Plugins AnimationPoser

[SuperKingAbobo]

Morphs are indeed bugged at the moment. They have been buggy since 3.5 I believe. They worked perfectly previously.

During the transition the morph sliders are resetting to zero instead of moving directly to the new values of the next state. So in the video example posted above, even though the states are identical the mouth is closing because the morph slider is resetting to zero during the transition.

I've tried the latest github release, but they still do not work correctly.

 

[haremlife]

Morphs are indeed bugged at the moment.

Yes, I can confirm that. Had the same issue when I tried to play with the plugin a little bit. That is certainly a very easy fix, because morphs are just like controllers in the entire code, just much simpler.

Right now, the complete absence of support from the vam community, the fact that this plugin is entirely ignored by everyone who could benefit from it (meaning whoever makes money from virt-a-mate and would triple their earnings if content produced with this plugin started to get outsider's attention), no help from other developers, almost no content produced by users, etc, is not making me very anxious to work on bug fixing. I will with time. I haven't been using virt-a-mate for a while though.

 

[ieatbootyholes]

Yes, I can confirm that. Had the same issue when I tried to play with the plugin a little bit. That is certainly a very easy fix, because morphs are just like controllers in the entire code, just much simpler.

Right now, the complete absence of support from the vam community, the fact that this plugin is entirely ignored by everyone who could benefit from it (meaning whoever makes money from virt-a-mate and would triple their earnings if content produced with this plugin started to get outsider's attention), no help from other developers, almost no content produced by users, etc, is not making me very anxious to work on bug fixing. I will with time. I haven't been using virt-a-mate for a while though.

That's a bummer to hear but I totally understand.

 

[PrettyFrank]

There are entire timelines in AnimationPoser now. You can have an arbitrary (not only two) number of keyframes between two states and the control points are automatically calculated. Animations can be imported from VamTimeline, or keyframes added and edited in AnimationPoser. The interpolation method corresponds to VamTimeline's "Global Smoothing" method. In other words, Bezier interpolation with automatically calculated control points to give continuous second derivatives.

So upon further testing, I think I'm not communicating my goals well... when I talk about a control point, I don't mean keyframes at all. I mean an arbitrary point in space that the person will *never reach*. Otherwise, you end up with animations that smoothly go from one point to another - but always in a straight line (unless you specifically create keyframes along the way, which is incredibly tedious). This creates *linear* motion between states, no matter the time scale/easing used between them.

I want to create curves in the motion path themselves, using only a starting point, ending point, and a control point somewhere in between (usually) and off to a side.

Imagine you have a model with her hand to the left (state 1). You add a state with the hand to right (state 2). Then you add an intermediate state in the middle, but up high (state int).

If you flow from 1 -> int -> 2 in AnimationPoser, you will essentially make a triangular path. A straight line from 1 up to "int", then down to 2.

In IdlePoser, using a Control State for "int", the state would actually flow straight from 1 -> 2, but with influence from "int" along the way. This would create a smooth wave-like motion as the hand goes from left to right, but is drawn up towards that control point along the path. This sort of curve definition allows for incredibly lifelike, fluid movement, with only 3 points. Control points can also be shared as an in-between for many states, allowing animations to flow from one state to the next, without drawing linear paths to that intermediate point/state.

 

[haremlife]

So upon further testing, I think I'm not communicating my goals well... when I talk about a control point, I don't mean keyframes at all. I mean an arbitrary point in space that the person will *never reach*. Otherwise, you end up with animations that smoothly go from one point to another - but always in a straight line (unless you specifically create keyframes along the way, which is incredibly tedious). This creates *linear* motion between states, no matter the time scale/easing used between them.

I want to create curves in the motion path themselves, using only a starting point, ending point, and a control point somewhere in between (usually) and off to a side.

Imagine you have a model with her hand to the left (state 1). You add a state with the hand to right (state 2). Then you add an intermediate state in the middle, but up high (state int).

If you flow from 1 -> int -> 2 in AnimationPoser, you will essentially make a triangular path. A straight line from 1 up to "int", then down to 2.

In IdlePoser, using a Control State for "int", the state would actually flow straight from 1 -> 2, but with influence from "int" along the way. This would create a smooth wave-like motion as the hand goes from left to right, but is drawn up towards that control point along the path. This sort of curve definition allows for incredibly lifelike, fluid movement, with only 3 points. Control points can also be shared as an in-between for many states, allowing animations to flow from one state to the next, without drawing linear paths to that intermediate point/state.

You do that with timelines. The control points are implicitly calculated.

For any curve, there are infinite points through which the controller does go through. Just pick one of them and create a keyframe. The interpolation will NOT be linear. It works 100% the same as in VamTimeline with global smoothing.

 

[Saint66]

Hey again, where is the option to switch to a certain state gone? Cannot find a trigger in 3.9?
Or how do I achieve to go to a certain state now?

 

[SuperKingAbobo]

Yes, I can confirm that. Had the same issue when I tried to play with the plugin a little bit. That is certainly a very easy fix, because morphs are just like controllers in the entire code, just much simpler.

Right now, the complete absence of support from the vam community, the fact that this plugin is entirely ignored by everyone who could benefit from it (meaning whoever makes money from virt-a-mate and would triple their earnings if content produced with this plugin started to get outsider's attention), no help from other developers, almost no content produced by users, etc, is not making me very anxious to work on bug fixing. I will with time. I haven't been using virt-a-mate for a while though.

That certainly sucks, but can completely understand. Your efforts on the plugin are certainly appreciated.

Quick question on messages being received during a transition.
A small issue I've noticed that I don't know how to avoid is if a person receives a message in the middle of a transition, this will cause the transition to be interrupted and they will snap instantly to the new state. Is there a trick to avoiding this and allow the transition to full complete?

 

[haremlife]

Hey again, where is the option to switch to a certain state gone? Cannot find a trigger in 3.9?
Or how do I achieve to go to a certain state now?

You do that using a sendmessage trigger. I know the hub search is not very good, but try searching for SendMessage, a lot of discussion might come up

 

[haremlife]

That certainly sucks, but can completely understand. Your efforts on the plugin are certainly appreciated.

Quick question on messages being received during a transition.
A small issue I've noticed that I don't know how to avoid is if a person receives a message in the middle of a transition, this will cause the transition to be interrupted and they will snap instantly to the new state. Is there a trick to avoiding this and allow the transition to full complete?

That should be fixed code-wise unfortunately..

 

[Saint66]

You do that using a sendmessage trigger. I know the hub search is not very good, but try searching for SendMessage, a lot of discussion might come up

That was the first I tried. But sending a message like „State#3“ just does nothing.

Edit: nvm, I am obviously just blind
I found the messages tab in plugins UI, I have completely ignored it

 

[haremlife]

That was the first I tried. But sending a message like „State#3“ just does nothing.

Edit: nvm, I am obviously just blind
I found the messages tab in plugins UI, I have completely ignored it

It happens, the plugin is not trivial, it is supposed to do everything in the simplest possible way, but this “everything“ is a really extensive scope. It does a gigantic amount of stuff.

There is an animationposer tutorial out there in the hub. It teaches how to use messages for example.

 

[sardarm]

I have also encountered the same bug. Has the bug been repaired?

Yes, I can confirm that. Had the same issue when I tried to play with the plugin a little bit. That is certainly a very easy fix, because morphs are just like controllers in the entire code, just much simpler.

Right now, the complete absence of support from the vam community, the fact that this plugin is entirely ignored by everyone who could benefit from it (meaning whoever makes money from virt-a-mate and would triple their earnings if content produced with this plugin started to get outsider's attention), no help from other developers, almost no content produced by users, etc, is not making me very anxious to work on bug fixing. I will with time. I haven't been using virt-a-mate for a while though.

 

[haremlife]

I have also encountered the same bug. Has the bug been repaired?

Not by me. I'm completely without time for the foreseeable future. Please make known to the vam community and vam developers that you like the plugin and would like to have developers working on it. I have been completely ignored for a year, but they can only ignore users so far.

 

[PrettyFrank]

You do that with timelines. The control points are implicitly calculated.

For any curve, there are infinite points through which the controller does go through. Just pick one of them and create a keyframe. The interpolation will NOT be linear. It works 100% the same as in VamTimeline with global smoothing.

Example of a Bezier curve, with two control points (IdlePoser supports 2 between states, much like this example). Notice how a control point is more of a "setting an initial vector" that will fade as it blends towards the next... not a keyframe along the path/curve at all. It is typically far outside the scope of the controller path (at any stage).

I don't think we're talking about the same thing at all (as the Control Points I'm talking about a control would *never* go through to be turned into a keyframe, as is the nature of a Bezier curve control point), but regardless, how do you achieve what you're talking about?

Specific version (I've tested many version of the plugin, including the latest 3.9)? Steps?

I'm failing to see in the UI/wiki how:

a) a timeline relates to the other, more obvious, stages of the plugin (that were more similar to an expanded Poser)
b) the interaction between timelines and states/transitions
c) how to turn a state into a "keyframe"
d) how to even use timelines (it just tells me I need to add a second state "before I can add transitions", despite me having more than one state)

 

[haremlife]

Example of a Bezier curve, with two control points (IdlePoser supports 2 between states, much like this example). Notice how a control point is more of a "setting an initial vector" that will fade as it blends towards the next... not a keyframe along the path/curve at all. It is typically far outside the scope of the controller path (at any stage).
View attachment 157287

I don't think we're talking about the same thing at all (as the Control Points I'm talking about a control would *never* go through to be turned into a keyframe, as is the nature of a Bezier curve control point), but regardless, how do you achieve what you're talking about?

Specific version (I've tested many version of the plugin, including the latest 3.9)? Steps?

I'm failing to see in the UI/wiki how:

a) a timeline relates to the other, more obvious, stages of the plugin (that were more similar to an expanded Poser)
b) the interaction between timelines and states/transitions
c) how to turn a state into a "keyframe"
d) how to even use timelines (it just tells me I need to add a second state "before I can add transitions", despite me having more than one state)

The control points are calculated automatically.

 

[haremlife]

Example of a Bezier curve, with two control points (IdlePoser supports 2 between states, much like this example). Notice how a control point is more of a "setting an initial vector" that will fade as it blends towards the next... not a keyframe along the path/curve at all. It is typically far outside the scope of the controller path (at any stage).
View attachment 157287

I don't think we're talking about the same thing at all (as the Control Points I'm talking about a control would *never* go through to be turned into a keyframe, as is the nature of a Bezier curve control point), but regardless, how do you achieve what you're talking about?

Specific version (I've tested many version of the plugin, including the latest 3.9)? Steps?

I'm failing to see in the UI/wiki how:

a) a timeline relates to the other, more obvious, stages of the plugin (that were more similar to an expanded Poser)
b) the interaction between timelines and states/transitions
c) how to turn a state into a "keyframe"
d) how to even use timelines (it just tells me I need to add a second state "before I can add transitions", despite me having more than one state)

a) and b) The timeline is a transition. A traditional transition was a straight line between keyframes. Now you can add keyframes in between.
c) Merging two transitions, one going into a state and the other going out of it, that state becomes a keyframe
d) That’s a bug I did not yet encounter

 

[haremlife]

@PrettyFrank @sardarm @SuperKingAbobo @ieatbootyholes The morph bugs have been fixed in the latest release

Release Latest · haremlife/AnimationPoser

Contribute to haremlife/AnimationPoser development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

There are some bugs yet to be addressed. Please report on anything.

 

[Jerom]

Dose this plugin requires the person atom's scale to be 1?
when I up or down the person sacle, the animation loaded feom Timeline breaks, looks pretty weird.
this is really bad news for me.
Is there any way to bypass this problem?

 

[haremlife]

Dose this plugin requires the person atom's scale to be 1?
when I up or down the person sacle, the animation loaded feom Timeline breaks, looks pretty weird.
this is really bad news for me.
Is there any way to bypass this problem?

It can... With a line of code or two. In the IO file, when loading the controller positions, they could be scaled according to the person scale. This is an old request. Wish I had help for those small things, cause I have dozens of them now...

 

[sardarm]

@PrettyFrank @sardarm @SuperKingAbobo @ieatbootyholes The morph bugs have been fixed in the latest release

Release Latest · haremlife/AnimationPoser

Contribute to haremlife/AnimationPoser development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

There are some bugs yet to be addressed. Please report on anything.

OK, I'll let you know if I have any other problems, thank you

 

[haremlife]

The biggest issue I have right now is that merging transitions (turning state into keyframe) is not working properly. This might be hard to debug. It SEEMS to be the last thing preventing me from using the plugin to finally do the stuff I always wanted. But who knows. Refactoring the UI was amazing but it was expected that this big rewrite would introduce many small issues.

 

[SuperKingAbobo]

Thanks for the update.
Just tried v3.9 to test out if morphs are fixed. However, I'm encountering another issue/bug. Morph captures are no longer adding to the morphs list. Whenever you try to add a morph to the list it replaces the chosen morph with the "left thumb bend" morph and will not add anything else. Reloading the plugin sometimes allows you to add one morph, but the rest after that all default to "left thumb bend"?

 

[haremlife]

Thanks for the update.
Just tried v3.9 to test out if morphs are fixed. However, I'm encountering another issue/bug. Morph captures are no longer adding to the morphs list. Whenever you try to add a morph to the list it replaces the chosen morph with the "left thumb bend" morph and will not add anything else. Reloading the plugin sometimes allows you to add one morph, but the rest after that all default to "left thumb bend"?

This has ben fixed, but not released. I guess I will make a new release today. This release also adds the possibility of self transitions. With self transitions, a state can be a looping timeline animation

 

[SuperKingAbobo]

This has ben fixed, but not released. I guess I will make a new release today. This release also adds the possibility of self transitions. With self transitions, a state can be a looping timeline animation

Cool. Glad to see you're still working on this amazing plugin. Self transitions sound really useful. I look forward to trying them out.

I've been playing around a lot with Animation transitions and found a bug.

Say I transition from Ani 1 > Ani 2. Both Animations have multiple layers, so when arriving at Ani 2 I use the Sync layer option to manage the layers.

What I've noticed (correct me if I'm wrong) is even when an animation is not currently active, it seems the states of the different layers in that animation are still cycling.
So let's say Ani 2 has multiple layers consisting of 3 states each. I use the Sync layer option to sync the layers on arrival. Which works! All good, However, due to the background state cycling, on arrival that layer may be currently on any of it's 3 states. So if I want to sync to state 1 on arrival, if the layer happens to be on state 2 or 3 it stays on them for a fraction of a second before sync state kicks in and syncs to state 1. All in all, it's still syncing to the correct target state, but the snapping ruins the animation.

I hope you understand what I mean.

A current workaround I've been using is placing avoids to keep these layers sat on my target states. This keeps the transition animation smooth. It works, but it gives me a headache.

 

[haremlife]

Cool. Glad to see you're still working on this amazing plugin. Self transitions sound really useful. I look forward to trying them out.

I've been playing around a lot with Animation transitions and found a bug.

Say I transition from Ani 1 > Ani 2. Both Animations have multiple layers, so when arriving at Ani 2 I use the Sync layer option to manage the layers.

What I've noticed (correct me if I'm wrong) is even when an animation is not currently active, it seems the states of the different layers in that animation are still cycling.
So let's say Ani 2 has multiple layers consisting of 3 states each. I use the Sync layer option to sync the layers on arrival. Which works! All good, However, due to the background state cycling, on arrival that layer may be currently on any of it's 3 states. So if I want to sync to state 1 on arrival, if the layer happens to be on state 2 or 3 it stays on them for a fraction of a second before sync state kicks in and syncs to state 1. All in all, it's still syncing to the correct target state, but the snapping ruins the animation.

I hope you understand what I mean.

A current workaround I've been using is placing avoids to keep these layers sat on my target states. This keeps the transition animation smooth. It works, but it gives me a headache.

I think the blending to another animation needs to happen in such a way every layer creates a blend transition, instead of the other layers transitioning from their current states to the target sync state. If your diagnosis is right then this is easily accomplished in the code.