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In lugnet.cad.ray, Tore Eriksson wrote:
> I'm not a very skilled programmer, so I just develop the syntax and a very
> simple interface. If I suceed to make demos impressive enough, I hope some more
> skilled programmer(s) will make better GUI's and import filters and so on.
Hi Tore,
Congrats on your recent work.
As you know, I am working on a parallel animation app project. At this point,
I've stopped development on the new version and plan to dedicate the next month
or so to cleanup duties (anything from commenting the code to making the GUI as
fool-proof as I can make it to writing a tutorial for the website, etc.). This
"clean-up" step is very important for me because one of my main objectives is to
put together a powerful but relatively simple to use system.
In fact, I've concentrated for the past 2 months in building an interface that
will provide precisely that while at the same time allowing developers to build
on it. This also means that the new version will probably still have very simple
animation tools. On the other hand, some of its features might interest regular
(non-animator) renderers as well (i.e. the possibility of previewing the scene
via Ldglite and then passing the settings automatically to POVray).
So while convergence with LDA2006 will not happen right away, I do think we are
not too far away from each other. I would definetely be interested in supporting
your program at some point in the mid future. Oh, and while this might not be
the case of the next release, the one after that will certainly be called TLAS,
which stands for Technicpuppy's L? (Little?, Lego, Ldraw?) Animation System.
Meaning, it will support animation of parts other than minifigs.
(I am aware that a lot of this might sound like hot air, but in fact I am
keeping a lid on tons of very clearly implementable ideas in order to use the
scarce time I have for the project in the most meaningful and useful manner for
the overall goal. And that means GUI GUI GUI at the moment.)
This lack of time prevents me from actually playing around with the system as it
stands right now. So I don't have any impressive demos to show. However, the
current code which I've been working on already outputs 2 type of files (in
future versions, it will also accept input from those kind of files): MPD and
TLA.
The idea is that the TLAS user will build "scenes" by placing ldr / dat files
into a "track". For Ldglite visualization (and other potential purposes), the
program is now able to export the track contents as a single MPD file. In the
future, it will also "import" complete scenes that way, breaking down the MPD
file into its models. Further down the road, there are plans for more
sophisticated uses (i.e. combinations of scenes, meaning combinations of model
file with submodels which already have animation built into them, like a car
with turning wheels).
But I am getting ahead of myself. What I wanted to show you is how a TLA file
looks like. And it looks like this:
[Files]
Stage=D:\3d\pov\LM\models\stage.ldr
ACTOR1=D:\3d\pov\LM\models\fire.ldr
ACTOR2=D:\3d\pov\LM\models\aviator.ldr
[ACTOR1]
Loop_Steps=1
Step_Length=40
Pitch=0
Yaw=0
Roll=0
X_pos=-20
Y_pos=0
Z_pos=60
Head_initial=0
Head_amplitude=3
Hips_initial=0
Hips_amplitude=7
R_hand_initial=0
R_hand_amplitude=0
L_hand_initial=0
L_hand_amplitude=0
R_arm_initial=0
R_arm_amplitude=15
L_arm_initial=0
L_arm_amplitude=15
R_leg_initial=0
R_leg_amplitude=25
L_leg_initial=0
L_leg_amplitude=25
[ACTOR2]
Loop_Steps=1
Step_Length=0
Pitch=0
Yaw=270
Roll=0
X_pos=30
Y_pos=0
Z_pos=0
Head_initial=0
Head_amplitude=0
Hips_initial=0
Hips_amplitude=0
R_hand_initial=0
R_hand_amplitude=0
L_hand_initial=0
L_hand_amplitude=0
R_arm_initial=0
R_arm_amplitude=0
L_arm_initial=0
L_arm_amplitude=0
R_leg_initial=0
R_leg_amplitude=0
L_leg_initial=0
L_leg_amplitude=0
TLA files are regular windows ini files which hold a scene description and
animation parameters. I don't want to get into too deep into specifics because
the format is likely to change quite a bit (it will suport non-animation
parameters such as L3p settings and the animations will eventually go beyond
cycle-based minifig walks, which means more animation settings to go into the
TLA file). But I know you've played with the latest available GUI-based version
of LMM and the parameters above relate to the settings of that program.
Anyway, I hope all this is useful to you and - at the very least - that knowing
that a GUI-based app that will (somehow) support LDA2006 adds to your project's
tremendously positive energy.
Cheers
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Harmonizing Syntax of TLAS, LMM, and LDA2006
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| (...) Thank you, Miguel. (...) As discussed earlier, I am now convinced of the animation potentials of MPDs. As a (not very active, but yet...) member of the LDraw Standards Commitee, I am also convinced of the benefits we all would enjoy if all (...) (18 years ago, 27-Feb-06, to lugnet.cad.ray, lugnet.animation, lugnet.cad.dev)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: LDA2006 Progress Report
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| (...) Thanks for the input, Tim. I agree. Exponential functions for acceleration or fall would be nice to have. Sinus and Cosinus functions will make smoother walks. The best would probably be support for splines or maps, but that's way beyond my (...) (18 years ago, 25-Feb-06, to lugnet.cad.ray, lugnet.animation, lugnet.cad.dev)
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