distributed.


		Script panel On this panel you can define a script associated to the selected sprite and give your animation the power of interactivity. For example you can tell Kinemac that if the user clicks on the object "Image" when the animation is playing, Kinemac has to open and play a different animation file or execute an Apple Script, or go to a given frame...To know more please consult the Interactivity page.


		Camera panel On this panel you can can assign key frames and edit the position of the eye point and the target point of the selected Sprite Movable Camera (see how to animate a camera in the Views section and how to build an animation in the Create an Animation section). You can create a Sprite Movable Camera choosing the menu item "Camera" from the "Objects" menu. Then click on the Camera sprite in order to select the camera and edit its eye and target points. You can enter here the values, or quicker, you can translate, rotate and zoom a camera acting on the eye and target icons on the Stage window. When you zoom a camera you indeed set its eye point closer of farther from the target point. The field "Distance Eye-Target" will report the new distance appropriately. • Link Eye To a Sprite More than animating the eye point defining key frames, you can link the camera eye to an object moving on the stage such a way the eye will always move together with that object. Furthermore you can always add a keyframed movement. For example, you can link the eye to a sprite 3D Bezier "Path" and make the camera move along your custom path very smoothly. To link the eye point to a sprite, drag that sprite from the hierarchical sprite list onto the "Link Eye" field or click on the gray triangle and choose a sprite from the pop-up menu. To unlink the eye from that sprite click on the unlink icon . • Link Target To a Sprite More than animating the target point defining key frames, you can even link the target to an object moving on the scene such a way that object always virtually stays in the center of the scene. Furthermore you can always add a keyframed movement. To link the target point to a sprite, drag that sprite from the hierarchical sprite list onto the "Link Target" field or click on the gray triangle and choose a sprite from the pop-up menu. To unlink the target from that sprite click on the unlink icon . • Orthogonal Camera You can set a sprite camera to "Orthogonal". This way the sprites listed above the sprite camera will be drawn just as they were in a 2D space. The advantage to draw in a 2D space is that the objects will be represented with their original size and 2D coordinates as you were paginating a sheet. See here to know more.


You can use the 4 arrow-keys to select the thumbnail. Press Option-Arrow Up or Down to go the first or last thumbnail. Press Return or double click to play the selected movie. Click on a thumbnail holding down the Control key to show the contextual menu to Reveal the thumbnail file in the Finder or to open that file with its application.		File Browser panel You don't longer need to pick and drag your images, movies, sounds and text files from the Finder. You can now inspect images, movies, sounds... from the Inspector:Browser panel then drag them onto the Stage on onto a surface of the selected object. The Browser panel offers a thumbnail list showing images and movies contained within the selected folder. Also it offers a preview area where you can get a sample of the selected file (image, movie or song). The Browser lists all the file kinds Kinemac can import, therefore images, movies, songs, text, svg, 3ds and obj files. Double click on a folder thumbnail to list the contents of that folder. Use the popup menu to go out from the selected folder. The Browser panel offers also a "Previous/Next" button to navigate through the latest folders selected and a "Choose Disk" button to select the disk and the favourite folders you have defined in the Finder "places" area.

		• Detach Windows from the Inspector Click on the buttons of the Inspector (here aside) holding down the Command key to detach that Tab into a brand new window. Working with several windows open makes your work easier and faster.