First note that this is new functionality, unfinished, and only for
testing and feedback purposes. I'll list below what works, and what will
need work still.
This text is also in cms: http://www.blender.org/cms/Ipo_Drivers.680.0.html
An IpoDriver is like an IpoCurve, but instead of a Bezier curve, it allows
to connect a property of other Objects as input for the "channel". For
example, IpoDrivers can be used to have a Shape Key being "driven" by
the rotation of a Bone. Or the RGB colors of a Material get driven by the
XYZ location of an Object.
Editing of Drivers happens in the IpoWindow. Here you can notice that the
channels (right hand window) now have an "active" channel indicator.
To add a Driver, you have to use the "Transform Properties" Panel (Nkey).
Here you can add or remove a Driver to the active channel, and use the
buttons to fill in what kind of relationship you want to establish.
Driver Objects
Note that any Ipo Channel can become driven now, but that only Object
transformation or Pose Bone transformation can be used to become a
Driver now.
At this moment, only the local transformation is taken into account.
For Objects that means the location/rotation/scale value without Parent
transform (as shown in "Transform Properties" Panel for Objects).
For Pose Bones it means that only the Pose transform (changes of rest
position) is Driver information (also as shown in Transform Property
Panel in Pose Mode).
Mapping of Drivers
When an Ipo Channel is "driven", the mapping is by default one-to-one.
It is only restricted by already built-in limits for Channels, like
for Material the "R" value can only range from 0.0 to 1.0.
Also note that when mapping rotations, the actual rotation values
in Ipos are scaled down with a factor 10.0. (180 degrees actually has
in the Ipo system a value of 18.0). This is an ancient year zero
convention in Blender... it is a bit hidden, because the ruler
(vertical as well as horizontal) displays the virtual values correctly.
Only the Properties panel shows the actual value.
When you draw an IpoCurve in a Driven channel, this curve will define
the mapping between the Driver output (horizontal) and Driven input
(vertical, as usual).
A nice new option to use is "Insert one-to-one curve" (press I-key,
or in pulldown menu). This will also zoom the display in exactly to
fill the window, allowing easy edit. If you use this option with
degrees, it will map 180 degree rotation to a range of 1.0 unit.
Live updates
Since the Drivers are integrated in the Ipo system, they will always
be updated whenever an Ipo is evaluated. This happens at least on
frame changes.
For interactive feedback, updates while transforming objects were
added in these cases:
- Driven Object Ipos, by other Objects or Pose Bones
- Driven Shape Key Ipos, by other Objects or Pose Bones
You can also insert Drivers on Action Ipos, but these are only evaluated
on frame change now.
Todo
- Drivers can also get a text button, allowing a 1 line Python script
to be executed.
- Make UI for it a bit less hidden... maybe with visualization in 3D?
- Allowing global transform coordinates as Driver too.
Issues
- renaming Bones won't rename drivers
- (file) appending the Ipo won't append the linked driver Objects
- *Giant* speedup for LMB frame-dragging in ipo/action/nla windows. It was
calling a routine that accessed frontbuffer drawing.... a very old patch
for SGIs even! :)
- Prepared code for support of unlimited Shape keys
- Curve objects didnt draw correct for selection-outline option
User doc: http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Shape_Keys.678.0.html
- The mixed use of "Vertex Key","Key" or "RVK" in Blender was a bit
confusing. Also a 'vertex key' assumes keys per vertex, which actually is
only a single key for the entire shape. The discussions on blender.org
forums all mentioned "Shape" or "Blend Shapes", which I think is an OK
name for a "Vertex Key" in the UI. :)
- Most work was code spaghetti cleanup. Doing shape-keys now nicely goes
via the depgraph and DerivedMesh. That then allows to have different
shapes per object, with the new "Pin" feature.
Objects now define what Shape is shown (ob->shapenr)
- Added a Shape Panel in the Edit buttons with the various options
- Fixed a lot of issues in the IpoWindow, with drawing the channels.
For example, deleting a key-line there caused the entire Relative option to
go wrong, same for moving the lines up/down.
Changing key-line order now reflects in order of channels. The active
Shape is drawn more clear now too.
- Noticed it doesnt work yet for curves/lattice. Need modifier advise!
Ipo.delCurve( curve_name ) deletes named curve from IPO.
Ipocurve.delBezier( int ) deletes point at index from Ipocurve.
Contributed by Ken Hughes (khughes). Thanks!
- now more than 31 channels possible for ipos
- added lotsa new channels all over
- Texture block has ipo now too
- recoded getname_ei functions
(Will ask nathan to give release log info when he's back!)
fixes, including:
- Panel in action window (disabled it, since there's no need for it)
- fix: when action was added to mesh with vertex keys, the action couldn't
be deleted, nor did action window draw key names
- mouse on RVK (key) in Action window: Nkey menu pops as well.
This is not a good candidate to put in Panel, no selection possible here.
- when you change name of RVK in action window, it shows in IpoWindow too
Hard to describe other than by saying:
* Updates, re-thought organisation, etc based on testing
and feedback from 2.30 -> 2.31
* A *lot* of missing entries added
* Toolbox expanded, tidied and more consistent with
pulldown menus
* A lot of functionality hidden behind secondary pupmenu()s is now exposed through arguments, so that
they can be more easily explored from the pulldowns and
toolbox.
This is the reason for the many changed files in this
commit - had to clean up editing functions. Mixing
interface code in the middle of editing functionality is not
good for menus and toolboxes. Please don't do it!
At this stage, the menu and toolbox system (at least for most window spaces) should be just about 'stable' and 'complete'. It's now up to people to keep them up to date :)
(mesh or lattice) RVK IpoCurves: support currently includes:
- RVK sliders. Pressing the little triangle next to
the word 'sliders' in the channel names opens them up.
- NKEY in the area where the key block names are allows the
user to change the name of the keyblock, and the max and min
values of the RVK sliders.
- ability to visualize the keyframes for the IpoCurves when
the object is selected.
- right mouse can be used to select the keys
- border select in the main area can be used to border
select keys.
- AKEY selects/deselects all of the keys
- GKEY and SKEY can be used to grab or scale the key
selections.
- XKEY deletes the selected keys.
- DKEY duplicated the selected keys.
- VKEY, HKEY and shift-HKEY change the bezier handles for
the selected keys.
Please, please, please test!
- drawXXXspace, changeXXXspace, and winqreadXXXspace now receive the area
and spacedata as explicit arguments, allowing them to access private
data w/o going through globals.
- pass the new BWinEvent through to the winqreadXXXspace, allowing future
access to extended event data.
Removed direct calls to winqreadXXXspace to simulate user actions, replaced
by calls to action functions in edit.c or the appropriate handler.
- border select initiated in the channel names border
selects the channels and constraint channels.
- right click or border select initiated in the horizontal
scroll causes blender to select all keys for the selected
frames.
- right click or border select in the vertical scroll
causes blender to select all keys for the channel or
constraint channels that are to the left of the selection.
the action window. Selecting action keys and pressing VKEY,
HKEY, or shift-HKEY modifies the handles of the keys in
the same way it does in the IPO window. (suggested by Lyubomir)
(adding)
#ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
#include <config.h>
#endif
also the Makefile.in's were from previous patch adding
the system depend stuff to configure.ac
Kent
--
mein@cs.umn.edu
