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Author Topic: Confused about precise controlling the animation range of FP.  (Read 1779 times)

cc8boy

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Hi iToosoft,
 I'm confused about precise controlling the animation range of the Forest object in "Random from Map" mode.
Here is my test scene. I want to make the range of animation of the Forest object between 100f to 200f.
The animation of the sample object start in 200f.
There is only a pure black and white checker map on the surface.
The Time Offset Value is 25. The Sample count is 5 now. As the help file said, the five start frames of the sample object should be 0f, 25f, 50f, 75f, 100f.
According to my calculations, the range of animation of Forest object should be from 100f to 200f. But in fact, the range of animation of Forest object is from 80f to 140f. Why ?
And Please check and fix my scene in MAX2012 format.
MAX2012 64bit FP 4.3.7
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cc8boy

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Re: Confused about precise controlling the animation range of FP.
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2015, 01:19:01 PM »
Today I opened the scene, I found the animation range of this forest object was 80f to 200f.
The start time of the last sample were expected to be 100f. The forest object should start the animtaion at 100f. But it start from 80f. I have no idea what was going on. Please help me.
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Michal Karmazín

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Re: Confused about precise controlling the animation range of FP.
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2015, 05:11:15 PM »
Hi,

First of all, let me mention, that your source object animation is performed within one frame (there are just two key frames at 200 and 201), which is by far not ideal.

Anyway, as explained in our detailed Animating in Forest Pack tutorial under the Set the starting frame with a map part: "The grayscale range is equally divided by the Count value with the first frame represented by black and the last represented by white. When the colour exceeds a threshold, the next frame is displayed."

Because of that, in case of using the Checker map (only 100% black and 100% white values) I would suggest you to lower the Count to 2 and readjust the Time Offset to 100 (please check attached sample scene "150401_Random_from_Map_Checker_iToo"). In my example the source object animation starts at frame 150 and ends at frame 200, so by setting the Time Offset to 50 it'll be played within Forest object in desired frame range 100 - 200. As you can double-check when using any other map with values between 100% black and 100% white (like the Gradient map as shown in the other scene), than to archive similar effect you'll need to set Counter to 2 +1 = 3 (now the interpolation needs to considered).

In the second scene "150401_Random_from_Map_Gradient_iToo" I've modified the Time Offset (set to 5) & Count (set to 11) values to show another possible way and hope that clears it up better.

The scheme of this work-flow would be following: If you want your Forest object animation to end at frame 200 adjust the end frame of your source object animation to the same frame. To play the whole animation between desired frame range (200 - 100 = 100 frames), the source animation should ideally take a half time (100 / 2 = 50 frames) - item that'll start first will end in the half and item that'll the last item will perform from the half of frame range till the end. Than the Count will handle its "steps" (as mentioned before for grayscale maps the value should be Steps + 1). Then the Time Offset will handle the animation start (Time Offset x (Count - 1) = animation length). Once adjusted this way you move your source object animation range freely to readjust the end of animation if needed.

These principles applied to your "one frame animation" are shown in the third sample scene "150401_Random_from_Map_Trigger_iToo". If this should start at frame 100, right values would be Time Offset set to 10 & Count to 11, having set "start" key frame at 199 and the "end" key at 200.

Regarding the problem in your scene I would suggest you to prepare the source object animation once again more carefully. Hope that helps.

Kind regards,

cc8boy

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Re: Confused about precise controlling the animation range of FP.
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2015, 06:34:38 PM »
I tried to do my scene in NTSC framerate (30fps). I can control the time range of forest pro pack correctly.
I must make my scene in PAL framerate (25fps). The start time always be weird. The scene you uploaded are all in 30 fps.

I tried to scale the Timeline to match the same frame numbers in PAL 25fps. But the Time Offset value become 34.
The length of animation will not match the result of (Time Offset x (Count - 1) = animation length) in PAL framerate.
It seems the Time offset value is weird in PAL framerate.

Can you make your scene that you uploaded in PAL version ? Many thanks.
« Last Edit: April 02, 2015, 10:33:11 AM by cc8boy »
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cc8boy

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Re: Confused about precise controlling the animation range of FP.
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2015, 01:32:40 PM »
Dear developers of iToosoft,
       I must figure my problem out as soon as possible.Help me , please, please. I do my test all day along. This formula “(Time Offset x (Count - 1) = animation length)” seems not work in PAL(25fps)framerate mode. :'(
I also found that the final rendered was different from what I saw in the viewport in my large scene  in PAL framerate. It seems the viewport and the final render are not synchronous.
« Last Edit: April 02, 2015, 05:58:13 PM by cc8boy »
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Paul Roberts

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Re: Confused about precise controlling the animation range of FP.
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2015, 04:08:14 PM »
Hi,

I'm looking into this problem and I'm seeing the same results as you at the moment. I can't quite explain why yet, but we will continue to investigate.

Meanwhile if a deadline is looming you could try an alternate method using Frame by Map. To do this create your two-frame animation on the source object between frames 0-1. Then in Forest's animation rollout Activate Frame From Map and set the Start value to 0 and the End value to 1.

You can now control the trigger by animating the map itself. Black will display frame 0, and white will display frame 1. This will work whatever the frame rate and you can easily adjust the trigger time by moving the maps keyframes around. I've attached a sample file for you to take a look at.

I hope that helps.

Many thanks,

Paul
Paul Roberts
iToo Software

cc8boy

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Re: Confused about precise controlling the animation range of FP.
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2015, 05:50:05 PM »
I can't use Frame by Map mode. Because I use the Cached objects as the sample objects. It's too hard to make all the trees growing in normal speed. They are not simple boxes in my real project. Maybe I should give up using forest pro to make the growing tree animation for now. My project scenes are all in PAL framerate. I hope you can fix this problem as soon as possible.
« Last Edit: April 02, 2015, 05:51:50 PM by cc8boy »
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iToo

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Re: Confused about precise controlling the animation range of FP.
« Reply #7 on: April 06, 2015, 04:16:07 PM »
We've found the problem: there was a bug in one of the functions which processes the time units.
Apologies for the inconveniences. I just sent you a custom patch by e-mail.
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software