Fastpath - Addon for easy path animation

Hi!
Here is my new free addon: Fastpath.
It creates easily an animation path for the selected object.

Installation:

  1. Start Blender and open User Preferences. Click on the addons tab
  2. Click “install from file” , then choose downloaded zip.
  3. Check the addon to activate, then save user preferences.

How to use:
Select any object, then press shift + A -> curve ->fastpath
Draw your path freely with shift + click

Please, be aware that it’s just the first version.
I already know that there are corner cases with weird paths or offsets, on non standard positions.
eg : you should manually change sometimes the forward axis in the constraint tab.
I need to learn more about the path process. Any advices of animators are welcome !!!

Download link

2 Likes

Thanks for this good addon

UPDATE V0.2
Correct path primitive
Correct offset
The selected object is temporarily at the center, don’t worry it’s OK,
it will be placed at the beginning of the path once you start to draw the path !!!
It is necessary to avoid incorrect paths , because it resets the location delta.

Time duration is now by default the duration of the scene.
I forgot to mention that you can ctrl+right click to do the standard blender straigth and precise lines , or use E to extrude path as usual.

Same link as first post

Ah that is very usefull. Now I don’t have to look it up again whenever I want an object to follow a curve. I always had troubles with offset as well. This is so much eassier. I think it’s nice for the camera as well, I will try.

For cameras, it kinda works, but I still have to fix orientations handled differently.
Best settings for now are FORWARD -Z, and UP Y in the constraint settings. I’m already working on a new operator for camera paths.

Finally, i managed to do all in the existing operator !
I cleaned the script, with a reusable function.
The new script tests if the object is a camera, and change the values of the forward/up axis accordingly.
Still the same link as above

Is a very usefull addon, could it work with bones to draw the bones movement?

Not yet, but it’s planned and I try to understand how to proceed.
For this, I will have to handle the pose mode and the bone constraints, instead of the actual edit mode/object constraints.

Little update. Now, you can also activate fastpath with ctrl+double left mouse button. Link in first post updated, or here https://gist.github.com/ethanaeris/4952e9d34ce54e4cbc5fe22983538b52

Is it possible with the Add default curve (spiral) or curve which is created and modified and not with the plugin option drawing with the hand manually.

I can try to implement the default curve, but the main issue could be which vertex to select and draw from (start or end) ?
Plus, if you want to use the default curve, just add it and go to edit mode. the ctrl + left click to extrude or shift + right click for hand paint work already without addon.
So, I don’t really see the advantage to add an addon fonction just for add curve+go to edit mode.

If by spiral, you mean an helix shape, there’s already an addon in Blender : add curve : extra objects, that can be activated.

edit : My bad, I see your point. I’ll see what I can do

Is there an update for blender 3.x