Question Any pluggins to play AcidBubble's timeline animations randomly?

[Babell99]

Hi everyone,

is there any plugins out there to play a list of the famous AcidBubble timeline animations randomly?

Example: I do have a model that has a list of 2 animations in the timeline pluggin. "Anim 1" the model raise its left arm. "Anim 2" the model raise its right arm. I would like to add those 2 animations in a list, which would be played randomly.


I found a plugin named "ActRandomizer", which seem to do exactly what I want, but I did not find a way to use it with Timeline animations (unless I miss something.

If you guys have a hint, it would be awesome.

 

[Acid Bubbles]

You can use the Sequence tab for that: https://github.com/acidbubbles/vam-timeline/wiki/Sequence-screen#play-next

You can randomize in all animations or within a subset, and weight them to prefer some to others.

 

[Babell99]

You can use the Sequence tab for that: https://github.com/acidbubbles/vam-timeline/wiki/Sequence-screen#play-next

You can randomize in all animations or within a subset, and weight them to prefer some to others.

How I could have missed this! Thanks a lot Acid Bubble. Your components are awesome.

 

[enigma]

I knew about sequence, but not about the subset. That's neat. Another option is combining it with macGruber's state machine and you can do crazy logic, like some random, others in sequence.

 

[hammondfish]

When I try to do this, sequencer always plays both animations - I want a trigger to play one animation OR the other. Is there a way to do that? There is no mention of it in the wiki. Thanks.

 

[Acid Bubbles]

Timeline only plays one animation at a time, except during transitions (blending). Maybe try to simplify and look at what is happening, maybe you're looping between two animations too quickly?

 

[hazmhox]

When I try to do this, sequencer always plays both animations - I want a trigger to play one animation OR the other. Is there a way to do that? There is no mention of it in the wiki. Thanks.

You're taking a very very old thread that may (or may not) have had the layer system at the time.
The only situation where you could play "two animations" are layers.

All layers are always in sync (which is annoying when you're used to blending trees but that's the way it is).
Which means, you always NEED to have every animation duplicated in each layer. OR ELSE, each layer will try to play the first animation it has in its list.

 

[hammondfish]

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like it is not possible then. Or perhaps two separate timeline plugin instances with the different animation in each? I'm trying to make a scene that is not a predictable 'movie' but has randomness to it.

 

[hazmhox]

It is, I'm just clarifying the layer aspect of your issue : )

You should read Timeline's documentation... better and eventually use your imagination
Randomization can be done through groups. ie: calling an animation MyGroup/AnimA, MyGroup/AnimB. (and you need to keep the logic about layers I was talking about above).

You could then have an animation, let's call it "StartAnim", that has in it's sequence "MyGroup/*". Which means, after it's played, it's gonna grab a random anim from the "MyGroup" group.

In each animation of "MyGroup", you can set each "Play next" to go wherever you want after playback.

You could end up with a setup like this:

• StartAnim > Play next "MyGroup1/*"
• MyGroup1
  • AnimA > Play Next "MyGroup2/*"
  • AnimB > Play Next "MyGroup2/*"
  • AnimC > Play Next "MyGroup2/*"
• MyGroup2
  • AnimA > Play Next "MyGroup1/*"
  • AnimB > Play Next "MyGroup1/*"
  • AnimC > Play Next "MyGroup1/*"

The end result will be a:

1. Start animation
2. Picks a random anim from MyGroup1
3. Plays that animation
4. Then picks a random anim from MyGroup2
5. Plays that animation
6. Then picks a random anim from MyGroup1
7. etc etc... until you stop it.

From there, only your imagination is the limit. You could have a "RandomStartSelector" Group that would allow more randomization for instance... which would only contain ultra short animations with no anim data just to swap to a random anim.

• StartAnim > Play next "RandomStartGroup/*"
• RandomStartGroup
  • Group1 Anim > Play Next "MyGroup1/*"
  • Group2 Anim > Play Next "MyGroup2/*"

 

[hammondfish]

ah I see. I got that working, thanks.
I realised that the 'empty' animation at the start is the key - then start any from a group - I can trigger the empty start one then that will trigger a random one. Awesome!