THE KEY TUTORIAL
By PJB (pokejoyboy@pjb.i8.com)
Or pokejoyboy@aol.com
1.) is a key?
2.) what do i need to make one?
3.) how do i make one?
4.) now i have my key what do i do?
5.) lets play!

1.  what is a key?
Ok i will start by explaining what a 'KEY' is, for those that don't know, (if you do know skip this bit.)
A key is a .key file like KYJUMP.KEY, it makes things in the game move, not like an enemy moving around a level, oh-no a key is something like the movement of the body while, jumping, shooting, running, walking, so basically any movement an object makes in the game.


2 . what do i need to make one?
To make a key you will need a program caled Pupet Jedi, (or PJedi) You can get this from www.massassi.net's program downloads it's a very small program (V0.61 is 280k) and it only takes a moment to unzip it. (You will need winzip availible at WWW.winzip.com)

3. how do i make one?
Pupet-Jedi at first seems very complicated, but you will soon find it very easy, it makes paint look difficult. Start by putting your JK CD in your CD-Drive, Then Click 'File/Open 3DO/KY.3do'
now you will presented with this!
*Gulp* Looks complicated doesn't it?
Well, don't worry its easy! Now we can either edit an existing key, (to make kyle fall apart when he jumps, HE HE HE,) or make any key, (to make kyle have some new move or make a cloned version of kyle move slightly differently.)  We are going for the second option, make a new key (its the best way to learn!)
First we need to rotate Kyle so we can see him properly, we could just go to 'view/offset view' in the menu but that's to easy huh? In the tool bar on the top you can see three buttons 'M', 'R', and 'Z', those stand for Move, Rotate, and Zoom. If you click on one and holding down your mouse button drag the model will move, (or you will move around it whatever you want to believe.)
Move around, get used to the movements, and then position the model like this.
Now we can start work, click 'File/New key' and you get this!
*screams* lots of horrid numbers! LOL don't worry its quite simple, those numbers are the number of single frames, watch frame is like a single picture, or a 'frame' of movie film, the numbers at the top are the 'Key Frames' each one is at an increment of frames from the last. You edit the key frames and all the frames in-between are filled in for you. All this is on its default at the moment, you can just click 'OK' and continue, as you skills develop you will learn to use this page to make your keys better.  Now we have got the same screen as before, select one of the parts of kyle in the little box on the top left. To day we are going to make kyle wave, (witch we could use to make him wave goodbye to Jan in a level!)
Select K_lsholdr and the in the box below select entry 1.
There are two ways to edit a frame, you can double click on the entry and input the position by typing he X, Y, Z, X rot, Y rot, and Z rot positions manually but that leads to an odd bug with it not filling in all the frames. The second method is to move the parts using the mouse, this is the easiest way, and the simplest, and that's what we will be doing.
The buttons we want are the fist is the X position, the second the Y, the third the Z, the next two buttons are very important, the first is to move the part, the second is to rotate the part. Check that the first and the last are selected, (like in the picture) then click and drag Kyle's arm until it looks like this.
Next click on Entry 2 and move his arm slightly higher, click on entry 3 and move his are higher so it looks like this,
ok heres the interesting part, right click on frame 3 and select 'copy' then click on the next frame and then right click and select 'paste', repeat the pasting for all the other entry's for the arm.
Now in the top left hand box select k_lforarm and select Entry 4, now remember the buttons? well click on the Y button and move kyle's forearm to the right, now chose the next entry and move his forearm to the left, over all the left over entry's move Kyle's forearm left and right so its like he is waving. Now you see the big green button and the big red button on the toolbar? on is an arrow the other a red box they are play and stop, before we use them save the .KEY go 'File/Save Key' i saved mine as Kywave.key. Now play the key, it looks ok but when did we go with ok? he looks like Michael Jackson doing a robot! its to solid.
What i want you to do now is wave, see how you hand kinder flops? well do that to are friend kyle, select K_lhand and Entry 4.
Move his had so it facing in bent in the opposite direction of his wave, like this.
Then on Entry 5 move it the opposite way, like this.
Repeat that on all the other entry's for his hand, then play it again it looks more lifelike now right?
That's the basics its a wave, you should make his torso move very slightly and make his arm move more fluidly, coz at the moment his arm looks quite dumb right? you want to take time making it look more real, or coarse if you where making a robot you might want it to look very static, but spending some time and energy on a key file can have really good results, i have included the completed key file to compere yours with you should have a look at it HERE.


4. now i have my key what do i do?
If you where making an enemy you would want to make a PUP file, i will be making a tutor on them to, if you open one of the PUP files in RES2.Gob you will find they are very simple, you could replace one of Kyle's keys with the new one, so when he fired a weapon he would wave instead, there are lots of things in JK you can do with keys, you can make ships land and open a landing leg, make an enemy, get an actor to do stuff, and of course make new enemies. In MotS heres evan more you can do as you could make new movements for the in game movies.

5. lets play!
Now you have your new keys get in there and make some cool levels with them, play around just coz something is the norm doesn't mean its the best, see what you can do and all i ask is that you credit me in your game, Now get outs here and have some fun!