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  • Published 15 Mar 2021

Control states for objects and animations/frames (on/off, true/false) by btns on GUI and script

Want in easy way Control states for objects and animations frame/phase (on/off, true/false). Eg. have doors, windows in house as object. Want made renders in any variants of this as opened/closed, thats why on/off, true/false. Maybe house is weak example, more advanced can be car, as doors, front and rear carrier, lights (on/off), windows up/dn, side mirrors open/closed, roof open as full, half, closed (3states). It's not only for renders, but presentation and work with scene where must test this states and investigates some conflicts (more around mechanical). You can say maybe, exist some addon, but not only car, eg. robot, or special device with strange states.

My idea is to create some of type "universal" modifiers that can control special objects and reffer to some states and nodes (tree) of related values by GUI with list. Let we say that car have many objects and sure, I can find the roof and made some copy as open and closed version, etc. But the search proces for many of this is not comfy - looking some list of my interactive elements/objects with state. Eg. windows can be closed 100% or 20%, 30% and want control some contraints in easy way.

For this advanced case of many variations seeing way where doing other algorithms for script that can be controled by simple GUI, but not like dedicated addon that doing complication with transfer .blend file. Or exist way to integrate this type GUI like addon but in .blend?

I have maybe bad habits for blender from Adobe Animate/Flash, where any object have own timeline and option to control object timeline by script (eg. in Frame 2 go to Frame 5 in object_Door_1, then object_Door_1_window runing animation to close window ). In Flash keyframes can be named (as instance/markers) and called by script (eg. object_Door_1.opened, object_Door_1.Closed ).

This can be something like Collection has own timeline with limited events of scene (Start-End) copied to main TimeLine as some "Belt" of time range of this animation. youtu.be/hustSfd0hCE

Usefull option can be list in some panel whole markers to clik and navigate to special state of any object or collection (frames with states).

Not sure how current is done in blender. Specially around external .blend files - now importing/linking collections giving animation but timeline is empty around keyframe (hard to know where is stared and ended) and don't know how to control this whole scene if need montage.

You can try imagine in this way some character that have many poses like karate/judo, or monrtal combat from game. I try to find som tutorials on YT, but did not find anything around how to good manage this whole.

I don't have big experience with producing long movies/animations in blender, but if You reading this and know some lesson/tutorial where is explained managment of very advanced compilation on time line, let me know, specially around "show" of some products where is many options on this same product. Nice to see a .blend file where is used external assets with anim.

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Development Status: Open

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ManBlender
15 Mar 2021

8 Comments

ManBlender Author

Related with: Property types for objects blender.community/c/rightclickselect/bkhbbc/

ManBlender Author

Can be combined with spreadsheet in some way youtube.com/watch New Blender 2.93 Feature: The Spreadsheet

blender.community/c/rightclickselect/5jhbbc/ VLN - Virtual Logic Nodes - the frames again..

thinsoldier

Probably pose libraries is the best solution I could find. youtube.com/watch

I noticed whenever I import a model intended for a game engine into Blender (I think these are usually .FBX files) they always come in as a single object with a rig. Not only characters but also simple vehicles. All moving parts have a bone an I assume using the Pose Library feature would work for some situations. I don't think there's any way to have timelines within each object unfortunately.

ManBlender Author

* @thinsoldier * Right.. pose lib can help in some way, but can more efficeint will be if by this solution can be run part of animation in timeline in each required object. This is feature what I'm looking. BTW funny guy on movie and looks have right about this fkn buton : )

thinsoldier

The Blender Game Engine maybe had a similar feature: docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/game_engine/logic/states.html

ManBlender Author

* @thinsoldier * I try this time ago with a car animation and "played" inside Blender, and it's ok, but again looking GUI like Pose Library to control some elements. Looks must prepare own part of GUI for this type BGE or as uniwersal addon.

thinsoldier

TL;DR

"where any object have own timeline and option to control object timeline by script"
"something like Collection has own timeline"

Something along those lines has been proposed before. We can link a collection and move it in 3 dimensions (xyz) but we can't affect the 4th dimension (time) of animations that exist within the linked collection. If we could it would open up so many possibilities.

ManBlender Author

* @thinsoldier * "but we can't affect the 4th dimension (time) of animations that exist within the linked collection." puting object on timeline like sound can solve this type problem with adaption lenght of object belt as time of animation, but this is expected feature

"If we could it would open up so many possibilities." thats right.. just blender have limitation around scene

Good to hear that this type idea existed. Hope can be implemented in future.

I'm really curious how blenders users solving long movies in timeline without this.