funksmaname wrote:WOW! this is so exciting!
why was it not made a sticky right away!? i didnt know it existed till just now...
Probably best to wait till it gets closer to a final version. As long as the topic is "hot" it stays at the top of the list.
funksmaname wrote:i wonder if rather than referencing keyframes (1/2/3/4 etc) you could reference actions??...
I don't think that would work. You would have to be on the time line of the action to get the key values. Actions are like "tiny" AS documents inside an AS document. You can do all the same stuff but you have to "activate" the action. The only way to get those keys into the MAIN time line from an action is to insert it as a key frame.
Maybe... just maybe... you could store the action point motion in a lua table on frame 0
(see my previous posts here on that idea). It would look kind of funky though as AS bounces around to all the actions to store the data. Probably it would be best to store ALL the poses in ONE action to minimize this
(I'm making this up on the fly. ) Or keys could be set from the action and then deleted after the positions are used. I don't know... it's slow now... this would just add a new level of processing.
funksmaname wrote:... could there be a way to name bones so they are grouped - i.e. pose1-4 control pose, eye1-4 control 4 eye movements, etc...
I thought about that as well. I've been running it through my head trying to figure out a way to do that. It would involve either point groups
(groups aren't accessed the same as points or bones. there is very limited scripting access to point groups unfortunately) or by bone binding.
Bone binding might work since bones have no effect on points directly in this script, bone point control is completely "overridden" by the script. So... you bind the points for the eyes to an "eye_bone". You can easily sort through only the points that are bound to the eye bone and those would be the only points moved for that pose when the master eye pose bone is moved. If the "eye_bone" has a PARENT bone and that one is moved then all the points controlled by children of the bone would move... follow me? You could "group" poses just like you have say, an entire arm as a child of the shoulder.
I think this might work... but you are correct that it should come "later". It would need some serious testing. Man if that could be pulled off it would jump this script to ANOTHER level of coolness!
One of the big drawbacks to this script is the total lack of secondary control using bones for point movement. I haven't even tried to think of a way to overcome that... makes my head spin. Maybe Genete has a trick up his sleeve.
I did think about the concept of "poses" using BONES as well as point motion. You CAN get the point motion from bone influence and convert it directly to point motion only. That motion could be ADDED to the "weight" when the point motion is calculated...
(that's when my eyes glaze over, roll back into my head and I pass out. )
-vern