Hello everyone!
I am proud to introduce standalone picker application for but not only Blender 2.79 and 2.8. After a long and bumpy way of development it’s finally here and I hope you’ll like it!
X-Pose Picker is designed as a universal, multi-platform tool for riggers and animators. It is a way to select things and control things inside of Blender and other supported software. just like it’s used in professional studios.
With X-Pose Picker you’re able to create layouts and control your character easier and faster that ever before. Add-on lets you focus on the design, creativity and to significantly speed up the workflow with extremal learning curve.
Main X-Pose Picker features:
simple but flexible *.xpix file format based on open source software solutions
powerful, single click x-mirror feature
works with any rig
copy, paste buttons also between tabs
undo, redo to make errors more forgivable
tabs duplication
custom keymap
three button types and update function
namespace logic for better selection control and work on multiple characters and complex scenes
script host execution and embed simple python script editor
multiple tab projects
append tab feature allows composition of layouts from different projects
highly customizable window layout
powerful viewport navigation tools
z-order option for advanced layout creation
buttons alignment and distribution tools
cross-platform
easily reusable pickers for other characters
easy to integrate with existing 3d software
left or right mouse button selection
auto-focus on host application and auto-move mouse cursor allowing to work on multi-screen configuration with ease
generic rig layout templates
at last but not least, can be used as an extra tool for custom UI getting all useful options organized in one place
Probably not coincidence. Artell (Author of ARP) said this with the latest update:
Although it can serve many purposes, the picker packed with Auto-Rig Pro has limitations and bottlenecks. It’s based on a rather “hacky” approach: buttons are bones, part of the rig, located below it. Maintaining it is tricky, updating it to Blender 2.8 was something! I’ll do my best to keep it working as it should in future versions.
However, I’d strongly like to encourage anyone who likes to work with a picker to make the switch to X-Pose Picker. It’s brand new, it’s shiny, it’s working and I’ve been collaborating with its developer to ensure that it works flawlessly with Auto-Rig Pro.
I believe this is the only real, hard-coded, reliable bone picker solution for Blender, as of now!
With X-Pose Picker you will create any picker for any rig. No matter is it blenrig5, Manuel Bastioni, rigify, or your custom rig. X-Pose Picker includes two autorig pro templates which are reusable and are great base for advanced pickers. Picker will be updated with rigify templates in latest update. However this doesn’t stop from making own pickers for rigify or any rig right now. It’s just a template, an example which shows how the picker works. I hope this helps with understanding what the add-on is.
I love this tool. Be nice if it were borken down into different tiers pricing wise, understanding a lot went into developement, but a lite version at a lower price point. Maybe for those who just need a simple picker and one at higher price point for extended features.
Will this add-on allowed me to create custom shortcuts buttons on my custom rig? Like the rigify?
Overall it’s look great and IAM planning to purchase
, Man you are the best addon developer for riggers/animators!! Keep the great work😉
If I understand correctly then I believe it will. You can create command button and paste the python snippet into it. Presets contain some basic examples of its usage but data base of snippets will grow in time
Advanced animating multiple characters tutorial and some cool and features come to newest X-Pose Picker update which will be released soon so you can grab it. Don’t lose the occasion!
Well, what XFEM is, it’s a mathematical approach to solve very complex equations. XFEM is basically enhanced Finite Element Method how it is called and it is used to calculate physics and materials behavior using defined physic material properties. It is being used in engineering software and industry for many years, including CGI for physics simulations. XFEM basically can be used for simulating materials like clothing, fluids, rigid body fracture, destruction of that objects, softbody, elasticity, collisions and self-collision. Of course it’s resource and compute power consuming and there are various different methods that are using optimized, specialized solvers for example flip fluids where FEM won’t perform better, tho there are domains where FEM solver really shines. And this is where my work wants to focus on - skin elasticity, object collision and and self-collision. Because I have a target and I want to focus on a particular, specific problem to solve which is creating core design and functionality for new tissue engine which will be base for next gen organic muscle simulations and so on.
I don’t want to talk here about complexity of the project, vectorizations, SIMD optimizations, algebra and math which may be hard to understand and are subject of my current study. FEM is computational intensive by itself, by its nature so many things have to be done for high fidelity and near real-time results. XFEM is ambitious project which may introduce to Blender state of the art technology that’s already available in other commercial software, not necessarily 3D VFX but also CAD, simulations software etc. Because it requires so much effort I can’t really do this alone and I will need community support to make it happen. And if it won’t find any response at the time from their side, I would have to do it in small steps, starting on research in my free time only. That’s what basically XFEM project is and if you’d like to know more don’t hesitate to leave me a message but I’d like to stay in touch with the topic which is X-Pose Picker, an awesome tool
