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468 Chapter 20: Managing Scenes and Projects
Inter face
The Merge Animation dialog has the following
controls.
Source Objects group
Source File—Click to select a source file containing
the animation data. Animation data from this file
w i l l b e merged into the current scene. All objects
inthescenearedisplayedunderSourceNodesin
the Object Mapping rollout.
Source Object—Selects a source object f rom within
the current scene. If a source object is selected, the
Source File selection is ignored.
Merge Animation—Merges the animation data
basedonsettingsonthisdialog.Beforeanimation
data can be merged, Merge Nodes must be listed
fortheircorrespondingCurrentNodesonthe
Object Mapping rollout. The progress bar at
the bottom of the dialog shows the progress of
the merge operation. After merging, this dialog
remains on-screen so you can check whether the
merge was pe rformed properly before closing the
dialog.
Undo Las t Merge—Undoes the last merge. If the
merge was not performed properly, you can
change settings and try again.
Source Time Range group
Replace Animation—Completely replaces existing
animationdatainthecurrentscenewiththe
animationdatafromthesourcefile.
Pas t e t o E xi s ti n g A n i ma t i o n—Appends the source
file animation data to the existing animat ion data
based on the following time parameters.
Match Source File Time—Setsthesourcetimerange
to match the active time segmen t in the source file.
Start Time—StartTimeandEndTimesettheframe
rangetomergefromthesourcefile.StartTime
sets the first frame in t he range.
End T ime—Sets the end frame number to merge
from the source file.
Insert Animation to Frame—Sets the start time in
the current scene. Animation data will be pasted
intothecurrentscenestartingatthisframe.Any
existinganimationdatainthecurrentsceneprior
to this frame will remain the same.
Relative—Animation data pasted into the scene
willchangethecurrentsceneobjectsrelativeto
their current status. For example, if an object in
thesourcefileisanimatedtomovefromtheXYZ
position 0,0,0 to 12,0,0, the object receiving the
animation data in the cur rent scene will start at
its current posit ion and move 12 units along the
Xaxis.
Absolute—Animation data pasted into the scene
will replace the current animation data. For
example,ifanobjectinthesourcefileisanimated
to move f rom the XYZ position 0,0,0 to 12,0,0, the
objectreceivingtheanimationdatainthecurrent
scene will s tart at exactly 0,0,0 and animate to
12,0,0.
Main Attributes group
Specify the source file attributes whose animation
data w i ll be merged. Current nodes must have the
same attributes as merge nodes for the attribute
animation data to be merged.
Tra nsf orm—Enables selection of Position, Rotation
and Scale animation data for merging.