I would like to start off with a brief introduction since this is my first blog. I am Jason Hetu, UI Designer for Torque 3D. Chris Robertson and I have been working on this editor together, and I would like to show you what it can do.

Shape Editor Uses

The Shape Editor allows you to preview and play back animations from the scene or library. From there you are also able to see the object’s node hierarchy. This can be a very valuable tool because it also shows if your object is missing any nodes or animations that would prevent it from functioning properly in your game.

The Shape Editor can also be used to modify your 3D Shape's sequences and nodes. There are several reasons why you might want to use this feature. If your shape was exported out of Maya or Max and did not have an eye node, there would not be a first person view. This would make it impossible to use the shape as a player. With the Shape Editor it is easy to create one. If the node already exists but is called "FirstPersonView," you could simply rename it "eye" to make it function properly.



A simple way to find out whether you have the correct nodes or animations assigned to your shape is to go to the “Hints” tab and select your shape type. This is important because depending on your object type, the required nodes and animations will change. The nodes and sequences will show up in two roll-out menus. Any nodes or sequences with a red X are not attached to your shape, whereas those with the green check are attached. To create a new node or animation in the hints tab, simply double click on the missing node and it will be created. However, the node will still need to be positioned or modified to make it valuable to you.



It is easy to modify both nodes and sequences that are created from the "Hints" tab. First thing to note is that a node will be created in the hierarchy under your current selection, but don't worry if it is not parented correctly when you create it. Simply go down to the node properties and select parent and then select the desired node. Similarly, adding a new sequence will create a new animation with the current animation sequence selected as the source. This can be changed by going down to the source dropdown. Also keep in mind that an import .dsq dialog window will pop-up if you try to create a new animation while having "rootpose" selected.

Nice Features

To top it off, the Shape Editor has a full preview window. This allows you to see your shape up close and personal. There is also a hide preview button that will make it easy to select objects in the scene to be opened in the Shape Editor.

For those of you who are used to video editing software, the Shape Editor will feel pretty similar. Hit the {Space} bar to play an animation sequence, {I} to set the in point, {O} for the out point, and {+}{-} to advance to the next frame.

There are several different views that help when viewing and editing animations and nodes, such as ghost mode (which shows a semi transparent model) and wireframe (which shows nodes).

The Shape Editor is a lot of fun to play with and can be a very useful tool as well. Hope you enjoy using it!

More development blogs to come. This is post #28.

Torque 3D development blogs:

• Post #1 - Kickoff
• Post #2 - Apparatus and Warrior Camp
• Post #3 - Luma's racing kit
• Post #4 - Josh Engebretson and Web Publishing
• Post #5 - Pricing and Licensing
• Post #6 - Pricing and Licensing CONTINUED
• Post #7 - Wetness & Precipitation
• Post #8 - Screeen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO)
• Post #9 - Matt Langley and the Torque Launcher
• Post #10 - Chris Robertson and Collada
• Post #11 - Depth of Field
• Post #12 - Advanced Lighting
• Post #13 - Soft Particles
• Post #14 - World Editor
• Post #15 - Pricing and Licensing ANNOUNCED!
• Post #16 - GDC Live Edition
• Post #17 - River & Road Editors
• Post #18 - Beta is UP!
• Post #19 - Light Rays, Undercity, and the Material Editor
• Post #20 - Mass Market Hardware
• Post #21 - Beta: Part Deux
• Post #22 - Marching Towards Beta 3
• Post #23 - pureLIGHT
• Post #24 - Lighting, Terrain, and Cloth
• Post #25 - Beta 3!
• Post #26 - Documentation
• Post #27 - Beta 4!
• Post #28 - Shape Editor
• Post #29 - Coming Soon!