Actor Intervals¶

Actor intervals allow actor animations to be played as an interval, which allows them to be combined with other intervals through sequences and parallels.

The subrange of the animation to be played may be specified via frames (startFrame up to and including endFrame) or seconds (startTime up to and including endTime). It may also be specified with a startFrame or startTime in conjunction with the duration, in seconds. If none of these is specified, then the default is to play the entire range of the animation.

If endFrame is before startFrame, or if the play rate is negative, then the animation will be played backwards.

You may specify a subrange that is longer than the actual animation, but if you do so, you probably also want to specify either loop=1 or constrainedLoop=1; see below.

The loop parameter is a boolean value. When it is true, it means that the animation restarts and plays again if the interval extends beyond the animation’s last frame. When it is false, it means that the animation stops and holds its final pose when the interval extends beyond the animation’s last frame. Note that, in neither case, will the ActorInterval loop indefinitely: all intervals always have a specific, finite duration, and the duration of an ActorInterval is controlled by either the duration parameter, the startTime/endTime parameters, or the startFrame/endFrame parameters. Setting loop=1 has no effect on the duration of the ActorInterval, it only controls what the actor does if you try to play past the end of the animation.

The parameter constrainedLoop works similarly to loop, but while loop=1 implies a loop within the entire range of animation, constrainedLoop=1 implies a loop within startFrame and endFrame only. That is, if you specify loop=1 and the animation plays past endFrame, in the next frame it will play beginning at frame 0; while if you specify constrainedLoop=1 instead, then the next frame after endFrame will be startFrame again.

All parameters other than the animation name are optional.

from direct.interval.ActorInterval import ActorInterval

myInterval = myactor.actorInterval(
    "Animation Name",
    loop=<0 or 1>,
    contrainedLoop=<0 or 1>,
    duration=D,
    startTime=T1,
    endTime=T2,
    startFrame=N1,
    endFrame=N2,
    playRate=R,
    partName=PN,
    lodName=LN,
)