Templates

Templates are pre-designed templates with animations made to specifically work in the Sandbox

Templates are simply a VXR project developed by The Sandbox Team to offer users high-quality assets compatible with every basic and advanced behaviour.

This provides creators with basic tools so they can shape their ideas faster, and create high-quality assets with less effort.

Templates meet all the necessary requirements as long as only the shape, size and colour of the VXMs are altered.

Here we have a Template Medium Biped that has been edited to create a custom NPC based on the Template. In the main template mode you can only edit the existing models. You cannot add additional nodes without the template being "unlocked"

Selecting a Template

Clicking to view the templates you will be greeted with a screen full of different templates to choose from. These templates are pre-designed with animations to work within The Sandbox Game maker, Choose which template you wish to work from such as a small human, large mammal, fish and more. Once you have selected which one you want to use, a pop up to create a folder will appear, name it and continue on, where it'll open the template up in animator mode.

Library Panel

Within the animator mode for the template, you will be able to see the skeleton, Library and timeline. There are however some limitations when it comes to using the templates. You can add additional VXMs to the library, however, on the skeleton you will only be able to drag and drop the models onto the existing nodes and won't be able to add additional nodes. You will be able to edit any pre-existing model for that template within the library by clicking the pen icon

Timeline Panel

On the timeline panel, you will be able to select which animation you wish to play. Move the timeline cursor along specific sections of an animation. You cannot however edit any of the animations or add to the existing ones from the templates.

Skeleton Panel

The Skeleton panel holds all the nodes for the models of the template. In the templates you will not be able to add additional nodes or move the models around to different positions. You can however drag and drop different models into those pre-assigned areas from the library. You can also click the pen tool in the skeleton panel and edit the models from here. This will show the ghost of the asset around the model you are editing.

Why Use Templates

Although using the templates can seem to limit what you can edit and create, it's a great way to learn how models are rigged up with child nodes and seeing animations at work. You can also edit the existing models to look completely different, increasing or decreasing the original models.

As you work your way through these topics you will learn some tips on how to "unlock" these templates to be able to add additional nodes, models and animations.