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Bitmaps as 'proxy' representations for Custom Rig controls
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Bitmaps as 'proxy' representations for Custom Rig controls // Feature suggestions
Post by Gwot // Oct 16, 2006, 9:31am
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Gwot
Total Posts: 25
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WTH? Sounds freaky right?
Check these out...
messiah: armatures 1 (http://www.projectmessiah.com/x4/vids/Armatures_A.wmv)
messiah: armatures 2 (http://www.projectmessiah.com/x4/vids/Armatures_B.wmv)
Armatures in Action (http://www.projectmessiah.com/x4/vids/Armatures_In_Action.wmv)
These videos are quite old, but surprisingly, nobody else has adopted anything remotely similar to what I think is one of the coolest rigging/animation tools ever made.
They are essentially a custom object that can store command/script calls that are wired to specific mouse button inputs. You can wire all three mouse buttons and even differentiate between clicks, double clicks and dragging for each button, to almost any internal function or external script that you want.
As a rigger that means you could store multiple functions into a single controller, thereby reducing rig clutter to a bare minimum for the animator while maximizing functionality of the rig itself.
Armatures can be used as static, floating screen elements to add to or modify basic UI functionality, or they can be attached directly to a rig so that the animator's focus stays with the rig at all times.
I'm thinking about this stuff because I already see the possibilies for it in TS with the link editor. All that would be needed would be the ability to use bitmaps as the viewport representation of the armature object and some way to filter out mouse clicking so that it doesn't just select the object, but instead executes the wired mouse-bound behaviour. |
Post by Délé // Oct 16, 2006, 10:19am
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Délé
Total Posts: 1374
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I agree, those look very handy and seems like it would completely compliment the LE and tS. Something I've thought about a couple of times too. :)
Not only would it be useful for animating but I think it would work very well for creating a customized UI for interactive scenes in truePlay. I think it would be a much more elegant way for users to interact with scenes rather then just making nodes visible. |
Post by Bobbins // Oct 16, 2006, 10:23am
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Bobbins
Total Posts: 506
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Agreed, That's a very powerful and high-end feature. I don't think 'Armature' is at all the correct description for that ability, though. It's a very poor choice of name.
One question: Are you able to share such customisations with other users easily or is it a personal set-up thing? |
Post by Mike // Oct 16, 2006, 4:41pm
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Mike
Total Posts: 121
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Thanks for that Gwot, very cool, hadn't seen it before. |
Post by Alien // Oct 19, 2006, 10:21am
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Alien
Total Posts: 1231
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Wow, that looks really cool! I'd love to have stuff like that in tS. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the LE, but that system that Messiah has would make customising the interface so much easier. I couldn't help but notice the tree-like control. Trees make navigating hierachies much easier. Go on Roman, give us a tree panel for the LE. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alien42/smilies/beg.gif
C'mon, all the cool progs have them. ;) |
Post by Asem // Oct 19, 2006, 11:07am
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Asem
Total Posts: 255
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It wouldn't be that bad. If someone were to create a generelized node that was about the same meaning just let the person specify object, joint, button click type when ts7.5(for the bones stuff) comes out. Some of use are getting use to the LE making custom display widgets(gradually) that appear like the blue dot things. Mine was to have something similiar but with interactive with the scene(come to a certain distance of an object the widget would appear you click it something happens using a script). And the LE area thingy that Stan made is great for this type of thing even though yeah a tree node probably would be useful( but maybe it could at least be done manually)?
At this point I'm basically using the circle things for specific reason and none are hooked up to an event(as of yet because its supposed to work with that holloween scene but kinda just figured out how this stuff was done), but you can drag them around the view port and Lclick them to do bring up a message. It wouldn't even take long to actually just let me specify what button clicks or combination of button clicks. So I could jst open up the widgets library and just add in the click event widgets. As said before they don't exactly do anything at this point but I had one when started hook and controlling the rotating around the scene. There's a lot to do! |
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