[Bf-committers] some more improvements for CA

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi,

You have the User menu setting "Auto Keyframe" on. This isn't a nice  
setting to have default. It actually doesn't even really belong in the  
User settings even... it's a power user feature for certain occasions  
only.

Start with disabling that feature before evaluating other tools, it  
makes editing totally confusing.

-Ton-


On 29 Nov, 2004, at 19:46, Gustavo Muñoz wrote:

> Thank you, Drew, I was who wrote that. I was not in this list at the  
> time, and then I forget to post it here, where it belongs for sure.  
> And I can now add some more related points.
>
> I think I now understand better the core of the current NLA issues in  
> Blender: open a new project, add a mesh, exit edit mode and move it  
> some. Now duplicate the object, and then move it some more. Now
> advance some frames and you will see you have the first nonsense: both  
> have linked transformations, even if you have not activated the  
> "duplicate with object: Ipo" option. In fact, both have now the same
> linked Ipo, when I have not animated them. I didn´t want any Ipo...
>
> Another incarnation of the same nonsense: If you look at the NLA  
> window, you can see also that you have now one keyframe added for  
> every object you have just moved at frame 1. Say you are working in a
> character animation and you need to change some scenery models at the  
> middle of your character work. You cannot just grab the object and  
> move it, because you will animate it (remember the keys at the NLA and
> Ipo windows), so you must remember to go to frame1 every time you need  
> to correct some unanimated model... not very usefull. I know you can  
> have allways an NLA or Ipo window opened and you can go and delete
> those extra keys everytime, everywhere, but this could be greatly  
> improved while at the same time we get Blender´s NLA capabilities  
> increased with some changes.
>
> Another case of the same problem is that once you begin to build an  
> action for an Armature, you can see that your keyframing is also being  
> linked by default to the NLA main timeline. But you have not asked
> for this. If I want an Ipo for an object, I will ask for it. But in  
> most cases I don´t want it by default. If I want an action to be used  
> in the NLA main timeline, I will put it there. Furthermore: once you
> have your character animated in an action, which is currently by  
> default editable in the NLA window, you no longer have access to the  
> default configuration of his meshes or Armatures. If you need to edit
> them after being animated the character, the original pose pops up  
> from the "limbo" and apears in the middle of everywhere, and without  
> any relation to his own Armature. .. Also bad.
>
> Sorry for the long notes, but I wanted to explain very well the  
> importance of the changes I am asking for. And here it goes my  
> proposition:
> We need a default state for every model, where we have the meshes, the  
> objects and the Armatures at their default poses and conditions. It  
> must not be linked to any timeline, in order to be editable at any
> moment without distractions, and furthermore for being able to change  
> it while we see the model updated in the middle of an animation with  
> our editions. I have used untill now a dedicated action called
> "default" to get quickly this needed "default state", but this is  
> clearly not enough: once modelled and rigged a character, and after  
> animating it, very often you need to re-edit here and there the meshes  
> or
> the bones to get a better behaviour in some deformations. If we could  
> get coded this "default state", we could allways open it up at the  
> same time that we see the character in the middle of an animation, ane
> edit the meshes and armatures while looking at the effects in real  
> time.
>
> This "default state" must not be related to any timeline, acting like  
> a first level over which you can add and mix several animations. Every  
> animation must be totally independent of the others, untill you
> put it in a main timeline (NLA window), where you can blend them as  
> you like. At the same time, absolutly every animation should happen in  
> an action, an independent animation block. Vertex animations too, it
> is very needed. Then we need a way to link any two or more actions  
> (armature actions, vertex actions, etc) so that you can control one  
> from the other. That is how Animation:Master does his "Smartskins", a
> very powerfull character animation tool: You create a new smartskin (a  
> special kind of vertex action linked to a bone´s rotations) for a bone  
> in an Armature and you get a new independent twindow where you
> rotate the target bone and then you edit the mesh to get a nice  
> deformation at this point. Then you rotate some more the bone and  
> repeat you edits for another angle of the bone. When you have done all  
> the
> needed deformations, you just exit the smartskin mode and it is stored  
> with the model so that whenever you rotate this bone in a bones  
> action, it will aply the recorded vertex animation to get allways nice
> deformations. I have heard XSI have something similar, but haven´t had  
> access. Compared to this tool, all the deformers and cluster of Maya  
> are just not so usefull and powerfull. You can allways use
> "setdriven keys" for these purposes, but it is much more slow.
>
> Well, I am sorry for the really long mesage, but I think it is a very  
> important matter for the future development of Blender´s animation  
> capabilities. That are my two cents for it... ;)
>
> Best regards,
> Gustavo Muñoz
>
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>
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton at blender.org  
http://www.blender.org