Terminology - acidbubbles/vam-timeline GitHub Wiki

  • Animation: A series of keyframes and curves for a given list of targets such as controls and morphs. Also called a "clip".
  • Blending: The effect of moving smoothly from one animation to another.
  • Clip: Another word for Animation
  • Controller: Either the "Controller" plugin, or a "Free Controller V3" (the built-in Virt-A-Mate node used to pose atoms).
  • Curve: Interpolated values between keyframes. This is what makes animations smooth with very few keyframes.
  • Dope sheet: A view of all animated targets and their keyframes.
  • Free Controller V3: A node that can be moved in game space, and controls the position and rotation of something. For example, the head or right hand control, or for other atoms, the "control", also called "root control".
  • Keyframe: A value/position/rotation at a specific point in time. This also includes, for curves, the in/out tangent, which defines the shape of the curve.
  • Layer: A group of animations that share the same targets.
  • Mocap: Short for "Motion capture".
  • Motion capture: The ability to create an animations by capturing your physical motion in real-time, either using VR controllers or your mouse. Also known as "mocap".
  • Node: Sometimes used to refert to "Free Controller V3", more specifically to the green/red boxes you can selected and move around.
  • Random: Not predictable, while not "true random" in the cryptographic sense, random features allow for variations in timing or animation choices.
  • Scrubber: The component used to move the current time in the animation.
  • Segment: Independent set of animations with their own layers exclusively from other segments.
  • Shared segment: Special segment that can run animations for any segment.
  • Sequence: Running an animation after another.
  • Target: Something that is animated, such as a controller, a storable float param, or a set of triggers.
  • Time: Usually refers to the time within an animation. For example, if mid way in a 2 seconds animation, the "time" will be 1 second. Time can refer to "Game time" (which may slow down when the CPU is unable to run all physics updates fast enough) or real time.
  • Weight: How much effect does something has over something else.