IPO open letter.

[freen]

@PapaSmurf

An issue I have with re-using IPOs is that they are locked to time. Right now I am making a silly little flash animation, and I want a series of lines of text to fade in over ten frames, but in sequence. The current system is handy in that I can make a driven “fade in”, or duplicate the ipo, single user it, and then grab the keys and move them over 10 frames. But, it seems silly, like I should be able to define an object called “Fade in Text” and then just say when I want that text to fade in, much like OOP. Drivers are a good work-around, but they require yet another object with yet another ipo to control the “when”.

Um, I might have misunderstood you, but can’t you do that by using one IPO and setting the TimeOffset for each object?

[Papulizer]

To Vertexpusher:

1d “numbers” are real numbers - they form a so called “field”
2d “numbers” are called the complex numbers - they are a field, too
3d fields don t exist. if you discover them, expect the fields-medal, not the nobel
4d “numbers” are QUATernions, as the name implies - they are a “skew field”
you confused me though, you say they have 4 variables but are 3d

sorry!

[Vertex_Pusher]

Oops … you’re right … I misspoke … I knew one of the those dimensional numbers was missing …

This is what I get for getting my math from dense programming books … :o

[eastdacc]

@Atom

I still do not like the click sleection/manipulation in the IPO window. The overall way it works.

I’ll just say it again. It should work like after effects.

That means when I left-click on a point, it should auto-grab the point and let me freely move it around and when I let go of the mouse button it should drop the point where I moved it to. It drives me frickin’ crazy that I have to right-click to pickup a point, then move it and then left-click to let go. Soo many times I will right-click to select a point and move to the new location and let go of the button thinking that will drop it (because it is natural way of working with the mouse) only to have moved the mouse a little in the process and now my drag is off and the point is still stuck to my mouse. So I left click and I end up with my point in the wrong place.

I try to do as most animation as possible using the I-Key to insert and the NLA to reposition key frames. Mainly because the IPO drives me crazy.

I user preferences panel / Edit Methods activate Drag Immediatly… this will make it work all panels in a more standar drag way… you can also switch left and right buttons in preferences / Views & Controls / Select With

I agree with what’s been said here… my top priorities would be:

1. Auto snap to frame option like action panel
2. Default to edit mode
3. See all selected objects ipos at once… This mostly to change all curves from linear to spline after blocking… so the two ipo panels opened won’t do it, i guess a script could do that too.

I like quternion interolation better too… the problem is editing quat curves directly is problematic i think being able to choose wich objects ot use quats and wich to use eulers would be great.

I wanted to try to do the auto snap to frame thing… but haven’t been able to compile blender yet… I keep trying now and then…

[eastdacc]

@Atom

I still do not like the click sleection/manipulation in the IPO window. The overall way it works.

I’ll just say it again. It should work like after effects.

That means when I left-click on a point, it should auto-grab the point and let me freely move it around and when I let go of the mouse button it should drop the point where I moved it to. It drives me frickin’ crazy that I have to right-click to pickup a point, then move it and then left-click to let go. Soo many times I will right-click to select a point and move to the new location and let go of the button thinking that will drop it (because it is natural way of working with the mouse) only to have moved the mouse a little in the process and now my drag is off and the point is still stuck to my mouse. So I left click and I end up with my point in the wrong place.

I try to do as most animation as possible using the I-Key to insert and the NLA to reposition key frames. Mainly because the IPO drives me crazy.

Go to Preferences/Edit Methods and activate Drag Immediatly
In preferences/View & Controls you can switch mouse buttons too

[PapaSmurf]

freen: thanks. too many things to remember (and forget). wiki updated.

[Aligorith]

Quick update on some of the issues noted here:

• In AnimSys2 branch, I’ve ‘fixed’ the borderselect issue. (See revision 17262)

Now, I’d like some feedback on a few related issues:

• Representation of handles vs keyframes - currently we have settings to differentiate them in terms of colour and size, but it occurs to me that even so, there is not enough of a difference. So, we could try having different shapes now. What I’d like to know is what would be the best option:

1. square (keyframe) vs circular (handles)
2. square-frame only (keyframe) vs solid square (handles)
3. reverse of situation 2)
   Also, how helpful is an option to hide the handles?

• What exactly was meant by the time-increments comment? That the default scaling should be set so that the time-scale is in frames (instead of 10’s of frames)?

Regards,
Aligorith

[grsaaynoel (Glenn Melenhorst)]

@Aligorith

I’ve ‘fixed’ the borderselect issue.

That is really, really great and will open up the IPO to a much more fluid workflow.

@Aligorith

1. square (keyframe) vs circular (handles)
2. square-frame only (keyframe) vs solid square (handles)
3. reverse of situation 2)
   Also, how helpful is an option to hide the handles?

I think that the keyframe should be king and never (if possible) obscured by the handles. To that end, I’d say square for keyframes and a dot, perhaps a 50% opacity too, for the handles. If they overlap, the keyframe being square should visually be more doninant than the handle.

@Aligorith

What exactly was meant by the time-increments comment?

That was me being a Noob. I was thinking about how moving keys about in the acion editor defaults to sub-frames instead of frames. (would still like to see it defaulting to frames.

And on another point of defaults, the ‘Automatic keyframe button’ in the timeline panel defaults to neither ReplaceKeys or Add/ReplaceKeys on my system; rather, it starts blank which negates the apparent function of the button which I find confusing for those new to Blender.

Keep up the great work Aligorith

Glenn Melenhorst

[nirmaldavid]

@Aligorith

1. square (keyframe) vs circular (handles)
2. square-frame only (keyframe) vs solid square (handles)

I would think option #1 makes sense for the shape types…so even if u have overlapping handle points and key’s u could still differentiate between them…
even so… it might make sense to have the handle types hollow shapes and key’s filled shapes…that would make for a very legible and easily understandable setup…me thinks.

@Aligorith

Also, how helpful is an option to hide the handles?

It would be just plain awesome to be able to move keys in X and Y(unlike the “k” mode).
but do keep the “k” mode…very useful to move stuff around duplicate etc.

Thanks for all the work man…appreciate it…:D.
-kudos

[thedaemon]

@grsaaynoel

That was me being a Noob. I was thinking about how moving keys about in the acion editor defaults to sub-frames instead of frames. (would still like to see it defaulting to frames.

I would also like it to default to snapping of frames. There is little to no need for sub-frame animation. It’s used so rarely that it should not be default.

Euler rotation is useful for editing curves and getting animations out quickly and easily. I would really like to see them.

Option 1) Square(keyframe) and circular (handles)
Seems fine, but I would have to see a mockup.

ps where do I get the AnimSys2 you are working on Aligorith?

[JiriH]

Glen,

Aligorith is actually working on Blender animation system update. So this is great time to PM him with your suggestions. They are really important and I agree with you absolutely.

If you would like to now more details just google for AnimSys2 Blender branch. Also first build atwww.graphicall.org is ready for testing.

[Loolarge]

I did not animate any complex charater in blender yet, but i did with Maya / XSI. Now i have a hard time trying do decide what i prefer. I hope the next animation system will still allow the current quaternion keying model. It is good and bad at the same time. Not running into gimbals is actually a dream coming to to me though. But like many people pointed out you cannot animate “Procedurally” where you first make a head nod with one curve (rotx), rotate with another curve (rotz) while maintaining the motion of the first curve. You are forced to animate poses only. In the 3D View. Maybe it is just a matter of habbit.

I am looking very much forward to the animation system update anyways because it will solve many other issues too.