Here is a new bone’s feature proposition. The goal is to edit bones’ joints operatively via dragging sliders. The proposition does not pretend to be “original” etc

The parameters are:

- Factor. A multiplier to change bone’s weight.  Values greater 1.0 increase weight and vice versa

- Radius. Defines a zone/radius of effect. For each vertex a distance to bone’s end point is calculated and compared with “Radius”. Outside “Radius” the “Factor” has no effect (= 1). For a vertex nearby bone’s end the whole “Factor” is applied. Otherwise - a blended portion of multiplier is used.

- Style. Defines transition/falloff of “Factor” inside sphere with “Radius”

We don’t know is it “CA tools” or nope - but IMO it’s an interested theme to discuss.

In first view it looks like a good idea to add some “wind options” to a plug-in. But not in second view. More and more wind/force parameters are needed/requested very soon. What kind of wind? How about radial explosion? Wave/from explosion? Twirl? Use deforms as forces? And so on (easy to continue). Very soon it would look as “a plug-in inside plug-in”. So, maybe it does make a sense to create a separated “force module”, same as other apps do.

We wrote “module” because we don’t know yet which implementation is better. A new kind(s) of effector looks definitely more solid and allows to draw something in EI windows. In other hand a “force plug-in” can be updated much more operatively (without waiting for next EI vers). Since vers 6.0 EI plug-ins can communicate each with another

Probs: not too much “clients” that can use “force server”. We know only 2: Rodeo and SimCloth. Hmm.. not too much We would like to add “particles” but we’re not sure - actually “server plug-in” is possible in Animator only.

Please don’t appreciate it as a “plan” - there is no any plan yet, but only a theme proposed for doscussion

CREATE SMOOTH SKIN: The purpose of this tool is to provide a non-modal window that works with the Bone Info Special Tab for the selection of which bones and skins to selectively bind along with various visualization tools that show global and local influence regions, weight buckets, and weight maps before actually processing the bind. The tool workflow requires the user to select the desired geometries and joint hierarchies and then going to the Character menu item and selecting Create Smooth Skin. Ultimately it would be better if influence regions could be modified within this window with traditional position, rotate and scale tools, but that might not be possible.

The intention for this tool is to be the primary weight mapping window to “previsualize” the initial bind with visual representations of global and local influence regions, weight buckets, and the actual weight maps themeselves. Once the tool is executed, it would produce a series of weight maps for every influence in the solution. These weight maps would be accessible in the Object Info Window...under the Weight Tab.

The new Morph 1.0 came as a surprise so I wanted a heads up this time.

Though I had a problem with the root object and model sequence import, it’s a great utility.

Hope to see it taken a step further to incorporate into the morph window somehow.

AVT

FelixCat - 28 August 2008 11:37 AM

Ian, Brian, Alonzo, Igors…
To create a lipsynk in EiAS is a nightmare, you have not instant feedback and is not friendly at all.
FelixCat

I agree fully.  In addition to the skinning tools, I really believe some sort of audio scrubbing feature is needed. 

Here is my list of features for improving Lipsync animation within Animator:

1) Integrate imported audio waveform into Timeline Palette
2) Audio scrub (hold option key while dragging in Timeline Palette to hear imported audio file)
3) Ability to set keyframes in Time Palette for selected object
4) Improved Audio/Animation Sync on preview playback within Animator
5) Ability to load multiple audio files

Explained below:

1 & 2) Integrate imported audio waveform into Timeline Palette/Audio scrub

I want to see the waveform (zoomable in/out) in the Timeline Palette and be able to scrub audio.

I know we have the audio waveform displayed in the timeline (if you import audio), but that is not as friendly as being able to hold the option key down and drag along the timeline to hear the audio.  It would be great to have the ability (similar to other apps) to have the waveform visible in the actual Timeline Palette and be able to set keys for morph targets at the peaks/valleys of the waveform and then scrub along to make sure the mouth is moving correctly with the spoken syllables, etc. That way, you can tweak mouth morph targets or other keys in the main timeline and have faster visual feedback while animating.

3) Ability to set keyframes in Time Palette for selected object

If we can have the ability to set keys in the Time Palette (only showing the keyframes of a selected morph target for example), then I could move the Time Palette under a large project window and animate lipsync much faster and easier.  Further refining of keyframes would be done in the main Timeline window and of course with function curve editing, but being able to set keys in the Time Palette would be VERY helpful (I think). 

4) Improved Audio/Animation Sync on preview playback within Animator

Another idea for improvement would be to have the ability to click the play button in the timeline and have audio in the playback right in the project windows.  Currently, a QT preview must be generated to have audio in sync with the animation.  It would allow me to animate faster if I could have instant response in sync.

5) Ability to load multiple audio files

This is more of a nice to have, but not necessary for animating lipsync.  If there was a dropdown menu or contextual menu within the Time Palette, you could select from several imported audio files.  This way, if the audio changed and needed updating, you could just import the audio and select the new file.

This is all I can think of at the moment, but let’s see what others think.

Thanks!

-Ryan

Ok...here’s a rough draft of the first round of ideas for updating some of the CA tools and weight mapping features in EIAS. This document is certainly not exhaustive...but at the same time its a good start to begin discussions. A number of tools were left out due to infrastructure limitations, but as those grow so would these tools.

http://www.paralumino.com/CG_Talk/CA_Weights_Proposal.pdf

Thanks.

Well, we feel ourselves a bit uncomfortable - we were not learned in maya classes, so our explanation about what Driven Key is would look like we “teach teachers” So let us just note: IMO it’s a good and effective tool to collect animation into “buckets” and do control it much more simpler and effectiver.

From technical point of view:

- Driven Key is quite realistic to implement - it does not require to rebuild EI architecture. Please don’t get us wrong - “realistic” does not mean “easy/tomorrow”. Please also don’t think like “Igors willing..” - we want just to discuss an idea that IMO is interested/perspective - nothing more

- EI animation channels = a bit “low-level” system. It’s good and bad same time. But this low-level is very suitable for Driven Key

- some Driven Key features can be “shared” with XP - at least it would be usable to show (with color) that a channel is “controlled”

We realize we cannot hope for a storm of users’ enthusiasm here - the feature is a bit unusual/unfamiliar for EI user (same as “vertex cache"). But all can be changed if it’s well-explained/promoted

Are we talking about Snapping? Because to build complex hierarchies, snapping for nulls and bones would be very useful. Also, you don’t need to detect vertices to snap to nulls or bones, they only have their center point to consider, and snapping to them should be relatively easy.

For other orientation issues, position, scale, rotation, parking, etc. we need examples and UI mock ups to understand how this would work.

Does this mean Initial Binding based on user controlled settings for fall off, number of bones, etc.?

Does this mean that the Binding updates dynamically when a user changes settings?

Does it mean that the visualized weight map gets changed on the fly?