Create animations using Directable characters

Last updated on Aug 24, 2021

Focus on the art of your project, and let Adobe Sensei handle the complexity of virtual character animation.

With Directable characters, you’re in the Director’s chair! Describe the intentions, and the virtual character executes them in a natural and realistic motion.

Directable characters, like any other interactive content, can be triggered through Aero’s behavior system.

Note:

The number of Directable characters concurrently living in an experience varies by device model and overall scene complexity.

How to use Directable characters

Import a Directable character from the wide selection provided in Starter Assets > Directable characters category.
At that point, previewing your project shows the Directable character waiting in place and naturally looking around. To drive the Directable character performance, use Aero’s behavior system.
Select the object to act as a trigger and tap the Behaviors tool from the Toolbar.
Set a trigger from the Behaviors panel.
Pick a behavior that is compatible with Directable characters from the actions list:
- Play animation
- Path move
- Move to
- Follow

Play animation

Like any animated asset, use Play animation for your Directable character to perform actions from a selection of embedded animations.

Change the Subject if you want another Directable character than the current selection to be the one acting. Select the animation to be played from the list of available Animation Clip.
Adjust the Speed factor to define how fast or slow the animation clip should play.

Set the Play Count if you want the animated image sequence to play more than once.
Set the number of seconds you want to Delay the action from starting to play.
Toggle Infinite if you want the image sequence to endlessly loop.

Move To

Define a location for your Direct-able Character to automatically and naturally move towards.

Change the Subject if you want another Directable character than the current selection to be the one moving.
Select the Location for the Directable character to move towards. Locations can be the Camera, an existing object, or an arbitrary point in space that you define by dropping a Pin.

To create a new Pin, click and tap the screen to drop the Pin in the desired location. You can edit a Pin position after it has been created, by selecting it from the Hierarchy Panel and using the manipulation gizmos.

Note:

Pins are objects that you can manipulate like any other object to easily place them your scene at authoring time; which means that they will not be displayed when previewing the experience.
Adjust the Speed factor to define how fast or slow the Directable character should move.

Define the Distance offset to keep the Directable character from the center of the Location object.

Set the number of seconds you want to Delay the action from starting to play.

Follow

Have your Directable character chase a moving target.

Change the Subject if you want another Direct-able Character than the current selection to be the one moving.
Select the Target for the Direct-able Character to follow. Targets can be the Camera or any existing object in the scene.
Adjust the Speed factor to define how fast or slow the Directable character should move.

Define the Distance offset to keep the Directable character from the center of the Target object.

Set how long the action should last by defining a Duration time in seconds.
Set the number of seconds you want to Delay the action from starting to play.

Toggle Infinite if you want the Direct-able Character to endlessly chase the Target object.

Path move

Record an animation path for your Directable character to move along.

Change the Subject if you want another Directable character than the current selection to be the one moving.

Create a new animation path using the button.
Define for how long the the Directable character should move along the path by defining a Duration time in seconds.
Toggle Use relative path position if you want the path position to be relative to the Directable character. In other words, the path will be placed in front of the current location of the Directable character, regardless of the original location it was created from; resulting in the Directable character starting to move along it right away.

When Use relative path position is turned off, the path position is meant to be relative to the scene. In other words, the path remains in the position from where it was created from; resulting in the Directable character moving towards the starting point of the path first, and then moving along it.

Toggle Close path if the path is meant to be a closed loop; meaning that start and end locations of the path will be in the same position.
Set the Play Count if you want the Directable character to move more than once along the path. Set the number of seconds you want to Delay the action from starting to play.
Toggle Infinite if you want the image sequence to endlessly loop.

Toggle Back and forth if you want the image sequence to play forward and backwards at each loop iteration.