Anim8or Community

I've recently found myself using anim8or's stl ascii export feature to make simple geometries that can be parsed with relative ease in my own code, but there's something odd about the files that animator generates. While they work great, I've noticed that it has 9 vertices per loop defining each triangle (with the last 6 being duplicates of the first 3). While it has no influence on the functionality (apart from an increase in file size), I was curious as to why this might be the case. Below is a snippet from a cube made in anim8or and exported as an ascii stl file.

solid object01
  facet normal 0 1 0
   outer loop
    vertex -27.401 20.1845 -20.3473
    vertex 12.968 20.1845 14.3787
    vertex 12.968 20.1845 -20.3473
    vertex -27.401 20.1845 -20.3473
    vertex 12.968 20.1845 14.3787
    vertex 12.968 20.1845 -20.3473
    vertex -27.401 20.1845 -20.3473
    vertex 12.968 20.1845 14.3787
    vertex 12.968 20.1845 -20.3473
   endloop
  endfacet
  facet normal 0 1 0
   outer loop
    vertex -27.401 20.1845 -20.3473
    vertex -27.401 20.1845 14.3787
    vertex 12.968 20.1845 14.3787
    vertex -27.401 20.1845 -20.3473
    vertex -27.401 20.1845 14.3787
    vertex 12.968 20.1845 14.3787
    vertex -27.401 20.1845 -20.3473
    vertex -27.401 20.1845 14.3787
    vertex 12.968 20.1845 14.3787
   endloop
  endfacet

Always glad to see updates. Thanks Steve!

Fast select works well. Orientation setting seem to be going strong too.

The alpha values on the image transparency don't seem to work, instead they just tint the image yellow.

.gif files with transparent portions seem to be rendering properly.

I have a few things that I would like to see that I think would be useful. If I suggest something that's already implemented or would be too much trouble with too little benefit, I apologize ahead of time.

-Pan being integrated as a keyboard shortcut.

-Icon subsets would be useful. Instead of going into the build menu to change from a dodecahedron to an icosahedron, perhaps something like right-clicking the icon would bring up all primitive variants that are related to it (in this particular case the platonic solids). This could also be integrated into the edit mode tools to provide variants on some operations if necessary. In particular though, this might be useful for organizing the menu for those of us with an endless amount of primitive plugins.

-Free-form select.

-For many of the input box tools like smooth object, rotate custom, primitive parameters, etc., having a slider in addition to it that automatically updates the model to reflect the outcome before completing the operation would be useful for visualization and save a bit of guess work.

-Changing the color of GUI components could be useful, for personal preference or otherwise. In my case, a lot of the reference images I use tend to have white backgrounds, so being able to change my selected point/edge color to something that blends in less would save a bit of hassle in the long run. Along with that, things like scaling windows could be useful as well when dealing with multiple views.

-Steve: Implemented in 1086: Transparency as a part of the reference image parameters. That, or being able to have objects always draw in front of a reference image.

-Rotate faces obeying the x,y,z restrictions like the point rotate would be useful when working with extrusions.

I don't feel that any of these should be too high on the priority list, but they are some things that I feel would benefit the program without over-complicating it.

I thoroughly enjoy the new feature. It's speeds things up to a surprising degree, which is always great for a program that's already fairly quick and intuitive. I would like to see the pan tool available with similar controls. Keep up the good work Steve.

Do we have a topic for general UI and workflow suggestions?

 #3. I don't think there would really be a major concern over backwards compatibility considering that it is a completely free program. Import would be able to open older files, and there shouldn't be any issues for downloading the version that would run the newer files.

Not sure if this would help at all, but if you have a slideshow background in Windows 7 (Which is the default theme in some cases) turning off has fixed compatibility issues with a couple of games. It may translate over to anim8or too.

A render of a scene using at least 3 ART effects.

No touching up.

Graded by model work, textures, lighting, effects, and realism.

Probably my first successful gun model. Well, as successful as it gets with me modeling.

Anyway, it has flaws, but it is my first model that I can see myself not giving up on. I made a couple of small renders (No ART effects to save time), and I have the full file. Feel free to give out some helpful advice . I'll probably get around to texturing sometime soon.





It was originally supposed to be based off a the pistol from Halo: CE (I'm fairly sure),  but I didn't think I would be able to go with the original scope, so I decided to add a reflex sight instead.