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Re: Commenting Kamala: (WAS RE: [www-vrml] RE: [x3d-public] Clay Shirky Weighs In On SL and VRML History)
Hi Len, Paul, Joe and All
Not including browsers, the closest thing to a VRML killer app I can think
of would have to be Blaxxun or Numedia Avatar Studio yet this program really
relies on a function (setByVertexTransform) that is not part of the VRML
standard and so perhaps purists wont include it as a VRML app. Blaxxun
avatar studio avs can bypass using this function because they all come with
an alternative set of standard VRML functions but using only VRML matrix
functions is horribly inefficient because each vertex has to be transformed
one at a time using JavaScript and so it is doubtful blaxxun avatar studio
would ever have been as popular had it stuck religiously to the VRML
standard.
I have spent the best part of this year concentrating on making Seamless3d
friendlier for non technically oriented people without compromising it's
versatility. There is still plenty of room left for improvement to make it
friendlier but for years now I have seen non technically oriented people who
can communicate and ask questions, be creative with it, so I know I am on to
something.
Today I have uploaded the latest version 2.117
www.seamless3d.com/download
and rewritten 2 of my tutorials:
Importing Blaxxun Avatar Studio Avatars
http://www.seamless3d.com/tut/import_av_studio/index.html
Bringing Static Models to Life
http://www.seamless3d.com/tut/bring_to_life/index.html
The latter tutorial comes with a robot demo to show all the user actions
needed to import a static model and prepare it for animation.
There are other robot demos that should also be of relevance and more are in
the pipeline being rapidly developed.
Is H-anim everything you need? If not, what else?
H-Anim is not as well supported as the setByVertexTransform function.
Ancient and up to date versions of Contact, Cortona (Cortona version 5 at
least does to my recent surprise), Blaxxun/Numedia avatar studio and
Seamless3d all support this function without incompatibility problems. More
browsers have HAnim capabilities than they did 2 years ago but it is still
difficult to find what will work for more than one browser when using
HAnimJoint nodes. I have recently tried to get Seamless3d to output files
utilising the HAnimJoint node to open in Bit Management contact, Xj3D and
Flux player and have so far only found recent versions of contact using the
HAnimJoint node to be close in being as reliable as using the
setByVertexTransform function (I say close because Normals do not transform
if a Normal node is used). Getting a browser to open a file containing
HAnimJoint nodes and display the geometry is one thing, getting it to then
run some scripts to animate the HAnimJoint nodes as intended is something
else again. Each one of the 3 X3D browsers will be bothered by something
unique to the others and all let me add code that X3D-Edit will highlight as
illegal.
Another point worth making since we are talking about web standards, is
avatars that use the setByVertexTransform will be significantly smaller in
size compared to the same avatars output to use the HAnimJoint node because
of the extra indexing HAnimJoint nodes require.
regards
thyme
www.seamless3d.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Len Bullard" <cbullard@hiwaay.net>
To: "'Joe D Williams'" <joedwil@earthlink.net>; "'Paul Aslin'"
<fabricatorgeneral@yahoo.com>; <www-vrml@web3d.org>; <x3d-public@web3d.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 8:34 AM
Subject: RE: Commenting Kamala: (WAS RE: [www-vrml] RE: [x3d-public] Clay
Shirky Weighs In On SL and VRML History)
1) A means to work more generically with behaviors once they are authored
so
they can be pushed up to a sequencing script. This is quite easy with say
a
sound sequence because they issue events on start and stop (isActive).
2) It's not only what I'm looking for. It's what other authors need who
don't build characters at the mesh level. Avatar Studio is a nice start.
I'll look into FluxStudio but I don't want to spend a lot of time on
figuring out where things are compatible or not compatible with the
browser.
Otherwise, the question I'm asking here from the experienced character
modelers:
Is H-anim everything you need? If not, what else?
I will look into the spec but again, I've spent the last ten years having
to
read and give others at my last jobs the results so they can go build and
be
well-paid and rewarded. Enough frikkin' research for the guys in the next
bay who then turn around and dog me for not being a builder. I'm quite
tired of doing that. I want to build. Call it the bad attitude of being
a
servant.
Meanwhile, I'm coding to find out what works in the script I have. Welder
has some weird wrinkles but they work and the functions are there because
of
the issues of coding inside the real-time event routing. Things that look
logical actually aren't. For example, try calling multiple gestures from
a
single script so that they execute sequentially.
It's been a frustrating but educational day here in the lab.
len
From: Joe D Williams [mailto:joedwil@earthlink.net]
That is the question I'm asking:
I recall but I've not
looked in a while
So what else are you looking for if not skin and bones and a
standardized process to animate the features?
I think you owe it to yourself to look there in the spec to see
what you are missing or else show some examples of
challenging issues.
Best Regards,
Joe
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