Anim8or Community

Anim8or v1.0 is just about ready to release. View all the candidate splash screens here and then vote for your favorite one here in the Anim8or Challenges forum.

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Before posting a new topic or reply please consider the following points:

• First and most important: Is your new topic/reply relevant to the forum community? This is an Anim8or related forum, not a chat room. Use your own judgement to decide whether your post is appropriate or not, but keep in mind that all irrelevant posts will be removed by moderators. Try to save us some work...
  Posts about other 3D software are allowed as long as they are Anim8or related. Commercial posts are not allowed unless they are something that Anim8or was used in the production of, and then only if the main point is to show the work.
  
  
• The one and only language of this forum is English. There are Anim8or users from all over the world and things wouldn't really work if everybody used his native language when posting comments and asking questions... You can always use the personal messages system if you have a good reason to use other language.
  
  
• Be polite and be patient. Bad language of any kind as well as spamming or flaming is not tolerated!
  
  
• Has your question/topic/reply been said or asked before? There is no point in having the same question asked by different members. Or having ten people saying: "This is awesome" or "This sucks" without any further information/explanation.  Please keep posts informative and useful.
  
  
• When breaking the rules, a forum moderator or administrator will remove your post/topic. Moderators can be recognized by the five blue stars by their name and the forum administrator Steve, who has five red stars by his name. Posters of removed posts/topics will be contacted with the reasons of removal.
  When you see someone else breaking rules, please report this to a moderator. This can be done by clicking in the 'report to moderator' button below every post. Please do not reply to the topic/post, let the moderators handle it.
  
  
• More about the forum setup and help can be found here: Forum Help

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The forum is here to show and comment on artwork created in Anim8or and to aid those that need help. Most of to members here will be willing to help with your questions and will provide support. We are all here to learn and have fun,
but not every question has to be asked on the forum. Some things are way easier and most of the time faster found by yourself!

Before asking your question(s) on the forum try the following points:

• The Manual! The manual holds most of the answers to your questions when starting with anim8or. The manual can be found here: The Anim8or Manual or by the click on the link in the toolbar on the left (<--)  and can be downloaded in different languages here: Downloads, also this link can be found on the toolbar left.
  The manual is a basic explanation of anim8or's tools. When starting with anim8or it's highly recommended to start with reading through the manual. When you don't find you answer(s) in the manual go through the following steps:
  
  
• Has your question been asked before? As described above: there is no point in posting the same question again when the answer is already given. Do a search through the forum, alot of questions have been asked and answered before.
  You can search the forum through this link: Search the Forum or by clicking on 'search' in the forum toolbar above. Try an advanced search when you don't immediately find what you were looking for.
  
  
• Can't find your answer on the forum? Search the internet! Some answers to questions can be found in two seconds when you simply search the internet. There are alot of search engines which can help you search: Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia etc. So when you are looking for a tutorial on making a character, some free textures or you just want to know what Normal maps are: The Internet Is Your Best Friend!
  

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It's about ten years now since the first version of anim8or was released. You can imagine that some questions have been asked more then once. To prevent from having those questions asked another 1000 times here are some answers to frequently asked questions.

• I have problems running Anim8or under Windows Vista. What can I do?
  See the Vista problems page.
  
  
• Why don't the point-edit operations work?
  You may need to convert your model to mesh (see Meshes vs. Parameteric Shapes in the manual).
  Make sure your model is not grouped (select it and click "Build>Ungroup" or press "u")
  
  
• How do I select multiple frames on the timeline (Anim8or v1.0)?
  Click one frame and then shift+click another one.
  
  
• Why can't I rotate bones in the figure/sequence/scene modes?
  Use different mouse buttons to rotate around x, y and z axes (see Making a key pose in the manual). If you can't rotate a bone in the sequence/scene mode, make sure the movement limits are set properly (see Flexible joints).
  
  
• How do I post images/attachments on the forum?
  You can add an image/attachment to your post by clicking "Additional Options..." below the text input window.
  You can also use a free image hosting site (such as Imageshack or Photobucket) to upload your image and then use the "[img]" BBC tag to show the image on the forum.
  
  
• Why can't I see shadows?
  Shadows are only visible in rendered images. If shadows don't show up in your renders, follow the instructions in the Manual and make sure shadows are enabled under the "View>Preferences" menu.
  
  
• How do I make a character move?
  To make characters move, they need to be rigged. Rigging is applying a skeleton to your character and then attach the bones to several part of the character to make it move. Rigging can be done using Figure Mode. The movement is later applied in Sequence Mode. When starting out with animating a character, try following this basic anim8or tutorial:
  A Simple Walk.
  
  
• How does the new ART raytracer works?
  The newest versions of anim8or, version 0.97a and up, have a new renderer build-in: ART (Anim8or Ray Tracer). This renderer makes it possible to make real-time reflections and refractions etc.. To render with ART go to render> renderer> ART Ray Tracer. Now when you render something it will be done with the ART instead of standard anim8or scanline.
  If you want to use ART to make raytraced materials, you need use Attributes. Attributes can be applied by clicking on 'Attributes' when creating a material. More about the raytracer and attributes can be found here: ART Ray Tracer
  
  

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To fully master this or any program, you can't do without help. Here are some useful links to tutorial and texture sites that might help you out in times of stress.

Anim8or related tutorials
Tutorials made for working with anim8or. Really helpful if you just get started in anim8or.

• Modeling an eggplant. By R. Steven Glanville
• Modeling a hand. By R. Steven Glanville
• A Simple Walk. By R. Steven Glanville
• Other anim8or related tutorials can be found here: Anim8or Tutorials.

3d related tutorials
Although some tutorials aren't specifically written for anim8or, they can be used while working with anim8or. This because the basics can be translated into different software packages.

• Low-Poly Character Modeling and Texturing. By Athey Nansel-Moravetz
• Edge Loops for Faces. By Athey Nansel-Moravetz
• Modeling Joan of Arc - Basic Character Modeling.. By Michel Roger

Textures
Some sites which offer free textures to be used for your projects.

• CG Textures
• Mayang's Free Textures
• The Anim8or Material Database
• 3D Total Free textures

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If you find anything wrong with this topic or if something isn't clear, you can PM a moderator or the admin about this.

-Originally posted by Floyd86
Global Moderator.

I posted an updated IK tool in build 1247 dated September 4, 2016. The controls have been improved significantly. Here's the updated details:

To add an OK chain: In the Figure Editor, select two bones, one which is the ancestor of the other. Then apply the Build->AddIKChain command.
IK Handle: The IK Handle is shown as a small cube when the IK button is enabled in the Visibility section of the left-hand toolbars in the Figure editor.  You use this to access the IK chain's properties here. Double click to edit, move and scale it with the normal tools.
IK Widget: In the Sequence editor you move IK chains in IK mode. In addition to the IK Handle, the End Effector and move widget are shown. The End Effector is a small icosahedron positioned at the tip of the tail bone of the IK chain. Centered in the End Effector is a 3-axis cross hair for posing the chain.
IK Goal: The goal is the location that you are trying to position the end effector. As you move it around the joints in the associated IK chain will bend to try and keep the end effector aligned. If you move the goal out of range Anim8or will get as close as it can.
Undo: should work for all IK related actions.  Please report anything that doesn't work correctly.

Note: the "Rotate Children" option isn't enabled, so for the time being the child bones will be affected regardless.

To use IK:
1. Add IK controls to a Figure by selecting two bones, one which must be the parent of the other, and use the Build->AddIKChain command.
2. Create a Sequence with the Figure and click on the IK tool. The IK widgets will be shown and the animation key will be automatically enabled.
3. Click-drag on the End Effector to move the Goal in the plane of the screen. You can also click-drag the IK Handle for this. Click-drag on the different axes to move the Goal in the X, Y or Z direction relative to the Figure.
4. If the goal is unreachable, it will be shown separately from the end effector with a dashed line connecting them.
5. Anim8or adds keys for all joints in the IK chain when you move the end effector. All joints are then animated according to their individual keys. This is not the best behavior. I think a better way is to animate the end effector and use IK to position the joints accordingly at each frame. But what I have ready now is a good start

New to build 1247:

Locked End effector Position: In the Scene editor you can lock the position of an end effector. Then when you move any part of the figure between the locked joint and the root the position of the figure will automatically adjust to keep the effector in the same location. To lock an effector: double click on the handle and check the Lock Position check-box. Note: currently only one effector can be locked at a time.

Full Body IK: The entire body of any figure can be manipulated. Click-dragging on any bone or attached object will create a temporary IK chain from that bone to the root. This is an experimental feature. There are some issues, such as the temporary effector only moves in the plane of the screen so if you aren't in the proper view it will distort the figure. Of course the normal IK tools still work the same. Please try this out and let me know what you think.

Selected IK Controls: Build 1247 doesn't show the IK widget until you click on the handle to select it. This reduces the clutter on the screen with multiple IK chains. It also makes easier to see what it happening because the IK widgets are now drawn on top of everything.  However when several IK handles are selected the widgets can appear incorrectly drawn.

Future details: restraints on orientation of joints, IK chains that don't have to be ancestors, different IK solvers.

Joint Limits: using limits can help when you are animation.  IK favors the default angle and obeys all joint limits. Without limits you can get some strange

I've attached an updated example project on September 4, 1026.  See the Scene editor which uses the humanoid.

Have fun!

Current Development Release - Build 1269, February 14, 2017

The current release is build 1269, February 14, 2017: http://www.anim8or.com/download/preview/files/animcl1269.zip

Major changes for build 1269 dated February 14, 2017:
Fix #098-098:GetAttributeQuaternion() always returns 0.
Fix #098-099:Anim8or freezes/crashes when using arc-rotate, etc. in the Scene editor starting with 1261.
Topo tool: Fix selection bug for subdivision control meshes in flat and smooth views when points and/or edges are disabled in the GUI for non-control meshes. Also affects other editing tools.
ASL: Fix print order of quaternions. Was printing (q.x, q.w, q.y, q.z)
IK: Tweek Jacobian Transpose solver.
IK: Show/enable IK controller widget on locked effectors when they are selected.
Misc: Fix various crashes and redraw issues.

Previous releases:

Major changes for build 1264 dated December 28, 2016:
IK: New IK solver using Jacobian Transpose with improved IK stability.
IK: Remove associated controllers with an IK chain is deleted in the Figure editor. Could cause crashes, etc.
IK: Key all joints when editing an effector's location in the key frame editor. Improves stability and performance.
Fix #098-097: Arrow keys sometimes don't alter frame in Scene editor.

Major changes for build 1263 dated December 13, 2016:
Mouse Wheel: Scrolling the mouse wheel in a graphics view changed to expand around the cursor instead of the center of the view. Use <Shft>+MouseWheel for the old behavior.
IK: Improve the stability of locked end effectors that don't move between keys. If two adjacent keys are within +/- 0.5 units any overshoot between keys is automatically eliminated. If the values are exact there should be no movement.
Move Tool + IK:  Move end effector locations as well when an element is moved in the scene editor if the animate key is off.
Rotate Bone Tool + IK: Relocate locked end effectors and add a key when a joint is rotated in the Scene editor.
Track Ball: Adjust size of trackball to correct for a figure's scale.

Major changes for build 1261 dated November 23, 2016:
Bone Folders: Bones are shown in folders in the Scene editor's track window when they are given folder name. This helps make track windows with many bones more manageable.
Undo errors: fixes several undo/redo errors related to IK changes.
Minor bugs: tracks weren't always selected properly in the graph editor when they are selected in the track window, and several similar problems.
Track window: improved track redraw when holding the arrow keys. The time slider still tends to not redraw, as does the graph window when the track window isn't floated.

Major changes for build 1258 dated October 25, 2016:
IK: locked effectors that don't move between keys are held in a fixed position. The IK solver is dynamically run on non-keyed frames.
IK: added "active" controller to IK track to record when an IK chain is active (locked).
IK: change IK solver to use Inverse Jacobian which is more stable that the previous hybrid solution.
Key All Bones: added short cut key <Ctrl-K> to key all bones in selected figures.
Key position and morph targets: also key position and morph values with 'k' hot key for selected figures (in addition to selected bones).
Track Ball: display only one trackball at a time, the most recently clicked. Showing them all can be too cluttered.
Bone Folders: Add "folder" property to bones. Those in the same folder are grouped together in the time track and graph edit windows.
Fix #098-092: End effectors don't show after adding a Figure to a Scene.
Fix #098-093: Drag-select doesn't select all Shapes in wireframe mode.
Fix #098-094: Moving figure with locked end effectors off screen incorrectly moves figure.
Fix #098-095: Importing a sequence crashes.

Major changes for build 1253 dated September 30, 2016:
IK: Support for multiple locked end effector.

Major changes for build 1250 dated September 21, 2016:
Key Selected Morph Targets: in addition to bones with 'k' hot key.
Select Joints in IK chains: when clicking on an IK controller.
IK for Unrestricted Joints: IK doesn't work correctly with unrestricted joints. Set joints to not move with IK if unrestricted.
File-open dialogs: Fixed to always use full dialog with Options drop-down, etc.
Fix #098-089: Exporting Objects as .an8 files doesn't export all textures.
Fix #098-090: (Likely fixed) Hang when advancing frames with the arrow keys and doing IK manipulations in Scene mode.
Fix #098-091: Crash when deleting a scene and the graph editor window is open.
Fix undo/redo problems rotating bones in Scene mode: when there aren't any key frames and animation is disabled.

Major changes for build 1247 dated September 4, 2016:
General IK: In the Scene editor you can click-drag on any bone or a figure's attached object to animate the figure. See the newer comments in this post for details and questions on the new functionality.
Locked IK End Effector's Position You can lock an end effector's position in world-space so that when you animate the rest of the IK chain the figure moves accordingly.
Improved IK Visuals: IK widgets aren't shown unless selected, and are drawn on top of everything else for better visibility.
Bone Rotation: Click drag directly on tip of a bone now rotates to follow the mouse. Clicking on the body of the bone rotates around the bones X-, Z- or Y-axis with the LMB, MMB, RMB.
Fix #098-088: Direct click-drag on bones doesn't rotate correctly in complex cases.
Material Dialog: There is a new hex option for the numeric color values in material dialog.

Major changes for build 1244 dated August 27, 2016:
IK: Add IK to Scene editor. Note: there isn't yet a way to lock an end effector's location or orientation but I'm working on it.
Dialogs: Remember the relative locations to the active screen when you can drag them away from the default center location.
Shell Command: Improve extrusion to retain consistent thickness in more cases.

Major changes for build 1240 dated August 12, 2016:
IK: Improved picking of IK controls:
  1) Previous releases sometimes select controls behind the visible ones.
  2) IK controls were accidentally disabled in the previous release when bones aren't being drawn.
Pixel/Inch Image Metric: You can now set the pixel resolution when saving to a .BMP, .PNG or .JPG file. Value is retained in the registry.
Extrude Connected Faces: Faces are now extruded parallel to the original faces in most cases. This is physically impossible without the introduction of additional faces to cap points with complex geometry.

Major changes for build 1235 dated August 7, 2016:
IK: Update IK tool in Figure and Sequence Editor. See this post for details.

Major changes for build 1234 dated July 23, 2016:
Knife Cut Tool: Fix bug in knife tool when axis is restricted.
Disable U hot key for UV mode: because it conflicted (and blocked) Edit->Subdivide hot key.
IK: Enable preliminary IK tool in Sequence Editor. See this post for details.

Major changes for build 1233 dated May 4, 2016:
Knife Cut Tool: Obey X, Y, Z axis restrictions.
Joint Angles: Always show all joint angles in the track window in the Scene editor instead of just those with controllers.
Float Track Window: Add support for floating track window to Sequence editor.
Bone Colors: Fix bug in colors for painted bone weights. This should help painting bones weights considerably. In the future I'll add support for user-specified colors.
P/E/F Highlighting: fig bug that highlighted P/E/Fs even though they were disabled.

Major changes for build 1231 dated dated April 13, 2016:
Left-hand Scrollbar: Restore RMB scrolling.
Subdivision Control Cage: Fix bug where faces couldn't be selected by various tools.
Point Select Tolerance: Fix bug where Add Edge, Knife tool, etc. tolerance for point select could be too low to select any points.
Spline Control Points: Fix bug where one control point couldn't be selected.

I just posted Build 1219 which has an option to move the Time Track from the main window into the Graph Edit window with the menu command Option->FloatTimeTrack. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Note: There is a resize bar between the Graph Edit window and the Time Track.  I know it doesn't work yet   I found a last minute bug that was crashing Anim8or so I disabled it for now.

Build 1159 January 29, 2015: animcl1159.zip
Build 1152 January 15, 2015: animcl1152.zip
Build 1150 January 5, 2015: animcl1150.zip
Build 1148 January 2, 2015: animcl1148.zip
Build 1146 December 19, 2014: animcl1146.zip
Build 1145 December 17, 2014: animcl1145.zip
Build 1143 December 10, 2014: animcl1143.zip

Major changes for build 1159:
View->FrameSelected command ('F' hot key): Frame selected points/edges/faces in Point Editor.
Extrude-Connected and Shell: Improve uniformity of thickness in extruded parts.
Linux/Wine: add temporary additional glFlush() calls to try and fix Linux swapbuffer bug.
2D: Edge Intersect Command: New command in Point Editor that creates new points when edged intersect. Works on a flattened mesh.
2D: Flatten Command: Flattens all points in a mesh to a plane. Used in conjunction with Edge Intersect.
Mesh Extrustion: Allow meshes to be extruded with the Build->Extrude command (in addition to the previous Splines and Text objects).
Arc Rotate MMB and Mouse Wheel: In perspective, Camera and Spotlight views the Middle Mouse Button and Mouse Wheel dolly towards and away from the Point Of Interest (POI) without moving the POI. With the <Ctrl> key pressed the MMB and Mouse Wheel zooms the view. All changes to Cameras and Spotlight are recorded in the animation tracks. I.e. with the green Animate Button changes add a new key to the position/view angle controller, etc.

Major changes for build 1152:
Point, Edge, Face Buttons: LMB clicking these buttons changes to Points-Only, Edges-Only and Faces-Only mode and automatically converts selections to Points, Edges or Faces. RMB clicking toggles each button independently without change any selections (the way the LMB use to work).
Highlight Objects/Bounding Boxes: moving the mouse over an object highlights it in the Object Editor with Fast-Select.
Build->ConvertToSpline: new command in Point Editor builds splines for chains of selected edges.
Fix #098-057: Opening a .obj by double clicking on an .obj file doesn't read the .mtl file.
Fix #098-058: Isolated points don't rotate or scale. -- Now all isolated points are put into their own group for rotation and scaling.
Delete All Morph Targets: new command.
Mouse Move Tolerance: increased to 4 pixels.
Highlight Color: changed to orange.

Major changes for build 1150:
'p', 'e' and 'g' hot keys in Point Edit mode: change to closer match Wings3D selection semantics.
Text mode key strokes: change to act like normal hot-keys if there isn't any selected Text object.
Mouse move tolerance: add a small tolerance to mouse move detection to reduce accidentally moves. Note: there are still a few tools that don't support this yet.
STL export/import: convert coordinates between Anim8or and STL standards so models aren't rotated.
Spline editing: now works with fast-select highlighting, etc.
Full Screen Start-up: changed the way full screen windows are done when starting Anim8or. Seems to fix the crashes in Win 8, Vista, etc.
Clicking on nothing in Object editor Move, Rotate, etc. deselects everything in fast-select mode bug fixed.
Fix #098-056 Double sided materials disappear when highlighted/selected using fast-select

Major changes for build 1148:
Not much here but I wanted to post a fix for #098-055.
New: Select only Points, Edged, Faces: As requested by several people, the hot keys 'p', 'e' and 'g' now
switch to point-, edge- and face-only mode and select points, edges or faces of selected components. I have some questions about how this should work. See 'p', 'e' and 'g' hot keys for details.
Fix #098-055 Enabled component types don't affect highlighting. Everything's highlighted.

Major changes for build 1146:
Object Editor: Update to use fast-select rules proposed in topic New Fast Select Question
Highlight Shape pointed to by mouse in Object editor - note - not done for wireframe views yet.
Don't delete: points/edges/faces in locked or hidden shapes.
Ctrl paint-select: added to remaining Point Edit tools.
Fix #098-054 Add edge can crash when splitting a face.

Major changes for build 1145:
Point Editor: Extend fast-select to more Point Edit Tools: Extrude, Extrude-Connected, Scale Faces, Peak Faces, Bevel, Inset, Bump, Point Slide, Extrude Edges.
Hidden Point/Edge Selection: Don't select hidden points and edges in solid views. Used to happen when Faces were disabled.
Add Edges: Automatically split faces when adding an edge connecting two points in the same face.
Remove Scale Faces and Rotate Faces tools: These are redundant since teh regular Rotate and Scale tools do the same thing.
Fix #098-051 Fast Select crashes when mouse moves over spline knots.
Fix #098-052 Select Connected doesn't work for points when edges or faces isn't enabled.
Fix other minor Picking bugs.

Major changes for build 1143:
More changes in Point Editor:

• Rotate now uses Fast Select properly.
• Holding the <Crtl> key allows you to paint-select with your mouse in Select, Move, Rotate, Scale, and ScaleNonUniform, and in normal Object editor.
• Rotate rotates around the middle of the selection, etc.
• See the updated topic New Point Editing Rules for more details.

Restore 't' hotkey used for Edit->Select->SelectFaceEdges.
Select Edge's Points as well when selecting an edge.
Memory Leaks: Fixed some major memory leaks.
Don't select Locked or Hidden P/E/F in Point Edit drag-select mode.
Disable <Ctrl>+RMB as a substitute for MMB. The <Ctrl> key is too valuable to dedicate to this.

Overall using the trackball for editing bones in the Scene editor works quite well. There are a few minor bugs, however, that I noticed after I'd posted the update.  I'm in the process of fixing these.

Please reply to this topic with other issues that you may find.

Direct bone manipulation: If you click-drag on a bone to rotate it instead of using the trackball, it makes an initial jump to a different location. I know what's causing this and should have it fixed soon.

Wierd crash: Clicking on a Figure in Rotate Bone mode from the Camera view can crash. I'm still chasing this one down.

Tiny Trackballs: In the Camera and Perspective views the trackball size isn't correct. This should be easy to fix.