[Bf-committers] some more improvements for CA

Jeremy Wall zaphar at gmail.com
Tue Nov 30 22:02:20 CET 2004


On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 10:39:23 +0100, Ton Roosendaal <ton at blender.org> wrote:
> 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. 

Yes I too greatly enjoyed this feature of A:M and wished blender had
the functionality. Sadly the current architecture made it difficult to
implement. I am waiting for the transform and constraint refactoring
to be finished before taking another look.

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
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Bf-committers mailing list
> > Bf-committers at projects.blender.org
> > http://projects.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
> >
> >
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton at blender.org
> http://www.blender.org
> 
> 
> 
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