CgTalk Maxscript Challenge 015: “Automated Motions”
DESCRIPTION: Create a tool that can assign various automated motions to an object (eg. a figure 8 pattern, a circle etc).
DEADLINE: 28/01/2007
RULES:
[ul]
[li]NEW RULE: Do NOT post your code until the deadline![/li][li]Code from scratch. Try not to use pre-exisitng functions or plugins.[/li][li]Show your script references, if any (eg. Looking at another script to assist you).[/li][li]You are encouraged to ask for help where needed, but try to do it on your own. The maxscript reference is an invaluable resource.[/li][li]Post your final script inside [/li]“`
tags (located on your posting toolbar).
[li]Post all code into THIS thread.[/li][li]Post the max version you coded in, plus any maxscript extensions you used. (Thanks galagast!)[/li][li]Try to finish the challenge in a week. There is no definite time limit.[/li][/ul]NOTES: Happy New Year! In keeping with the running idea of loose guidelines, you can take this task as far as you like. If you have difficulty thinking of motions, think of what a motion graphic artist might want in a tool like this.
i’d REALLY like to see a lightwave lwo object importer and a lws [lightwave scene importer for max 8 and max 9
Considering LWO is a complex binary format it might be a little over the top for a weekly challenge. Added to that you would need max coders who are intimately familiar with the export file format of lightwave. An importer is more suited to a plugin than a script unfortunately, especially since you could be dealing with a severe amount of vertex data.
Have you considered asking Autodesk support directly about this?
okay how about a lightwave basic scene loader?
which loads up lights, nulls and cameras to help people move lightwave data over to 3dsmax
for camera matching…
actually just the camera and nulls woudl be useful as nulls could be placeholders for lights.
here’s a zip file with a basic scene with all the light types, a camera and a null.
also the lws scene can be opened up in any text editor…i’ve included a notpad
file of the same scene.
[no mesh objects in the scene]
Cresshead, please don’t post to this thread for your needs. Post it to the main maxscript challenge thread or as a seperate new post in the maxscript forum. This thread is for the current challenge, not for requests.
As to the LWS, I’ll look into it.
this challeng is ; i think a bit too loose concept-wise, maybe tighten the concept a bit could help?
By motion you think movie or some kind of viz could be included?
in somekind lost, sorry
-D-
I think its great!! … thanks erilaz
hope I do manage to participate this time … been away from
the challenge threads for long…
Here’s an example to explain what I mean:
Say you have a sphere. The tool could have a drop down list of 4 or 5 motions to apply to that sphere. Let’s take the Figure 8. When you select Figure 8 from the menu it may give you options for size, frame range and axis to apply to. This motion could be created with spline paths or a mathematical formula that lays keys.
A circle motion could be as simple as applying a spline circle to the sphere as a path constraint.
If people want to go all out and have motions that travel the surface of objects or some such they can.
This is not necessarily a practical tool, it is a challenge to see how you can handle mutliple UI elements and animation concepts in maxscript.
ahh ! its more clear now. thank erilaz.
I am anxious to see some solutions on this.
I don’t have the time to participate this time
I started some tries in the past to copy what I call “flash-like-animation” in max.
But they all failed:
Calculation of object positions over time in a selfcontained container – like scriptcontroller.
$.pos += [0,0,1]*drag
It was very slow and crashed often.
Georg
– sorry double post
I’ve extended the deadline on this one as many people are on holiday through January.
rdg, i’m surprised an equation like that was slow and buggy… it seems pretty normal.