Part 1: Quick Introduction to IPO Cruves and Drivers
a tutorial by Calvin

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Intro to IPO curves
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- Here infront of you, you see a shape. There is 3 things we can do to the shape.
1) Rotate it.
2) Locationize it.
3) Size it.

The current state the default cube is in, is at 0.00.


1) Select the cube and click i.
- As you can see, there is a few things you can apply to the shape. But for now Select Loc.


Split the window in Half.


Select the "Ipo Curve Editor"


As you can see we have created a key, and since we have not moved the cube the default location is 0.0.
That is where the key was inserted.


Now move to frame 10,


Grab the Cube (hold Ctrl) and move the cube up one step.


Now click "i" and again apply a location key.
Study the image below very carefully. Notice that we have created a new key point, at location 1.0.
We have just created a curve for the LocZ property of the cube.


See the green line, that line represents the frame we are currently in.
Try move the line.

Notice that as you move from frame to frame the object moves.

KEY POINT: Now wouldn't it be wonderful if you could move or rotate an "empty" or "bone of an armature" and cause that green line to move? This dragging along the green line, is what I refer to as "IPO driving" but now we need a Driver!

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Using an Armature Bone as the IPO Driver
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There is a few advantages of using a bone instead of an empty as a IPO Driver.
1) An empty's default location is Global, meaning that it's location is based on the center of the Blender Window. The disadvantage of using an empty is that the empty has to be at the center, ALL THE TIME for zero location.
2) when you create a "bone," and set this bone in a certian location, it's "ZERO" location is the location where the bone was created. And you can change that zero location when you go into edit mode. (A bone's location is local within the armature)

Important Go to YX view (Key 7)
1) Create a Bone.


Depending how many controllers you are planning to have, it might be a good idea to give that bone a unique name. But for this simple introduction we will leave it at "Bone."


Now lets go back to the IPO Curve Editor.
Note: Since we are only animating the Location of Z, you can remove the other applied Locations.
1) Grab the curve and move it to frame 0.
2) Go into edit mode (TAB) click on the right point (hold Ctrl) and move it to 10.
3) Go into Transform Properties (Key N)



Click "Add Driver" and apply the following settings:
1) We have selected the Object we want to act as a Driver: "Armature."
2) We selected Pose from the Menu, since we want a specific bone to act as the Driver.
3) We have selected "Bone" since "Bone" is the name we gave our bone.
4) We have selected Loc Z, because we want to be able to "drive the curve" based on the location of the bone, along the Z axis.



Ok now go try move the bone around in pose mode.
You'll notice one thing:


Maybe we want the driver to behave this way, but maybe not.
1) Click on the curve, go into edit mode (TAB)
2) Click on the far right point (hold ctrl) now drag the point so we get a one to one equation.

Now, if you move the the driver one step, our whole animation will move one step.


Depending on how you want your object to act in relation to the driver movement, you can change the curve around... OR if you want a simple linear one to one equation.

Click (I key) for insert, and select the following option...


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Experimenting with other options.
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In this instance we have selected the LocZ of the bone to act as our driver for LocZ of the object. But if you look under the menu we could use quite a few different properties of the bone to we can use as a driving force.

For example:


Now the location of the object is based on the rotation of bone along the Y axis.


Part 2: Using IPO drivers in Shape Keys