I had a moment of inspiration and created a new tool that I’m working on to help you manage your scene.
Think of it as a layer system only instead of operating on arbitrary lists it operates in 3D Space.
Select objects within a volume(s)
Isolate objects within a volume(s)
Freeze all the objects outside of a volume(s)
Known bugs:
If you delete a gizmo just close and reopen the dialog. That should recreate it. In the future I’ll have it automatically recreate the missing gizmo.
The code would be a lot cleaner if I used more functions, but I just wanted to get it functional before making it pretty.
I really appreciate feedback and bug reporting so don’t hold back. Or if you think it’s useless say so and if you have a free moment feel free to say why it’s useless.
Thanks!
Hi,
Funny thing, I was thinking of something similar yesterday, selecting on volume basis. The way you’ve set it up, feels more like extended selection sets then a layer system, really.
Errors:
If you name your volume 1 it crashes, needs input filtering.
Some tooltips would be great on mouseover buttons.
Sel G and then delete spawns an error.
Isolating two sets!? What behaviour is to be expected?
Wishlist:
Selecting a volume to select it’s objects
clearing the rootnode?
A UI that feels more max like… although I don’t think the new 2008 scene explorer is max like… but you get my drift.
Remarks:
Speed seems ok, I tested it on a 3000+ objects scene, with multiple
Maybe a bit more unique description for volumedefs in the rootnode… seems a bit generic…
Hope this helps you some way!
-Johan
Isolating two volumes should isolate the ‘additive volume of all isolated volumes. This way you could isolate two places at once. I haven’t used it much in my scenes so I’m still undecided as to whether that’s the behavior that is most useful or a straightup single volume isolate is better.
Also it currently unhides everything when you disable all isolates. It would be nice if it went back to the state before the first isolation. But I’m still trying to think through all the possible catastrophys that might cause.
I’m not sure I want it to select everything within the volume when you select the volume. I don’t know how you would adjust your gizmos if that were the case. You could however click “Sel O” and then “Sel G” and accomplish the same thing. If selecting the containing objects were to be the default I suppose I could have an “adjust gizmo” check button much like “affect pivot” in the hierachies tab.
Ah now I see the real power of this tool. Resizeing the box changes selection… volume select on object level… I thought it was static, so disregard my selection set comment!
Looks like it’s using a world bounding box of the box to do it’s work, local bounding box would be great so we could rotate the box and have non boxed like overviews.
Starting to appreciate this tool!
-Johan
I’m considering an “advanced selection volume” mode which would use arbitrary geometry for selecting but performance suffers pretty badly compared to using a global cube ($.max-$.min).
I’m not quite sure how to implement a rotatable cube intersection check. Something for me to think about unless you have an idea.
The concept that originally started this script was “I want DoDs in Max… although I suppose they would have to be 3D”. (Domain of Definition for those who don’t use shake, nuke or other compositing apps.)
I use fusion but no dod’s there
Don’t have outlined approach really for it, it’s way past bedtime for me…
Maybe the new raymeshscene function in 2008 also in Avguard extension from larry minton… Not sure if it’s what you need… maybe just limit it for the pivot points or so, see if a pivot lives in a volume!?
As a bonus you could add a screen based volume, with the gw functions translate those back to 3D coordinates and figure out the volumes in between, and have lasso selections defining volumes… I should go to bed right… yeah I thought so.
Ohwell, goodluck, maybe I dream something up probably not…
-Johan
Well there is a macro for fusion which uses some clever cropping.
I love it. Thanks for sharing :buttrock:
Concept :lightbulb Volumes[Transform]
This is just an Idea based on your Workflow Tool. Animated Transformations based on Dummy-Volume. Would be a great Tool for animation of masses. At first contact with volume, set Transformation key. After Time X set the changed Transformation Key.
[ul]
[li]Same Dummy-Volume Base
[/li][li]Value for Time
[/li][li]Move XYZ (choose for absolute & relative)
[/li][li]Rotate XYZ (choose for absolute & relative)
[/li][li]Scale XYZ (choose for absolute & relative)
[/li][li]Visibilty (absolute)
[/li][/ul]
more possible functions
[ul]
[li]variation
[/li][li]create negativ Dummy to reset Animation after Time X
[/li][li]Volumes[Property] – other Tool for changing object propertys
[/li][/ul]