oZone3D.Net - Demoniak3D Developer Guide

The <gizmo> node

Function

The gizmo is an immaterial object which is used as a pivot point or a reference during animations. It is very useful when developping complex scenes because it makes it possible to accurately visualize, for example, the position of a particular point in the 3d environment. The gizmo is a traditional concept in most of 3d modeling softwares: it is often called helper or dummy object.

General syntax

<gizmo
	name=""
	render="FALSE"
	auto_spin="FALSE"
	auto_update_direction="FALSE"
	display_motion_path_curve="FALSE"
	display_motion_path_tangents="FALSE"
	link_to_motion_path="FALSE"
	motion_path=""
	motion_path_time_offset="0.0"
	motion_path_time_step="0.001" 
	play_motion_path="TRUE"  >

	<add_child
		name="" />

	<orientation
		ang="0.0" 
		x="0.0" 
		y="1.0" 
		z="0.0" />

	<position
		x="0.0" 
		y="0.0" 
		z="0.0" />
	
	<spin_values
		x="0.0" 
		y="0.0" 
		z="0.0" />
</gizmo>

gizmo element

gizmo is the xml tag that defines a gizmo node.

Attributes:

auto_spin - [BOOLEAN] - enables (TRUE) or disables (FALSE) the rotation around the local reference mark axis of the object. The values of the rotation angles must be specified with the <spin_values> - default value: FALSE
auto_update_direction - [BOOLEAN] - enables (TRUE) or disables (FALSE) the automatic direction (Z axis) update of the object's local reference mark (tripod) - default value: FALSE
display_motion_path_curve - [BOOLEAN] - enables (TRUE) or disables (FALSE) the rendering of the motion path - default value: FALSE
display_motion_path_tangents - [BOOLEAN] - enables (TRUE) or disables (FALSE) the rendering of the motion path tangents - default value: FALSE
motion_path - [STR127] - name of the motion path to which is attached the gizmo in order to perform automatic displacements.
motion_path_time_offset - [REAL] - makes it possible to control the animation temporal starting value. By default this starting value is the standardized time 0.0. This offset makes it possible to place several objects on one motion-path with a time-lag (offset) between each one of them - default value: 0.0
motion_path_time_step - [REAL] - makes it possible to control the animation speed by specifying the time increment along the motion-path. Time is standardized along the motion-path, i.e. the time value is 0.0 for the first keyframe and 1.0 for the last one - default value: 0.001
name - [STR127] - name of the node. This name will make it possible to refer to this node throughout the XML script.
play_motion_path - [BOOLEAN] - enables (TRUE) or disables (FALSE) the position animation along a motion path - default value: TRUE
render - [BOOLEAN] - enables (TRUE) or disables (FALSE) the gizmo tripod rendering - default value: TRUE
group - [STR127] - name of the group in which to add the current node. A group makes it possible to control the behavior of several objects in a single way.

add_child element

add_child makes it possible to add a child to the current gizmo. That makes it possible to easily set up complex hierarchies. Any transformation (rotation or translation) of the current gizmo will have repercussions on the children.

Attributes:

name - [STR127] - name of the child object.

orientation element

orientation specifies the orientation of the gizmo around an arbitrary axis in its local reference mark.

Attributes:

ang - [REAL] - rotation angle in degrees - default value: 0.0
x - [CLAMPED_REAL] - X component of the rotation axis - default value: 0.0
y - [CLAMPED_REAL] - Y component of the rotation axis - default value: 0.0
z - [CLAMPED_REAL] - Z component of the rotation axis - default value: 0.0
pitch - [REAL] - rotation angle in degrees around the X axis - default value: 0.0
yaw - [REAL] - rotation angle in degrees around the Y axis - default value: 0.0
roll - [REAL] - rotation angle in degrees around the Z axis - default value: 0.0

Example

<gizmo>
	<orientation pitch="90.0" roll="45.0" />
</gizmo>

In this example, the gizmo performs a rotation of 90.0 degrees around the x axis and of 45.0 degrees around the Z axis.

position element

position specifies the position in the 3d scene.

Attributes:

x - [REAL] - X coordinate of the position - default value: 0.0
y - [REAL] - Y coordinate of the position - default value: 0.0
z - [REAL] - Z coordinate of the position - default value: 0.0

spin_values element

Specifies the rotation angles around the X, Y and Z axis. At each frame, the rotation angles of the gizmo are incremented by the specified values. This will lead to an animation of the gizmo by performing a simple rotation around the 3 axis.

Attributes:

x - [REAL] - Rotation angle around the X axis in degrees - default value: 0.0
y - [REAL] - Rotation angle around the Y axis in degrees - default value: 0.0
z - [REAL] - Rotation angle around the Z axis in degrees - default value: 0.0

Remark

The previous values take effect only if the auto_spin attribute is set to "TRUE".