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Author Topic: discribing anim8or  (Read 8260 times)

mak

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discribing anim8or
« on: March 09, 2010, 11:37:37 pm »

hay i finaly got a job (not animating, sigh) its in a mill. but to the point; im on break with some guys who are going to school mostly for something in comp prog . i brought up anim8tor,  they were intersted but asked questions i didnt know the answer to. is it cad based? i am faced with an emberasing fact. i am rather confident with my abillitys in anim8or and have been using it for a long time but dont realy know the tech of anim8or. i guess my queston is, whats the long handed technical discription of anim8tor? how can i sound smart infront of these guys.
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ENSONIQ5

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Re: discribing anim8or
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2010, 05:19:23 am »

Anim8or and 3D CAD software share the same basic principles, in the sense that they are both fundamentally databases that manage coordinate data in up to three axes.  The main difference is in the application, what the coordinates are used for.  Anim8or uses the stored coordinates and ancillary data such as faces, materials, lights, etc to render either a still image or, with the ability to store information on how the point coordinates change over time, animations.  CAD software is specifically used primarily in the manufacturing or engineering sectors.  It allows the user to accurately define 2D or 3D shapes and volumes and uses the stored coordinate data to control a physical device, such as a plotter, CNC router, plasma cutter or whatever.

Maybe an apt (if rather clumsy) analogy would be a truck and a sports car.  Both are essentially the same, having wheels, seats, steering wheels, engines that burn fossil fuels etc., but their fundamental roles are entirely different.

Check out one of your smaller Anim8or files in Notepad, print it out and show the guys at work.  If they are familiar with CAD software they will see the resemblance to what they know in the sections that contain data on the models themselves, but they will notice a whole other bunch of sections defining materials, face data, etc.
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lynn22

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Re: discribing anim8or
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2010, 06:14:03 pm »

Mak, you can also tell your friends that anim8or is so good that some people at NASA use it.

Actually it might be just one person accessing the internet from work, but over the last two weeks someone visited my tutorials twice while coming from there. But no need to tell your friends this bit. ;)
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mak

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Re: discribing anim8or
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2010, 01:18:34 pm »

thanks lynn ill mention that lol

ENSONIQ5
i like the car anology, but  i know what IK is but ,anim8or FK?
i notice some other progs work in triangles and anim8or works in squares
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hihosilver

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Re: discribing anim8or
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2010, 07:43:38 pm »

To answer a few questions, IK means Inverse Kinematics, it's a method of using skeletons with animation.  Basically, you can drag one bone (such as a hand bone) and the rest of the bones will solve for their positioning as you drag that bone to a particular point.  I won't go into much detail, but a good example is here: youtube.com/watch?v=X5Z7ZJ39zAA[/youtube]]http://www.


As for FK, that means Forward Kinematics.  Basically you have to rotate each bone individually, one at a time.  This is easier to program, but slower to use in animation.  It's what Anim8or uses (though Steve has been working on implimenting IK.)

As for triangles and squares, yes, some work in tris while anim8or works with polygons (though quadrilaterals or quads are the easiest for the program to work with directly.)  This is because Anim8or works with subdivision surfaces, and the algorithm is uses works best with quads, which is what most programs that include subdivision modeling will use.  Triangles are used extensively in games, as they are the easiest to render.  Most 3D programs will revert to triangles when rendering, so triangles are inevitably used, but quadrilaterals are often best from the artists perspective, and easiest to use.

Hope that helps.
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BOB_I_Ts

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Re: discribing anim8or
« Reply #5 on: March 13, 2010, 01:22:52 am »

Anim8or is a 1.96 mb polygonal sub-d mesh modeller with animation and rendering capabilities
Anim8or can also supports scripting language so that user can incorporate there own tools as well as animation using quaternion angles
Anim8or user can also script export text based formats like common wavefront *.obj which can be imported into multiple 3d software's including cad or vice versa
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mak

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Re: discribing anim8or
« Reply #6 on: March 13, 2010, 11:55:50 am »

thanks bob its. i think thats what i was looking for.
you know bob i dont think ive seen you post around here in a while. have been gone or just haning around difernt parts of the boards
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BOB_I_Ts

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Re: discribing anim8or
« Reply #7 on: March 14, 2010, 03:40:36 am »

i took break from 3d and began playing mmos but hope to return back to my 3d hobbie
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