Help Shape the Future of Anime Studio

[synthsin75]

We do have the IsPointOnSegment function. Just have to loop through the segments.

That's what I initially thought, but the IsPointOnSegment function works for checking if a point is on a segment, not a vector location. GetPercentLocation only returns a vector location. I thought about using the vector location to add a lone point and then do the IsPointOnSegment function in a loop, but I've never used the IsPointOnSegment function and assumed that it was for checking if a point that was already a part of a curve was part of a given segment on that curve. In other words, it wouldn't identify lone points in a vector location on the curve since the lone point isn't part of that curve.

I'll give this a whirl and see what happens though.

Yeah, the point would have to be at least welded to the curve.

Looking at the scripting docs again, it looks like you need to use: GetSegmentRange(int32 segID, real *startPercent, real *endPercent)

GetPercentLocation to, I assume, find the location on the curve of a vector location, then loop through the segments until you find the one with a range that includes that percent. Just a guess.

[dkwroot]

Yeah, the point would have to be at least welded to the curve.

Looking at the scripting docs again, it looks like you need to use: GetSegmentRange(int32 segID, real *startPercent, real *endPercent)

GetPercentLocation to, I assume, find the location on the curve of a vector location, then loop through the segments until you find the one with a range that includes that percent. Just a guess.

GetSegmentRange also caught my attention, but I figured it was used to determine the length of a segment by comparing percentages or something. I looked at it again and noticed that it returns void, so I'm guessing that it sets the segID variable that's passed to it to the segment ID for a given range. It's just so odd that they would also include the endpercentage. You'd think that the function would determine a segment by where the segment starts and the end percentage would be not be necessary.

I'll have to mess with this and report my findings.

[synthsin75]

GetSegmentRange also caught my attention, but I figured it was used to determine the length of a segment by comparing percentages or something. I looked at it again and noticed that it returns void, so I'm guessing that it sets the segID variable that's passed to it to the segment ID for a given range. It's just so odd that they would also include the endpercentage. You'd think that the function would determine a segment by where the segment starts and the end percentage would be not be necessary.

I'll have to mess with this and report my findings.

I don't remember ever having used that function myself, but I assumed it worked the opposite of what you describe. I think you provide the segment ID (like by looping through the segments of a curve, if unknown) and this function populates the start and end percent variables passed to it.

Let me know what you find.


ETA: Yeah, I never put it together before, but I'm pretty sure any argument preceded by an asterisk is a variable supplied to be populated by the function. Learn something new every day.

[dkwroot]

GetSegmentRange also caught my attention, but I figured it was used to determine the length of a segment by comparing percentages or something. I looked at it again and noticed that it returns void, so I'm guessing that it sets the segID variable that's passed to it to the segment ID for a given range. It's just so odd that they would also include the endpercentage. You'd think that the function would determine a segment by where the segment starts and the end percentage would be not be necessary.

I'll have to mess with this and report my findings.

I don't remember ever having used that function myself, but I assumed it worked the opposite of what you describe. I think you provide the segment ID (like by looping through the segments of a curve, if unknown) and this function populates the start and end percent variables passed to it.

Let me know what you find.


ETA: Yeah, I never put it together before, but I'm pretty sure any argument preceded by an asterisk is a variable supplied to be populated by the function. Learn something new every day.

You're right, the functions returns the range for a segment. It's actually pretty useful. I'm trying to make a better and more efficient curve welding function with it.

[ketchup]

Here are a couple things I have looked for and not found....

The addition of extra icons in the Layers Palette for common tasks like... add vector, add bone, add switch, etc. Simply having the option to add commonly used commands to the top of the Layer palette would help break monotony or redundant steps including extra clicking, scrolling and selecting .


Also, something like a color range " soft falloff" for vector layers with bone influence. A lot of guesswork would be reduced if a visual indicator showed what points were under a certain bones influence.

Thanks!

[EHEBrandon]

I think Xbox Kinect Motion Tracking would be so freaking awesome.. Imagine.. You set your character up with bones and you set up your Kinect and being able to move your character real time? Also with smart bones we can also control emotions, turns, etc...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxbH-QDHAVg

Plus for that software there is plugins where it captures face motions and allows you to move more individual parts of the body like fingers, toes, etc... Can you imagine if we can do a whole smart bone rig and be able to control it real time like this? Even though that is 3D I'm sure it can be done with 2D as well.

[eric1223]

Hello.

How about a way to add stop points like you can do in Motion Artist? Alot of the times when I copy and paste, I would have to tweek a channel that I hadn't done before in the previous (or later) pose, and it would alter the pose(s) before or after. I think stop points would help in this regard.

[KuzKuz]

Poligonal gird for bitmap and deformers like this.

[dkwroot]

Support for Custom Character generators would be really awesome. We need to be able to create our own sliders for the generator as well as create new regions. Having simple things like 'head' and 'feet' folders works okay for very simple rigs, but complex rigs need a lot more options, folders and sliders.

I envision a character wizard that is robust enough for animators to create a wizard for just about anything, even non-humanoid creatures. In order to do this, you guys will probably have to give the users the ability to create "Wizard Templates". These templates would allow the character wizard to be differentiated between different character body 'types'. For example, humanoids would have a different template from quadrupeds and arachnids.

[dkwroot]

It would also be cool if we had the option to deform images with a lattice cage instead of just bone influence. This would give us a lot greater control over how an image is warped during motion. This would work even better if the warping could be tied to a smartbone action.

[hayasidist]

It would also be cool if we had the option to deform images with a lattice cage instead of just bone influence. This would give us a lot greater control over how an image is warped during motion. This would work even better if the warping could be tied to a smartbone action.

you kinda do .. but it's hard work setting it up properly ... (yeah - I'm thinking about scripting it). It goes like this:

instead of just having an image layer (or one shape with an image fill) both of which you can distort using bones...

have a grid with each one of the polygons as a shape which has an image fill - all from the same image.. and now "all you have to do" is line up all the fill control handles to be in the exact same place ... and doing that has "broken" the image up into separate polygons - and now you can shove the points around by hand or using bones...and, if you're careful, you can grab individual control handles and (e.g.) magnify a single polygon

as with any filled shape, you get issues where the path crosses itself, so that needs to be thought about when doing deformations - but that's a relatively easy job compared to the task of accurately lining up all the control handles by hand.

[KuzKuz]

My fantastic dream... Writing script expressions in expression editor for bones, layers, shapes etc, like in maya. And of course Set Driven Key feature.

[sceech]

Hi,

1) Being able to "re-import" back into the Character Generator for editing would be huge. Instead of having to change a Character's skin or clothing color manually, layer by layer, if all views could be done globally back in the Generator it would be amazing. Many times I export and edit a Character, then wish I could re-import it for more tweeks.

2) More detailed head and facial editing for Characters in the Generator would be great.

3) All the Characters are all Boys or Girls. Having more choices for Men and Women body types, and a greater selection of hair and or clothing, shoes, boots- styles would be great!

Cheers!

[dkwroot]

Here are a couple of features that I'm crossing my fingers are in AS11.

-Ability to animate shape order
-Ability to control masking by setting individual shapes to be included or excluded in the mask

These two features would significantly improve workflow.

[dkwroot]

The ability to draw simple raster art would be really useful. This wouldn't need to be complex, just simple enough for people to do some basic rough sketching before lining their artwork with vectors. This sort of feature would be very useful for working with action poses and difficult angles.

Here is another idea. Improve the character wizard so that we can turn it into a character generator. It would be cool to create a bunch of character base body types and then be able to use a generator to easily mix-match clothing and color styles. This could be quite useful for generating crowds and background characters.