Tutorials   improve your OpenFX skills... >>
  Submit   your own tutorial to this list... >>

 Tutorials

This page contains a list of tutorials which all give simple step by step instructions with corresponding screenshots. A wide range of design and animation techniques will build up in this section which should culminate in a comprehensive 'manual of excellence' :) These tutorials are now available in more languages than just english - a list of available languages is displayed at the top of each tutorial.

 Developer Documentation

Details of how to write plugins are described here

 Contributing

If you feel you can explain a method of using OpenFX to create a building block technique that will be useful to others, please submit screenshots and brief step by step instructions of your tutorial to Stuart.

 Animator tutorials

Title Description Author Support files
Path Follow This shows how to setup an actor to move round a path in the Animator. Andrew Heyworth path-follow-tutorial.zip
Arm Skeleton This shows how to create a skeletal arm structure and animate it. Andrew Heyworth skeleton-tutorial.zip
Robot Export This tutorial show how to export a robot object so that it can be used to generate robot sequences (There are two types of robot export!). Stuart tutorial.zip
Insert Skeleton This tutorial show how to us an exported robot sequence. Stuart tutorial.zip
Robot Path This tutorial show how to move a robot sequence so that a robot can be made to follow a path, to give the appearance of walking, running etc. Stuart tutorial.zip
Particles This tutorial demonstrates how to set up animator particle effects and the great flexibility that can be achieved with the particle actor . Stuart tutorial.zip

 Designer tutorials

Title Description Author Support files
Boolean This is a tutorial aimed at beginners to OpenFX and 3D modelling in general. It explains how to cut one object out using the boolean action in the OpenFX designer. Andrew Heyworth None
Simple Skeleton This tutorial is for beginners who want to make a model that can be posed easily using the skeletal structure.
Updated: Revised version available (02.03.2001)
Keith Kelly quicktank.mfx
Shampoo Bottle This demonstrates the use of the Lathe tool in the designer and texture mapping. It also shows how to use the animator to create a simple static scene. Andrew Heyworth tutorial.zip
Rubber Bones in Designer This shows how to use the rubber bones mechanism to distort objects in the designer. Stuart tutorial.zip
Shrink Wrap This tutorial shows how to use the shrink wrap feature (based on the marching cubes concept) to build models with a regular mesh arond any arbitrary shapes. Stuart tutorial.zip
Paint Map This tutorial shows how to use the enhanced map painting dialog (also called the Texture Coordinates Edition) to fine tune image maps to achive a good match between the image map and the way it covers the painted facets. Stuart tutorial.zip

 Renderer tutorials

Title Description Author Support files
Renderer Settings How to use the renderer settings - especially the Ray Tracing settings. Stuart None