Hi all,<br><br>In the next few months, I will have less time to work on Blender's Animation System in 2.5. However, I plan on overseeing/reviewing some of the work that may take place during this time. What follows here is a brief roadmap of what is done, and what still needs doing. <br>
<br>Firstly, a link to the long promised docs on the Animato system:<br><a href="http://aligorith.googlepages.com/250_Animato.doc" target="_blank">http://aligorith.googlepages.com/250_Animato.doc</a><br>(At the time of writing this mail, the doc is not yet completed, but the file will be updated... same link)<br>
<br>What works now / has been rewritten for the new system as appropriate:<br>* Core evaluation code for Actions/FCurves/Drivers works as described in the specifications<br>* Everything is animateable - currently exposed to users via Keying Sets. While other methods may evolve, ultimately, Keying Sets do provide a number of convenience <br>
* Conversions for old files mostly works<br>--> lib-linking doesn't always work OK yet<br>--> some drivers don't get loaded yet<br>--> some drivers don't function properly yet<br>--> some IPO datablocks don't get converted yet as there doesn't appear to be any corresponding entries in RNA<br>
* Action Editor expanded to include "DopeSheet" view by default, which shows overview of keyframes in multiple actions for easier synchronising of movement<br>* IPO Editor renamed "Graph Editor" - it's been totally rewritten to be based upon the same code used by the DopeSheet/Action Editor. Also, many long-requested improvements (many ported from AnimSys2 branch) have been incorporated as the code was ported.<br>
* Action/Graph backend shared code is now much cleaner, with some cleanups performed to the data abstraction on-demand flexible filtering system. As part of this, I've streamlined the filtering options, and set up a keyframe iteration system which drastically reduces the amount of bulking code needed in most if not all cases.<br>
<br>Work still to be done:<br>* Markers API + Operators - there are still a few missing operators. More importantly though, there is no nice usable API for markers which can be utilised by various keyframe editing tools in DopeSheet/Action and Graph Editors.<br>
* NLA System (evaluation + conversions + editor) is largely unported yet. It is risky to leave the conversions until after 2.5 is eventually released since patching the old files becomes an order of magnitude more difficult. <br>
* F-Curve Modifiers have not be thoroughly tested yet. Although a few have been implemented as examples, there are a few that have yet to be done. Also, there is no UI access to them yet. Probably we need a temp nkey panel in Graph Editor to show this, until decisions are made on this...<br>
* Related to the UI for F-Curve Modifiers is the UI for drivers. This should show in a similar way, though restricted to 'Drivers' mode only. No editing of drivers is permitted elsewhere, as nowhere else are drivers visible.<br>
* Refined filtering tools for Anim editors - i.e. options to filter by F-Curve property names (i.e. "rotation" or "color"). Also, pinning option (useful when dealing with animated visibility)<br>* Object layer changing doesn't get synced yet<br>
<br>Unrelated issues:<br>* Some rigs may still be broken (BBB ones in particular, though Mancandy works nearly perfect) due to PyConstraints and PyDrivers not working yet (Python API having been removed)<br><br><br>That should be all for now (off the top of my head). <br>
Joshua Leung<br>