SUalive - Another Animation script

fredo6 · 23 May 2016, 17:46

By the way, there is a new Animation script just about to be published, SUalive by WhyDi.

I suggest you have a look at the video .

I find it quite powerful and rich in functionality, in particular because it uses native SU tools to perform the movements (which will come later in Animator).

Fredo

ntxdave · 23 May 2016, 18:02

I saw this a little earlier today. The results appear to be a lot like what you are building here. The UI and the fact that you use SU tools is very interesting. I do like your timeline and ability to group clips. I think they are a nice way to organize and control the overall animation.

In particular, if you go to the SUalive web site, look at the Tiny House, Moka and Space samples. They are kind of impressive and I think achieve what several people here are asking about.

In particular, the Tiny House gave me some ideas to try with Animator (the walk thru concept).

At the present time, the web site does not provide all that much information about some of the features though.

One of the things I did notice though is that it does not directly create a video. I creates the images and then you have to use another tool to create the video.

JQL · 23 May 2016, 21:42

I've seen that too, but I thought that I barelly have the time for this one here...

The major differences at first sight seem to be:

That it has a floating window that gets on top of the viewport and I prefer your aproach of sticking to the viewport's boundaries in the least obtrusive way possible;
The UI is very clear and based on a classic UI wich everybody easily relates to. This is not the case in your plugins and often this is the only criticism I see on them.
As Dave points out, there's no timeline;
There are a lot of innovative features in yours like the movie+clips+sequences concept, that I haven't fully grasped yet but that for what I understand is something very powerful;
It has the concept of key frame snapshooting of objects that seems very very intuitive, I believe people will love this one!
It has no Thea integration (yet) and you've addressed that from the start.
But the main difference, the one that goes without saying, is that that plugin isn't developed by Fredo. In this community that is something to be considered as I doubt there is someone using plugins that hasn't got at least one plugin from you and looks at it as fundamental!

So keep up the excellent work! I haven't moved past sequences and I'm already at awe!

solo · 23 May 2016, 22:14

Saw this, meh, It's not a Fredo plugin.

It's Gas station coffee vs Starbucks coffee, they both coffee but you are willing to pay the extra for quality.

fredo6 · 24 May 2016, 07:58

I am more positive about SUalive. This is a big piece of work, well executed and with a concise GUI. You can do a lot with the features already included, and it has a good potential for enhancement.

The design goals of Animator were to

be able to modify and adjust an animation easily. This is why I privileged the parametric approach and the visual timeline. The missing piece today is the Constrained Kinematics.
be able to re-use pieces of animation as much as possible. Hence the recursive hierarchical model with grouping in clips.

The drawback of the Animator approach is that it takes longer to develop, because each feature requires its piece of interactive GUI, which by itself takes most of the effort.

At least, this shows that Animation is becoming again a hot topic.

Fredo

Rich O Brien · 24 May 2016, 08:37

Not a fan of this UI. There's not visual clues.

All animation tools need timeline and dope-sheets to handle manipulations.

You're on a more unified track.

Animation needs to be separate from modeling environment and Animator creates that sense.

pilou · 24 May 2016, 10:54

It's very cerebral and you must don't forget a step!

But funny anyway after a big lurning curve!
(works fine with Exploded View by CPlassais (and me)

ntxdave · 24 May 2016, 15:34

While the demos of SUalive look neat, I gave it a quick try and like the approach of Animator better. I like being able to scroll through the timeline and "see" what is happening "when".

Fredo, in your comment, you said "the goals of Animator were" and it should be "the goals of Animator are". You are headed down the right path