[Bf-taskforce25] Animato - Current Status as of end of February

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi Joshua,

Can you mark the items on your todo list which you prefer to do, or for 
which we should assist?

-Ton-

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Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org    www.blender.org
Blender Institute BV  Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam The Netherlands

On 20 Feb, 2009, at 12:26, Joshua Leung wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> 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.
>
> Firstly, a link to the long promised docs on the Animato system:
> http://aligorith.googlepages.com/250_Animato.doc
> (At the time of writing this mail, the doc is not yet completed, but 
> the file will be updated... same link)
>
> What works now / has been rewritten for the new system as appropriate:
> * Core evaluation code for Actions/FCurves/Drivers works as described 
> in the specifications
> * Everything is animateable - currently exposed to users via Keying 
> Sets. While other methods may evolve, ultimately, Keying Sets do 
> provide a number of convenience
>  * Conversions for old files mostly works
> --> lib-linking doesn't always work OK yet
> --> some drivers don't get loaded yet
> --> some drivers don't function properly yet
> --> some IPO datablocks don't get converted yet as there doesn't 
> appear to be any corresponding entries in RNA
>  * Action Editor expanded to include "DopeSheet" view by default, 
> which shows overview of keyframes in multiple actions for easier 
> synchronising of movement
> * 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.
>  * 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.
>
> Work still to be done:
> * 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.
>  * 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.
>  * 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...
>  * 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.
>  * 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)
> * Object layer changing doesn't get synced yet
>
> Unrelated issues:
> * 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)
>
>
> That should be all for now (off the top of my head).
>  Joshua Leung
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