Tutorial:Blinking

2024-09-27T15:58:18Z

PencilVoid: Phrasing changes

Avatars may blink as a means to convey a character's personality and suggest liveliness. This can be done by creating a separate model part for the character's eyes, and scaling them to give the appearance of blinking.

To begin with, define variables containing parameters the script will use: the path to the eye model, their height, and the length of the blinking animation.
[[File:EyeGroup.png|thumb]]
<syntaxHighlight lang="lua">
local eyes = models.model.root.UpperBody.TheHead.Eyes
local EYE_HEIGHT = 2 --The height of your eyes in blockbench units
local BLINK_RATE = 4 * 20 -- 4 Seconds
</syntaxHighlight>The <code>BLINK_RATE</code> particle is multiplied by 20 as the script will deal in ticks, and there are 20 ticks in a second.

Next, the logic that determines when to blink will be performed in a <code>TICK</code> event. 4 new variables will also be needed to store the calculated position and scale for the eyes, alongside a simple timer. These will be initialised outside of the <code>TICK</code> event.
<syntaxHighlight lang="lua">
local oldScale = vec(1, 1, 1)
local newScale = vec(1, 1, 1)
local oldPos = vec(0, 0, 0)
local newPos = vec(0, 0, 0)

local tick = 0
function events.TICK()
-- Sets old pos and scale for later interpolation
oldPos = newPos
oldScale = newScale
tick = tick + 1

-- If time to blink, set new position and scale to close the eyes, otherwise open them
if tick % BLINK_RATE == 0 then
newScale = vec(1, 0, 1)
newPos = vec(0, EYE_HEIGHT / -2, 0)
else
newScale = vec(1, 1, 1)
newPos = vec(0, 0, 0)
end
end
</syntaxHighlight>

In order to give the blinking a smooth appearance, the rendered position and scale will be calculated and set in a <code>RENDER</code> event, using the variables initialized earlier.

<syntaxHighlight lang="lua">
function events.RENDER(delta)
-- This interpolates the blinking to make for a smooth blink
local scale = math.lerp(oldScale, newScale, delta)
local pos = math.lerp(oldPos, newPos, delta)

eyes:setPos(pos):setScale(scale)
end
</syntaxHighlight>

[[Category:Tutorials]]

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Tutorial:Blinking