# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Advanced Tutorials

|nextText=next module:<br />"Working Example: Bob"
|previous=Advanced Tutorials/Advanced Animation/Guided tour/NLA/stride
|previousText=previous module:<br />"The Stride feature"
}}
```
-   Letters in brackets i.e.:(z) mean there is addition information at
    the bottom of the page.

## Introduction:

This tutorial is meant to stop all the RVK (Relative Vertex Keys)
questions.

## Window Layout:

Set the left half of the screen as 3D View. The other half is divided in
two. The top is Action and the bottom is IPO (set to vertex display).

## Setting your Neutral Pose

Make sure you are on the first frame (a). With the cursor over the 3D
View, select the mesh you want to animate. (mesh in object mode) and
press the I key. Select Mesh from the pop up menu then Relative Keys
from the next pop up menu. A line will appear in the IPO view. This line
is your neutral pose.

## Setting up your additional Pose Lines

Now, figure out how many key frames you will need. If you want to move
both eyebrows up and down then you will need 4 additional IPO lines.

Left Brow Up Left Brow Down Right Brow Up Right Brow Down

Press the up arrow (cursor key) to move to forward 10 frames. Press the
I key while over the 3D View and select Mesh. Repeat until you see a
total of 5 lines in the IPO window.

## Set your Poses

Right click on the Neutral pose line in the IPO window. This sets the
mesh to the neutral pose. Now Right click on the next line up in the IPO
window. Enter edit mode in the 3D View and move the vertices as desired
(in this case you will be moving verts to get the left Brow up pose).
Press Tab to exit edit mode. Now right click your Neutral pose line in
the IPO window. You will see your object in its neutral state. Right
click the next line up and you should see the changes you just made to
your object. Set up all your mesh poses following the above
instructions.

## Name your Poses

RIght click on the Key names in the Action window. Change the name and
click OK.

## Time to Animate (b)

Click on the arrow next to the Sliders text. This will give you access
to the pose sliders. Move to frame 20 to start your action. Move the
pose slider but release the mouse when set to 0. Now move 10 frames
forward and move the same slider to 1.00 (maximum). Use this method to
set up all your actions(c). Remember to add a 0 value frame to end the
pose.(d).

## Adjust your Slow in & Out

In the IPO View select from the menu to find the IPO curves. You can get
back to the Pose lines by selecting KeyIPO from the same menu. Right
click the spline you want to edit and press TAB to enter edit mode. Move
the handles to adjust slow in/out.(e)

\(a\) In this case moving to a frame has nothing to do with animation.
It is done so that your pose lines are separate from each other. (b)
Select your key frame marker and use the usual commands to move
`<g>`{=html} and duplicate `<d>`{=html} them. (c) Be subtle by not
pushing the slider all the way to 1.00. (d) Try overlapping your poses.
(e) When setting slider values they can sometimes go into the negative
value. This will give you weird results. Although sometimes they can
make your animation more interesting. To fix this edit the IPO, select
the point where the line dips below zero and press the V key. Do the
same at the other end of the curve if needed.

Warning! Blender has a limit to the number of verts you can use.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click here to read the advanced animation tutorial guided
tour.

