[AddOn] Action Loader

Hi Guys this is an animation manager mostly for use in games, mostly to help visualize and assign multiple animations for the same character or characters.

UPDATE: Now available on blender 2.8+

It is a list of all actions in the file, and it does a series of things that are helpful for managing many actions for the same object, which is my current need.


It assigns the action you pick to the active object, but also, to make sure you don’t loose animations it assigns fake users to them, it also sets a timeline frame range to each animation, and assigns it to the project when you load it up, and focus it on the timeline, dopesheet or graph editor that you might have opened.

just install the ActionLoader.py

please let me know what you think and if it is useful to you!
Thanks.

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hahaha it would have been a really nice script to have a year ago when whe were making raise! :slight_smile:
thanks for sharing buddy!

Thanks for sharing

just fix the sometimes crashes bug, then I think this addon is perfect for me. thank you for sharing this addon:), really useful

This is amazing. I will look for bugs and see if I can fix any. :slight_smile:

Another great idea for an addon. I wouldn’t mind seeing all of these features implemented into Blender directly.
As soon as this is officially safe to use and doesn’t crash anymore, I’m going to give it a try at work.

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Thanks guys that is great to know, I’m not a proper programmer, so fixing the bugs is taking me some time, but I’m going at it one at a time and will have it working better soon with more features!

Edit: actually just cleared the bugs (feeling optimistic) and no crashes now (no delete action yet), So it should be pretty safe to use.

made it a bit fancier too with icons in the info and all!

Do you plan to make a walktrough of the addon? I’m searching for something like this for a month. You should consider trying to do some tests with ManuelBastioniLab and optimize your addon to work well with it (didn’t tested yet so I cant say) since it’s the best human creator addon. I think a feature like this should be in Blender by default! Well done!

(Parabéns pela iniciativa. É ótimo ver a comunidade lusófona de Blender contribuindo :smiley: )

Obrigado José.

I should do more explanation in a video or something similar but, it is really simple to use once you know what actions are, since it is just a list of actions and you just have to click on the action with the object you want selected, that is just it! (it does more stuff in the background but you don’t have to worry about that!)
But I should make a video when I have some time to show how to work with actions in blender and how Im organizing stuff so it is clearer for other people. in any case if you play with it you should quickly start to understand.

This addon has very specific use, if you are not doing many animations for one character, to export for games for example, then it is probably not very useful and you should be using the NLA editor, that has many advanced features and is much more flexible (but also requires more configuration, and is overkill for this specific use).

I tried the BastoniLab but didnt work with it extensively, it seems to be using one armature for the rig, so all bone animations would be stored in an action, and that would work perfectly well with Action Loader.

Abraço!

Thanks for the addon. In the video/screenshot there’s a search field. Could it get added to the github version?

Another thing you could add is setting up the preview range from the actions themselves by getting bpy.context.active_object.animation_data.action.frame_range[0] and [1] and setting bpy.data.scenes[0].frame_start and frame_end to those.

Hi Cyaoeu, thanks allot for your feedback!

The search option seems to be by default there on the list, it is just hidden in a small “+” sign in the bottom left corner, It took me some time to find it out too:)

I know about that frame_range option, but it is read only and it means I can not use it to change, each time I change action as Im doing now (correct me if Im wrong here). That seems to be used by NLA editor. So I created new properties for each action.
if you mean to have that as another alternative frame range, I could add that as an option, I have a bunch of stuff like that I want to add in the long run. Like: currently Im using preview range to change the range on the scene, Because it shader the dopesheet end frame and I like that, but some people might want to use the normal file range, Ill add an option for both modes , it will take some time but I’m working on it!

I didn’t notice the +, thanks!

The range is useful for previewing looping animations. I guess it’s a personal preference but when I’m working on looping animations it’s nice if the preview range is set automatically.

I changed this in your addon, basically setting use preview range to false and adding bpy.data.scenes[0].frame_end = ActiveAction.frame_range[1] (all of my animations start on the same frame anyway). That way when you select a new action the preview range fits the selected animation perfectly. And it still works with your dopesheet centering stuff which is really nice.

I was freaking out trying to understand what you did there, until I understood how the frame_range works!! that it reads the first and last frames, that is really good!!!

I usually have some extra flying keyframes, and for my specific project I have to have very specific animation lenghts, like 1.633333333333r seconds :stuck_out_tongue: (that is just a set number of frames) so I prefer for this project im working on to have it work as it is, but what you mention is great and Ill surelly add that as an option when I get some time! thanks alot!

I was just trying this with blender 1.77a and it’s not working. That’s normal, right? I guess it’s only meant to be used with 1.78.

Hi wiimote, thanks for giving it a go. Im just making it in 2.78 but I tried now on 2.77a and it is working fine here (Im on linux and tried also one windows before but that should not be relevant).

It does give a warning in the beginning but then works fine.

Can you tell me a bit more about the bug and your system so I can try to find out?
what error does it give? and what happens?

  • does it load when you install it on the user preferences > addons? or just stays greyed out?
  • if it does load, does it then show anything on the 3D VIEW > Toolbar > Animation tab?
  • if it does show something, just the name ob the selected object or other info, but no list?

also, please note that if you don’t have any object active it doesn’t show up, so, don’t delete the starting cube :slight_smile:
what is your system? os? distro?

  • anything else you might see that is weird just let me know!

also, please note that if you don’t have any object active it doesn’t show up, so, don’t delete the starting cube :slight_smile:

Nah, the installation and selecting the actions from the toolbar was working fine. It was just not auto-adjusting the start and end frame.

Haa nice, is it working now?

I know it is not very clear, but the way it works is that you change the range for each action by hand and when you change to other action it saves it, and when you get back it is recorded and zoomed in.

I did that way because I need very specific ranges for my project, but now it has the option that Cyaoeu suggested of adapting to the first and last keyframe, just check the “key range” button on the bottom. But it doesn’t update immediately when you click it, you must click the action in the list first, the one you are working on or any other, (i couldn’t make it update instantly yet) but from then on, every time you click and animation with that mode it auto adjusts the range for that specific action first and last frames. Hope it works well, anything else just let me know!

I tried again at home in Blender2.77a and Blender2.78c, and everything is working flawlessly in both versions. Something must have gone wrong with the installation when I was trying this at work.
None of the buttons below the actions list, except Delete Action, were even showing up, but I’m unable to reproduce this now, so let’s just forget about it. Thanks for your help. Great addon! :wink:

Hi

Sorry for the delay wiimote, that is great to know;)

I have been working on it, adding more stuff, and using it mostly full time.
here is kind of a list of stuff it does now!


And here is what the slow motion buttons do, I couldn’t find a way to do this in blender (actually used the time remapping, but automatically setting the range so it loops, and is easy to set speed with just a click.)

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