FRGMENTARIUM 3DICKULUS - Catmull-Rom spline paths ! camera/parameter keyframes !

[3dickulus]

yes, tnx again, I did use that but the result wasn't the desired result so I tried 0.0 = hit 1.0 = miss and that doesn't give the mask you would expect either, give it a try, the GL draw commands are in the spline obj

edit: I'll send you the modified DisplayWidget.cpp so you don't have to do any typing 

[vinz]

hey vinz, you mean like this...

<a href="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=70625008" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=70625008</a>

easy to attach the focal plane to the target because it's already moving on a spline
and makes sense to follow target with observer focus but
Aperture and Details will need a control scheme that gets the desired effect and makes sense

hm... back to occlusion

Hey Dick !
An autofocus, cool ! for what i've understood u have linked focalplane to target parameters.
Yes that's a great improvement... it will be usefull for sure.

i'm not sure about what i will said , but i think the camera target is not always where we want to focus( let me know if i'm wrong but camera target is here to give a direction to the camera, and this direction is not always pointing on the object, right?), is the focal plane still stay non animatable by himself?

anyway, Thanks for that autofocus ahhahahaha ! Great Work  
is this code on github?

[3dickulus]

hm.. I guess that is auto focus  not what you were looking for?

uhm... the focal plane will always be perpendicular to view direction and target will always be center of view no matter where you look so how else can you animate it? it's either closer or farther away, the only limitation is the focal plane max distance is set at 5.0 but that can be changed and you will have to be careful about target placement when creating key frames unless AutoFocus is off.

[vinz]

Hey Dick
I was looking for interpolating focalplane values between each keyframe, like others camera value (a linear interpolation would be enough imo ) at each keyframe you adjust your focalplane value et voila !
but no problem this autofocus like, is really a cool thingy ... i'll check the github to give a try to this new one

... you will have to be careful about target placement when creating key frames unless AutoFocus is off.

I've to admit without a try it's hard say if my option is the best one ! but if we can switch between autofocus on and manual keyframe ... it's the Best !
but i don't want to ask you more ... what you are doing is pretty coooool  

Glad to see that you are evolving in camera path curve object occlusion  does it will work only with defaut Raytracer ?


EDIT: I've check github, it seems the autofocus is not there  perhaps you don't want to share a too young code ...let me know if i can give a try

[3dickulus]

at each key frame you can adjust the focalplane by placing the target farther or closer,
what I'm saying is, that's it, it's done, with the focalplane attached to the target you can move it where ever you need to at each key frame,
I think there is no more to it than that.
(not in git-hub yet still have to compensate for my bruteforce method and make it friendly and compliant)

hopefully my next git-hub update will include AutoFocus and path Occlusion, hmm need a toggle button somewhere for AF.

everything I'm doing should work with all Fragmentarium raytracers

[vinz]

HAHAHAH EXCELLENTT! !!!! sorry if my lack of English ...  
i can't wait to put my hand on this  

....  hmm need a toggle button somewhere for AF.

i suppose this is software button so it cannot be on parameters tab right? so why not to add this one on the animation panel near keyframe listbox ? or why not a checkbox instead a button probably easier to place.

[3dickulus]

yes, I think the AnimController is a good candidate but I want it to activate when you apply a keyframe preset in the render view too not just when animating

[3dickulus]

posted some changes to the git-hub fork

now draws spline paths for camera and target (still no occlusion but still helpful) Fragmentarium uses 3 buffers, backbuffer(ID=1), previewbuffer(ID=2) and that gets drawn on the current defaultbuffer(ID=0) afaict, occlusion is still elusive, I've gone so far as to write a mask from the fragment code and then bitBlit the depthbuffer into the current depthbuffer and then draw the splines, didn't work but I'm learning.
Syntopia wasn't kidding when he said occlusion would be difficult in Fragmentarium.

added an AutoFocus toggle to the Raytracer tab (3D.frag) works when selecting a keyframe in the animation controller or from the presets list, and a tutorial frag that uses this feature

caveat: I noticed with the "time" variable that it is not enough to declare it in fragment code, it has to actually get used or the compiler optimizes it out, the AutoFocus variable is declared in 3D.frag but not used anywhere in the GLSL code, the widget it creates in the raytracer tab is accessed from GUI C++ code, so far this doesn't seem to cause any problems but for some odd toggle action (may have to click twice to enable but that could just be my hacked access testing method)

[3dickulus]

taking a break from occlusion, occluding myself? I managed to cobble together a parameter morphing thing-a-ma-jig that applies attack, sustain and decay in 40 different ways, right now is just a test, this works on any single value parameter

TODO: allow start and end frames (duration and placement)
           multiple occurrences per value parameter (ideally)

<a href="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=71036666" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=71036666</a>

WOW I love Qt!

[cKleinhuis]

awesome work, such easing effect can realy lead to funny stuff, the bouncing can be used to actually let something bounce on the floor

i have to ask, because i still can not check it out for myself, is it now based on default parameters interpolating, or do you create keyframes on the fly while editing ?!?!

[3dickulus]

for the eye, target, up path I find it's easiest to surf around saving keys as you go, more where you want to go slow, fewer where you want to go fast then once you have a nice fly-about plotted you can start morphing the params, I've been testing this since I got it working and it seems like a very stable method with minimal impact on the render engine

for the parameter morphing I have just implemented a very basic functionality of selecting any single float parameter and applying one in/out transition over the length of the animation, however this is just a proof of concept (not in git-hub yet) and I hope it can evolve into something like being able to set start/end frames with multiple instances of different curves for one variable anywhere in the time line and then maybe I'll work on multiple variable transitions.

I can just imagine some of the warped and wiggley mighty morphing mandelbulbs that are going to start crawling around  

[3dickulus]

ok, patched up a few things, no save yet but very useable...

*** Easing Curve Tutorial for current git-hub 3Dickulus version ***

Use with one of the files from "Tutorials" 30 or 31

1> Select the "Power" variable in the "Mandelbulb" tab
2> Press "F7" or select the menu item "Edit->Add Easing Curve"
3> Select a nice curve.
4> Change the start/finish values (will be set from previous value or they will both be set as start value, start must != finish)
5> Change the first/last frame values (will be set from previous value or they will both be set as 1, first must != last)
6> Click "Ok" button

To change a curve set previously use the same steps as above and you will be prompted to "Apply" these changes, "Discard" the current settings or "Cancel" do nothing.
Warning: "Discard" deletes the easing curve settings for this variable.

The Easing curve is now applied to the variable you selected and will be active for the frame range you specified.
To see the results click the "Animation" button and hit "Play" or drag the slider.

That's it

I'm thinking about storing the EasingCurve settings as comments in the preset, the above might look like...

Code:

/// Power:SineCurve:43:1.0:8.96:40:200

inserted right before the "Power" variable in the default preset, or maybe in a file formatted for EDL compatibility used to key sound or other post render video effects

NOTE: in this version of Fragmentarium it is expected that a frag file has ONLY a default preset and keyframe presets along with your fragment code that uses the "time" variable. If this variable is not actually used it gets optimized out by the compiler resulting in no animation ability, it is not enough to simply declare this variable, it must get referenced as well.

[3dickulus]

Since the last update made everything I hacked go out the window   and forced me to start almost from scratch I have removed the github fork of v0.9.2 that I had created rather than trying to patch it up, if need be, I will create a fork from 1.0 release candidate. The source code for v0.9.51 a.k.a. v1.0b with all of the functionality mentioned in this thread plus a couple of minor tweaks is available to anyone who wants it, given enough interest I will host a zip file on my webserver.

I am currently working on getting a windows box setup with a development environment so that I might be able to provide a win.exe in the future.

Current Status:

• Stops playing/rendering at the end of animation. (not sure about Win but on my linux box it wouldn't stop when time reached MaxTime)
  
• Saves animation "length" as app setting so it gets set where you left it from the last run.
  
• Saves render "frames per second" as app setting so it gets set where you left it from the last run.
  
• Uses seconds:frames to track rendering instead of floating point time. I don't care about the frames in between the 25 fps that I need for animation.
  
• Setting and saving camera spline path controlpoints as "KeyFrame" presets. Edit->Menu item or hotkey F8
  (auto increment works properly now)
  
• Setting and saving In/Out easing curves for any/all single "Float" parameter.  Edit->Menu item or hotkey F7
  (saved in params file or preset and in the .frag when auto generating "<someName>.png Files")
  
• Shows spline paths and controlpoints when in Progressive/Stop mode.
  (still not quite right but definitely helps me as an animator/artist)
  
• Camera follows spline path when in Animation/Play mode.
  
• Camera follows spline path when in Animation/Stop mode when the time slider is moved.
  
• When in Progressive/Stop mode the "view vector" connects points between the Eye and Target paths relative to frame number when the time slider is moved.
  
• Displays current rendered frame when saving animation to disk so that if something isn't set right or didn't hookup the way you expected you can stop that 45000 frame animation and fix it without waiting until it's finished 8 hours later.  (depending on your hardware)
  
• Tests for user added AutoFocus checkbox in Raytracer tab, focalplane tracks target when enabled.
  (see tutorial 31)
  
• Ticks on TimeSlider representing keyframes

*********************************************************************
* 08/28/13
* Moved to Qt 5.1.1 added MinGW build
* glu library dependancy removed
* now uses QMatrix4x4 perspective and lookat
*********************************************************************

Bon Apetite    v1.0b hacked !

 Source Code Modified from v1.0

 Windows Executable Compiled against Qt 5.1.1 with MinGW 4.8.1 on a Windows 7 box.

[vinz]

Great to see how deep that your work/idea is evolving
keep going 3dickulus

[3dickulus]

tnx vinz, I couldn't have done it without you  
feel free to compile a win version and spread it around, I still haven't put together a win box for compiling, got some parts together, need an HD and monitor and I'll be up and running.

edit: compiled win exe link posted above