Anim8or Community

Just so you know, the links to most scripts in the database do not work. They redirect to a Wordpress error page.
Some website links are broken as well.

I am not sure if anyone ever did this before. I wanted to simulate real life motion for moving objects based on acceleration forces, initial velocities, and position. I could not find any script of this sort. So I created this script that does a fairly good job. For instance, if an animated character drops many objects, it would be easier to apply a script like this to simulate the objects falling and bouncing off the floor and walls. There are some limitations, but, I thought this script could be useful for some of us.

Anyone? Is there a tutorial that shows how attributes can be used? Also, am I right in saying attributes are not used in scene scripts? Seems like that would be one way to set global scene variables that scripts could use for conditional execution.

I am a bit confused as to why you say there would be unpredictable outcomes if we used information of previous frames to compute new values in the current frame. It seems to me if the initial conditions and computation are always the same, the outcome would always be the same as well. For instance, if we could set the initial position of an object to 0,0,0, then in a position controller script set the object's X position of the current frame to the position of the previous frame's X position+1. How would the outcome be different each time the scene is played? At frame 10, the objects position should always be 10,0,0. Maybe Steve or someone can elaborate on this example to show what I am missing. It seems it would make animation easier in some cases if information of at least the previous frame's object parameters were known to the current frame's script.

Anim8or is a great program Steve  . I worked with this tool for the past couple months. I love it, but also wish it had some more features. So I just wanted to let you know what I think would make it better for me. Some of these items others already mentioned, in that case, just add my vote to their wishes. Other items may be hard or impossible to implement, I understand. Yet others may have easy workarounds. If so, please let me know. Thanks for letting me try Anim8or for free.

>>General:

1. It would be nice to have an option to automatically load a project from (and save a project to) individual files.
  - For example. Create an object that is used in multiple projects. Each time the object is changed in one project, the changes automatically get reflected in the other projects.
  - This should also improve autosave performance, as only the file of the item being changed needs be updated. - I have to turn autosave off for large projects, as it annoyingly freezes my environment while saving.

 
2. It would be nice to have the ability to export and import materials to .an8 files.
- For example, I create two objects with a particular material. Then I want to change the material for the two objects in the same way. Not easily done - easiest way now is to copy and paste the material in the exported objects’ files.

3. It would be nice if only user-friendly information is stored in the .an8 files. In particular, store actual angle information like that used in the UI, rather than the little understood quaternion information which is not used in the UI.

4. It would be nice if the viewpoints could be saved and restored when the application is closed and restarted for each item in all modes.

5. It would be nice to be able to save some "User" viewpoints so they can be recalled as desired.

6. Maybe an option to "lock" the Grid when the viewpoint is changed to user so the grid does not rotate along with the object (grid often interferes with what needs to be seen). Otherwise, have a button to easily turn Grid on/off.

7. When rotating the viewpoint (User viewpoint), the axis orientation indicator (Lower left corner) disappears. It would be nice if the indicator would remain visible in the corner, rotating there to reflect the current orientation.

8. Hover over button "help".

9. More short-cut keys and buttons.


>>Object Editor:

10. It would be nice if a singly selected point's coordinates be shown in the status line (Rather than double clicking a point to get that information). In general, just more status line information would be nice.

11. The ability to duplicate a morph target (With a different name) so it is easy to create branches of morph targets.

12. The ability to change any particular morph target to be the default object.

13. Mirror morph targets along with a mirrored mesh.

14. Warn user if an action would result in morph targets getting corrupted/lost.

15. The Pivot Adjustment feature (Object/Axis) fails to snap to grid when Snap to Grid is selected.

17. Would be nice to have a mode where the multi-selection tool does not deselect previously selected items.

18. Would be nice to have an option to hide points/edges/faces that are behind others.


>>Figure Editor:

19. When the bone creation button is selected in Figure editor, it does not stay selected to add multiple bones. User always has to reselect the button for each additional bone created.

20. It would be nice for the bones in the Figure editor to move freely by default.

21. Bone mirroring.


>>Sequence Editor:

22. When changes are "undone" (using undo button) to bone movements in Sequence editor, the bone gets unselected. Usually, the same bone needs be moved again, thus needs to be reselected.

23. It would be nice to be able to easily "Select All" bones in sequence editor to "Copy" all keys for all the bones of a figure. This would be handy when a particular figure's position is desired in multiple frames. It seems like "Select All" does nothing here.

24. It would be nice (if possible) for the Gimbal Lock issue to be resolved in Sequence editor like it is in the Figure editor.
   
25. There is also another bone rotating issue in Sequence editor that has nothing to do with Gimbal Lock that I think has already been hacked to death in these forums.


>>Scene Editor:

26. It would be nice if the "world" line of the hierarchy list indicates if keys are used for a particular frame. If the list has many elements, the only way to determine if no keys are used for a particular frame is to scroll through the list. As such, it is easy to miss and delete frames where keys did exist.

27. When switching between modes, often things get unselected.
  - For example, I try to coordinate bone movement in a particular scene frame with a particular sequence frame. When I switch back and forth between the Scene editor and Sequence editor, I always have to reselect the bone and push the Key button.
  - When trying to coordinate object parameters like size/position to fit scenes, the object is always unselected when switching back to the Object editors.

28. It would be nice to see more control over the Scene mode's Graph Editor's Scaling parameters. If I want to adjust the values for a short period of time of a lengthy animation, It would be nice if I could just show that short period of time in the Graph Editor. This way, the Graph Editor's size can be reduced to see better how the animated objects are affected as the parameters are changed in the Graph Editor.

29. It would be nice to see an option for the Graph Editor to automatically update the animation's current frame depending on the point that is currently selected in the Graph editor.

30. Maybe be able to adjust the radius of a Panorama Background? – I am thinking that could improve rendering performance and/or resolution of the image?


>>Script Editor:

31. Add a Function to allow launching external programs (like morphenvy, etc...). That way, popular external programs could be setup to act as if they were integrated with Anim8or.
 
32. Add Functions to convert quaternion info to and from just angle information (not really necessary if quaternion information is not visible to end users like it is now in the .an8 files).

Let me know if I should elaborate on any of these items.
Thanks again,
Harry

I think what VBsmiles suggested with regards to morphs makes sense. You already have a context menu for "New...", "Edit...", and "Delete..." morph. Why not simply add a menu item to "Copy..." morph? After showing a dialog box to name the copied morph, the user can just change the copy leaving the original in tact. Both copy and original can then be based on None.

We can already do this by simply creating a "New" morph, exporting the file to .an8 format. Edit that file by coping other morph targets' into the newly created morph target section. Then import the file.

Great Program Steve. I like being able to manipulate the .an8 files to find solutions to unimplemented features.  I look forward to the mirroring capabilities you are adding.
 

I think the biggest problem with people first trying morph targets is in not understanding it only works with moving points of a mesh. If you try to rotate an object in the Edit screen (as opposed to Edit Point screen), the rotation is not morphed. It would be nice if the manual emphasized this point right from the get go in the morph targets section.

The real problem is that individual bones of a figure cannot be used as the parent for other objects that can be made invisible at certain times of the animation. I am thinking of a character that throws a ball, the ball would be in the hand for a short period of time. During that time, the ball should move along with the hand. When the ball is released, it should follow some other independent path. Here is what I did.

1. First, I created the ball as usual in object mode and converted it to mesh.
2. Then I made a morph target for the ball and called it "disappear".
3. I selected all points in Point Editor and shrunk the ball so small it disappeared off the screen.
4. I then went to figure mode and added the ball to the hand bone - positioning it where it would be when the hand is holding it.
5. Then I sequenced throwing the ball.
6. In Scene mode I first enabled the "disappear" morph target of the figure to make the ball disappear from the hand.
7. I then added another ball object into the scene and made it fly through the air along a path where it met up with the hand at some point in the animation.
8. Once the ball was in the hand, I reversed the "disappear" morphs for the two balls such that the boned ball is visible and the other ball invisible. Now the ball moves wherever the hand moves.
9. At the point where the ball is supposed to leave the hand, I again reversed the "disappear" morph targets of the two balls such that the ball can once again follow some independent path.

I used "Step" option when I added the keys to make the balls appear and disappear.

I hope this helps. Being new at using Anim8or, I cannot be certain this method is the easiest way of doing such a task.