VaM 1.x multiple mocaps in one scene

[pingox]

Hello, everyone!
I understand that it is not possible to have multiple mocaps within a scene, with buttons to switch between the different mocaps. Creators who make scenes with multiple mocaps have to resort to using sub-scenes and a limited loading time between them.

Is this true? Is there really no way to have multiple mocaps within a scene and switch between them, even with timeline animations?

Thank you.

 

[hazmhox]

It's not (true).
You can mocap and have as much animations as you want in a Timeline plugin without ever relying on subscenes or merge loads.

 

[pingox]

It's not (true).
You can mocap and have as much animations as you want in a Timeline plugin without ever relying on subscenes or merge loads.

Yes, if they are all keyframed in the timeline plugin, you can have several, of course.

But when the animation is in "scene animation," can you intersperse them and put several? Can you share a link to an example or a guide on how to do this?

Thank you.

 

[atani]

If you knew that you could do it with Timeline, then why did you ask your question in that way if you only meant about using Scene Animation? We don't know what you know or don't know.

Scene Animation is an old method that is suplanted by Timeline with all kinds of improvements and flexibility. Timeline is not a "dirty" plugin and Scene Animation a "clean" functionality, do yourself a favor and forget about Scene Animation.
Subscenes are even newer than Timeline, and the only benefit I see for using them instead of a main Timeline animation, is if the creator needed/want to load and unload some other atoms and animations in a modular kind of way.

There's no better or worse tools, there's tools that let you do what you want to do and others that don't.

 

[hazmhox]

But when the animation is in "scene animation," can you intersperse them and put several? Can you share a link to an example or a guide on how to do this?

Timeline let's you import the "scene animation" through the "More" tab. ( More... > Convert VAM Native scene anim... ).
You can mocap back to back animation on the scene animation, and convert them into timeline.

 

[pingox]

If you knew that you could do it with Timeline, then why did you ask your question in that way if you only meant about using Scene Animation? We don't know what you know or don't know.

Because my question was not about how (or whether) to convert scene animations into timeline animations.

Okay, in my initial message I didn't mention ‘scene animations’. But on the other hand, I mentioned ‘even timeline animations’ as an alternative to my initial question. And the only alternative to timeline animations are ‘scene animations’ (I think).

I understand what you're saying, I'm just trying to understand.
I see many of the best creators with mocap still using scene animation, and distinct scenes when they change animations but everything else remains the same. If it's possible to convert everything to timeline but many still use scene animation, there must be a reason... I don't know if the scene becomes more compact, but there must be something.

 

[hazmhox]

use scene animation, there must be a reason... I don't know if the scene becomes more compact, but there must be something

I'm gonna give you the reason : they don't know. ( and with year behind me in VAM, I can tell you it's most of the time that reason )

I discuss with a lot of creators, I often show them plugins used a lot by the creators that they don't know about. You don't get more compact or efficient with the main timeline or Timeline itself. Both are valid and both lend somewhat the same result, you just have wayyyyyyyy more flexibility with Timeline.

Just because a handful of creator use a specific method, does not mean it's the meta. You gotta grasp that VAM at that level is almost game dev. And the overall community does not have the knowledge or experience that some other have.

Timeline is the way to go, and is probably one of the most powerful tool available here. Learn the proper methods, and you will be able to make switchable mocap anims with it : )

 

[pingox]

Thank you!! That message clarified everything for me. I understand that some creators cling to old methods out of habit...

As for the size,
I just ran some quick tests.
I grabbed an old reignMocap var, which has a simple dance recorded as scene animation.

In scene animation mode:
a 46.2MB JSON file is compressed to 3.0MB after compacting in var.

In timeline mode (after exporting the scene animation and deleting the scene animation):
a 29.0MB JSON file is compressed to 4.29MB after compacting in var.

Conclusion:
scene animation mode takes up more disk space when the file is in json (uncompressed).
But VAM can compress files with animations in ‘scene animation’ more efficiently.

Interesting.
But this is only about size, because the other advantages of the timeline are overwhelming.

Thank you for your answers.

 

[hazmhox]

Np!

Conclusion: ...

You did a simple test, which gives you a specific pointer but not all the picture.
Timeline does a very specific encoding now that improves loading times massively, which is hexadecimal if I'm not mistaken. There are basically the same amount of characters for two different coordinates/frames, which implies a somewhat bigger size in the end. But, in the long run, it is more efficient at loading and saving data.

Sometimes you sacrifice disk space for speed/calculation/overhead etc... ^^