Cheetah3D 3.4 preview

Martin

Martin

0
Cheetah3D 3.4 preview

Hi,
here is a small preview of a features coming in Cheetah3D 3.4.

In v3.4 it will be possible to let a object fly along a spline object. That will make fly through animations extremely easy. Just check out the movie to see what I mean.

http://cheetah3d.com/download/Forum/SplineTracking.mov


The second movie shows the new "Target" tag. If you attach a target tag to an object that object will always point to it's target. That is great for spot light animations or fly around animations.

http://cheetah3d.com/download/Forum/Target.mov


Cheetah3D 3.4 will also redraw big scenes with many small object much much faster. For example an architectural scene (216 polygon objects) I got from Francois redrawed with 5 fps in v3.3. In v3.4 I get 60 fps which is 12 times faster!!!:cool:


Last but not least it will be possible in v3.4 to drag and drop object within the scene hierarchy without changing their global position. You just have to hold the SHIFT key pressed during the drag&drop.

I hope you like it.

Bye,
Martin

P.S. More features will come soon.
 
shadowkhas said:
I assume that the tag will also apply to normal polygon objects, etc also?:)
Click to expand...

Of course. You can also use it to animate cars, lights etc.

By the way I've added a second movie to my original post which shows the new "Target" tag.

Bye,
Martin
 
Very useful tags, thank U Martin ;).

Cannot you use "Target Tag" to implement a move-link between objects ?
(for example: 2 balls in a scene, when you're moving the first one, the second follow it)
 
Last edited:
Onaric said:
Very useful tags, thank U Martin ;).

Cannot you use "Target Tag" to implement a move-link between objects ?
(for example: 2 balls in a scene, when you're moving the first one, the second follow it)
Click to expand...

That wouldn't work, because the target tag only makes it keep facing the targeted object.

If you want to make one follow the other, put them both in a folder and then move the folder.
 
Martin,
very cool, but I did notice a new UI feature. is there anyway that drag and drop box could be added to a script? or maybe adding a Vec3D object to the UI?

just hoping
Todd
 
Onaric said:
Cannot you use "Target Tag" to implement a move-link between objects ?
(for example: 2 balls in a scene, when you're moving the first one, the second follow it)
Click to expand...

Something like that would be quite easy to implement now. Maybe for 3.5 or later.
But first I want the "Taget" and "Spline Tracking" tags tested before I add more such tags. That is just the beginning. Later it should be also possible to write such tags via scripts.

Bye,
Martin
 
ToddWR said:
very cool, but I did notice a new UI feature. is there anyway that drag and drop box could be added to a script? or maybe adding a Vec3D object to the UI?
Click to expand...

Sorry but that won't be possible in 3.4 yet. I'm currently rewriting the parameter system to make it ready for the next big animation features.
Once I'm done with that I will make much more parameter stuff accessible.

Sorry.

Bye,
Martin
 
Good grief, I go away for two weeks, and look what you get up to!!!

Seriously, though. This is just way too cool...I'm finally getting around to rendering a flyaround of my Turning Torso model. Will try and post the .mov when it's finished.

Just one thing: I attached a camera to a circular spline. I wanted to render a four-second, 360-degree flyaround.

I moved the animation slider to 4.0 s and set the position (in the Spline follower tag) to 1.0. Set a key. Scrubbed the timeline: no motion.

So, set keys at 1.0s/0.25, 2.0s/0.5 3.0s/0.75, 4.0s/1.0: got motion from 1.0-4.0s, no motion from 0.0-1.0s (Couldn't set a key at 0.0s).

Finally solved it by setting a key at 1 frame then as above. Works fine, but should it be like that?
 
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Hi Tim,
if you want to animate a parameter you should always start with making a key at 0s.
Cheetah3D interpolates between keys. If there is only one key at 4s there is nothing to interpolate in between 0s and 4s. So first make a key at 0s with "position=0" and then at 4s with "position=1". That should work.

The other problem you mentioned that the key didn't record is caused by the fact that Cheetah3D only records parameters which differ to the value of the F-Curve. If you want to record an key nevertheless just double click on the record button and Cheetah3D will record a key for all parameters.

I hope that helps.

Bye,
Martin
 
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