We are not going to worry about the camera angle at this point. We are just going to rotate our character. We will fine tune the rotation when we get to the camera chapter because the final adjustments will be camera angle dependent.
Select the character.
Select the Rotation tool from the top toolbar.
Rotate the character towards the grill.
Open the Timeline for the character by right-clicking on character and selecting Timeline or clicking the Timeline button on the bottom control panel.
Click on the Object-related track button on the Timeline top toolbar.
Using the Object-related track button on the timeline as shown in the next screenshot ensures that we will see the timeline for the selected object instead of another scene object:
Hold the Shift key down and left-click or drag a box around both key frames. We want to select both of the key frames to move at one time.
The next image shows the two keyframes highlighted together to be moved down the timeline:
Move both key frames by sliding them down the Timeline to around frame 500. Just make sure you have slid them past the time the male character is setting down the beer.
The following image shows the same keyframes after being moved down the timeline so the turn will start at the proper time:
What just happened?
First we selected and rotated the male character towards the grill. Then we adjusted the timing of the turn to start after the Beer iProp is set down on the porch rail.
In this case the turning action starts at frame 319 and ends at frame 459. We highlighted both key frames and moved them down the timeline to span from frame 511 to frame 651.
At this point the male character should set the beer down on the handrail and turn towards the grill. Don't worry about any rough transitions or problems with the beer can action script. The can may jump from the hand to the rail. This will be masked out by our camera angle later.
The AML markup language in iClone is in its infancy and has some drawbacks to its use, but it is a great starter motion at any rate. We can smooth the motion with manual animation or we can mask it with camera angles as we will in this case.
Tip
Selecting multiple frames
Key frames can be selected individually, grouped with the Ctrl key, or selected as a group of key frames by holding the left mouse button down and dragging a box around the multiple keys on the timeline then releasing the left mouse button.
The next image shows the male character after setting down the beer on the deck railing and turning towards the grill: