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[daniel99]

Steve: I was trying to figure out what was the problem. What would delay or stop an exe file?
For example, on my old hard drive, my antivirus used to scan any new exe file when double-clicked it.
     It showed a message "Scanning" and had a menu where I could check "Always trust this file" After that, everything was fine.
But now it doesn't. And this couldn't explain why files I already have on the hard drive are stopped/delayed. Maybe it didn't have anything to do with the antivirus. Who knows?  This time, I couldn't even "End process" in the task manager for all the copies that didn't run. Had to restart the comp.
   I usually don't touch the setting. Any new build works and should work just time every time.
The wiggle happens when playing the animation, and also in the render. Usually, I solve it by modifying the animation a bit. Yes, I was thinking one of the reasons could be I have more bones, but I believe this problem will stop when the end-effector bone will have the orientation locked. Can't wait  for this! Thank you, man!

[johnar]

steve

There is one missing capability that I'm thinking about adding. If you have a completed animation, such as a character walking across a scene, it is very difficult to adjust the path without having to tediously reposition all the end-effectors' keys one-by-one. I think it would be very useful to be able to edit the path and then would change accordingly.  This is a lot of work so I'd like your opinion as to it's usefulness before I start. What do you think?

 I've been trying to think of instances where this could be usefull.
 The only thing i can come up with at the moment is that it would indeed be a luxury to be able to move a walking characters path, and have the end effectors remain (eg: feet) 'grounded', even though the path has been changed...
 But i'm still yet unable to think of any instances where i, personally, would find a need to dramatically change a characters 'path', once i've already spent time creating that particular scene and movement.
 You've said it would be a lot of work implementing this and, unless someone else can give example of situation where this capability would be very usefull, i would probably suggest that it perhaps go on the backburner for now, until a time where it's usefullness could be deemed worthwhile of the effort.

[thecolclough]

There is one missing capability that I'm thinking about adding. If you have a completed animation, such as a character walking across a scene, it is very difficult to adjust the path without having to tediously reposition all the end-effectors' keys one-by-one. I think it would be very useful to be able to edit the path and then would change accordingly.  This is a lot of work so I'd like your opinion as to it's usefulness before I start. What do you think?

...But i'm still yet unable to think of any instances where i, personally, would find a need to dramatically change a characters 'path', once i've already spent time creating that particular scene and movement.
 You've said it would be a lot of work implementing this and, unless someone else can give example of situation where this capability would be very usefull, i would probably suggest that it perhaps go on the backburner for now, until a time where it's usefullness could be deemed worthwhile of the effort.

same here, i think - it'd be a nice feature to have, but i wouldn't say it's a priority, on the basis that any animator worth their salt would probably know to figure out the blocking properly before investing much time in fine-tuning any details.

if we're debating priorities, though... *cough* multi-core rendering *cough* 

[Steve]

daniel99: I'm not sure what is causing Anim8or to hang. I haven't changed the build process in any way or added any new libraries, etc. It could be virus protection code, windows, etc. Have you tried right clicking on the file in the file explorer and selecting the "Trouble Shoot" option. After it "searches for an answer" to the problem, there are several options that you might try. I don't know if this will work thought or much about the different options.

You can also right click and run as administrator, depending on the security settings on your computer.

As to why you can't kill the process in the task manager, this also may have something to do with your virus scanner.

[daniel99]

Steve: Yes, I usually run it as admin. It is most probably the antivirus fault. I've added an8 to the "Do not scan" list. Now it seems to work like every time.
The weird part, as I said, was that I didn't get any message like I did before "Please wait, we are scanning this program", so it was impossible to tell if the antivirus was holding an8. The fact that I couldn't end processes in task message had to do with the antivirus also... I believe.

[Steve]

An update on the jitter: I've created some examples that are extremely sensitive to jitter. I'm now experimenting with various damping schemes and alternate IK algorithms. I'll keep everyone posted.
 

[daniel99]

Steve: Thanks man. You're awesome.

[daniel99]

Steve: A bit late, but I still wanna wish you Merry Christmas. And of course Happy Holidays, man.

[Steve]

Check out build 1264 for a new IK solver! I implemented several different solvers. To see how they behave, try the different scenes with the attached project. The three solvers used are:

1. Jacobian Inverse. Supposedly the best. Very fast solver but becomes quite unstable when a target is unreachable.  Two jointed chains do well but 3 joints shows problems. See scene "Tripple Chains" (yes, it should be "Triple" but I don't want to rename everything just to fix my bad spelling ). The first 15 frames are stable but after that the effector moves to the side which the figure can't do. This causes jitter.

2. Jacobian Transpose. This is the best. It's can be slow to solve, especially when the effector is out of reach. Anim8or uses it now.

3. Monte Carlo. An alternate solver works OK with 2-bone chains with limited joints. Also work when the target is out of reach. Otherwise it's very jumpy. Left it in for this build just for fun.

Note: The only solver supported at the user level is Jacobian Transpose. You won't be able to use the others in normal use.

Have fun!

[neirao]

Thanks Steve, Happy new year for everbody!!!

[daniel99]

Just opened some of my projects with build 1264. The legs-wiggle is less or even completely gone. Great job, Steve.
I can't wait for the future builds.

One think I didn't quite get at first is how to try the different solvers. I thought I can select in between them. But the one used by an8 is great.

Thanks, Steve and have a great New Year, bro!

[Steve]

daniel99: I have the different solvers enabled in the project I attached to my previous post just to show some of the issues when run using build 1264. You need a special "Steve Only" build to see them in Anim8or (but if you're cleaver you can look at the .an8 source and figure out how to add it by editing the file ).

I don't think it makes sense to enable them in general. I'm still experimenting and hope to find a way to automatically use the Jacobian Inverse solver when possible because it's very fast, and use the Jacobian Transverse otherwise.

[daniel99]

Yes, I don't think you should enable all 3 of them. Jacobian Transpose is the best one, as you said.