Sunday 13 February 2011

Red9 Studio Pack Beta2

Hi all, Ive just updated the Download links with Version Beta 2. Much of the code behind the setups has been redesigned to extend the api for future use. Hopefully I've caught all the bugs!

So whats new:

The big one is that the Tracker in the AnimToolkit now works at a component level (in 2011 anyway). So if you use the Multi select tool (Control+RMB marking menu ) and select a Poly, then a transform node, the Tracker will pin the transform to the poly's normal (or vert/edge) - maintaining the offset. Obviously using the point on poly constraint under the hood. Useful... well lets imagine 2 characters interacting and you need to pin the wrist of one to the other characters chest... you can now pin at the poly level.

The Offset tool now deals hopefully with everything, audio, clips, transforms and timelines, this is at Scene level or selected level. If selected then it'll offset based on each selected node type. For animated transforms it goes through the nodes history to find any animCurves and offsets based on those. Seems to work really well and it's nice to be able to multi-offset audio, clips and nodes all at the same time and nudge their key times.

LockChannels - new UI for managing the visibility and lock status of nodes or hierarchy, very easy and fast for locking up a rig before passing to animators.

The Filtercode: major code redesign and all the calls now work on 3 levels: given nodes, hierarchy of given roots or at a scene level.

All suggestions and requests welcomed
cheers

Red

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Update:

Been a while since I updated the Blog so thought I'd drop a quick post to let you know what's coming: The whole of the Python code is being cleaned up and made into a better api for others to use if they should want to.

The Tracker has been made component sensitive, you can now not only track between 2 transform nodes, but also now track between component and object. This is great if you're dealing with animation where one node needs to contact another's mesh solidly. Lets say that you have 2 characters and want one to put their hand on the others chest. All you do is select a face,edge or vert for the track reference then an objectand run it over time. This hooks into the pointOnSurface constraint in the background (2011 only)

The pack will probably be ready for release towards the end of Feb.

Red