IllusionCatalyst - IC.Mime

IC.Mime

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Animation Preview

Creates a preview animation of current viewport, of active frames span and loads it in the Ram Player.
The temporary preview file can be found in the directory: ..\Documents and Settings\<User Folder>\My Documents\3dsmax\previews\quickpreview.avi (default installation path for Windows XP)

	When enabled, hides everything but geometry during the shooting of the animation preview.
	Starts the animation preview shooting.

Keys Properties

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Get / Set Keys Tangents

These functions allow to copy Key tangents properties and selectively paste them to other Keys.

Get Key Tangents

Stores selected Key tangents settings. Only one Key must be selected in order to get its properties.

Set Keys In-Tangents

Source Key (left) and target Key with in-tangent set (right)

Sets selected Keys in-tangent properties to the ones stored.

Set Keys Tangents

Source Key (left) and target Key with tangents set (right)

Sets selected Keys in- and out-tangents properties to the ones stored.

Set Keys Out-Tangents

Source Key (left) and target Key with out-tangent set (right)

Sets selected Keys out-tangent properties to the ones stored.

Flatten Keys Tangents

Flatten functions allow to selectively make Keys tangents flat.

Flatten Keys In-Tangents

Original Key (left) and after setting its in-tangent to flat (right)

Flattens selected keys in-tangents.
Unlinks in- and out-tangents editing.

Flatten Keys Tangents

Original Key (left) and after setting its tangents to flat (right)

Flattens selected Keys tangents.
Links in- and out-tangents editing.

Flatten Keys Out-Tangents

Original Key (left) and after setting its out-tangent to flat (right)

Flattens selected Keys out-tangents.
Unlinks in- and out-tangents editing.

Match Keys Tangents / Values

Match functions allow to selectively match or average Keys tangents and values.

Match Keys Out-Tangents

	Original Key (left) and after out-tangent matching (right)	Edits selected Keys in-tangents to match out-tangents. Links in- and out-tangents editing.
	Original Key (left) and after out-tangent matching (right)	If last Key is selected, matches the first Key out-tangent.

Match Keys In-Tangents

	Original Key (left) and after in-tangent matching (right)	Edits selected keys out-tangents to match in-tangents. Links in- and out-tangents editing.
	Original Key (left) and after in-tangent matching (right)	If first Key is selected, matches the last Key in-tangent.

Average / Match Keys Values

	Original Keys (left) and after averaging their values (right)	Averages selected keys value.
	First Key matching last Key (left) and vice versa (right)	When only first or last Key is selected, matches the value of the opposite extreme Key.

Flip Keys Tangents / by Values / by Timings

Flip functions allow to flip Keys tangents and values by their average values or timings.

Flip Keys Tangents

Original Keys (left) and after flipping their tangents (right)

Flips selected Keys in- and out-tangents, for each Key relative to itself.

Flip Keys by Values

	Original Keys (left) and after flipping by average value (right)	Flips selected Keys values and tangents relative to their average value.
	Original Key (left) and after flipping by zero value (right)	When only one key is selected, its value and tangents are flipped relative to zero.

Flip Keys by Timings

Original Keys (left) and after flipping by average time (right)

Flips selected Keys values and tangents relative to their average time.

Edit Keys

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Edit Keys section is a powerful tool to copy or cut one or more keys from one or multiple tracks, and freely paste them to one or more tracks of the same or a different object. It is organized in four areas to manage the process. By composing the conditional sentences with selection buttons, almost everything can be accomplished.

How to use Edit Keys tool:

Select Keys to copy or cut from one or more tracks.
Set statement about destination tracks.
Set statement about destination frame.
Set statement about how to manage existing Keys in target tracks frame span.
If "to Selected Tracks" setting is active, select destination track.
If "at Current Frame" setting is active, move the time slider to destination frame.
Paste Keys.

Copy / Cut / Paste Keys

The Edit Keys operative section. The three buttons manage the operations of copy, cut and paste Keys. To reduce mistakes, only one paste can be performed for each copy or cut operation, and every time the Keys buffer is cleaned.

	Copies current Keys selection.
	Cuts current Keys selection.
	Pastes current Keys selection. If nothing has been copied or cut, this function is disabled.

To Tracks

Edit Keys destination track selection section.

	Makes the Keys to be pasted to the actually selected tracks. This setting is available when source Keys are cut or copied from a single track.
	Makes the Keys to be pasted to actually selected node tracks matching source node tracks. Only Keys of matching tracks are copied and a warning is given if the match isn't complete.

At Frame

Edit Keys destination frame selection section.

	Makes the Keys to be pasted starting from the current frame. If Keys from multiple tracks are copied, the first in time is pasted to the current frame, followed by the others at relative distance to their respective tracks.
	Makes the Keys to be pasted at the same frame they are copied from.

Keys in Span

The Edit Keys existing Keys management section.

	Deletes all Keys in the target frames span. The frame span is determined by the frame distance between first and last copied or cut Keys.
	Writes new Keys in the target frames span, but doesn't delete existing ones. If a pasted Key should be written at the same frame of an existing one, the old one is overwritten by the new one.
	Writes new Keys in the target frames span, but doesn't delete existing ones. If a pasted Key should be written at the same frame of an existing one, the old one is preserved and the new one isn't pasted.

Wrap Paste Tracks

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Wrap Paste Tracks section provides functions to copy and paste full frames span from one node to another with additional features to simplify the creation of cycles by automatically adjusting extreme Keys and offsetting pasted Keys. Keys shifted by offset out of span, wrap around and are pasted before the offset thus creating a closed cycle.

How to use Wrap Paste Tracks tool:

Select Source Node and Target Node.
Select span Start and End frame, set any needed offset, or bring the spinner to Start frame value for an even copy.
Set any needed fixing in Source Node tracks: timings, values, tangents.
Select tracks in Target Node whose Keys values need to be inverted and Get them.
Select tracks in Source Node to Wrap Paste, or Wrap Paste all tracks.

Nodes

Wrap Paste Tracks nodes management section.

	Picks a source node to copy tracks from.
	Picks a target node to paste tracks to.
	Removes the current object from corresponding node picker button.

Span

Wrap Paste Tracks span and offset frame management section. Start Frame and End Frame spinners determines the span to be copied from source node and pasted to target, while Offset Frame spinner sets if the pasted Keys should be offset by a certain amount of time.
The default setting could be a walk cycle where a foot step from contact to contact position lasts 33 frames and can be copy/pasted to the other foot with the offset of half step at frame 17.

	Sets the span starting frame to copy from and paste to.
	Sets the offset frame of pasted keys.
	Sets the span ending frame to copy from and paste to.

Offset Frame: 13 (shift: 3 frames)

Offset Frame: 16 (shift: 6 frames)

Offset Frame: 19 (shift: 9 frames)

Offset Frame: 22 (shift: 12 frames)

Offset Frame: 25 (shift: 15 frames)

Offset Frame: 28 (shift: 18 frames)

Wrap Paste Tracks samples, with fix source Keys timings, values and tangents active.

White track: Source Track
Red track: Target Track

Start Frame: 10
End Frame: 30

Fix Source Extremes

Wrap Paste Track fix source extreme Keys management section.

Representation of an animation track in the source node. The span set for this Wrap Paste goes from 10 to 30. The following imagesHTML display the effect of different kinds of fixing this track in the Wrap Paste process.

	Delete Keys out of span off (left) and on (right)	Fixing timings active. Keys are added at defined span extreme frames if not present: at the same value of last available key if out of animation curve, or at actual animation curve value at the extreme frame.
	Delete Keys out of span off (left) and on (right)	Fixing timings + Fixing values active. Keys added or present at span extreme frames have their value averaged.
	Delete Keys out of span off (left) and on (right)	Fixing timings + Fixing values + Fixing tangents active. Keys added or present at span extreme frames have their value averaged and tangents matched. The span pasted is closed and smooth.

Deletes source node Keys out of defined span if present, before wrap paste action.

Target Tracks to Invert

Wrap Paste Tracks target tracks to invert management section. When pasting tracks from one side to the other of a symmetrical character, one or more tracks need to have their Keys values inverted. This section allows the management of such tracks. They must be specified before the pasting action.

	Makes the actually selected tracks to have Keys values inverted in the wrap paste process.
	Clears the actual selection of tracks whose Keys values have to be inverted in the wrap paste process.
	Displays a popup providing information on actual selection of tracks whose Keys values have to be inverted in the wrap paste process.

Paste

Wrap Paste Tracks operative section.

	All source node tracks will be pasted if corresponding ones are found in target object, following the settings specified in previous sections, such as frame span, fixing source extreme Keys and inverting the values of specified tracks Keys.
	Only actually selected source node tracks will be pasted if corresponding ones are found in target object, following the settings specified in previous sections, such as frame span, fixing source extreme Keys and inverting the values of specified tracks Keys.

Node Out of Range Types

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Constant

Sets all selected nodes tracks out-of-range types to constant.

Cycle

Sets all selected nodes tracks out-of-range types to cycle.

Ping Pong

Sets all selected nodes tracks out-of-range types to ping pong.

Relative Repeat

Sets all selected nodes tracks out-of-range types to relative repeat.

Troubleshooting

When pasting full tracks in Wrap Paste mode, sometimes source Rotation values are wrongly interpreted as radiants and pasted as degrees or vice versa leading to out of range results. Please try wrap pasting values again until you get consistent results. This issue is under investigation, but doesn't seem to be a script coding error.