ScrubbyDoo
MaxScript Beta 0.1.4 (07/18/2003) for 3ds max 5+
Copyright (c) 2003 by Borislav Petrov |
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SHORT
DESCRIPTION |
ScrubbyDoo is
a nearly complete rewrite of the old Scrubing MatchMover script for Max R3 from
1999.
Its main purpose is the caching and realtime
scrubbing of background animations in 3ds max.
In addition, this new version got a really stupid name ;o) |
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VERSION
0.1.2 SCREENSHOT |
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VERSION
HISTORY |
-
v.0.1.4- 07/18/2003
-
Customize Colors and Appearance incl. Marker Width options.
Fixed a bug when switching Caches while scrubbing in Freehand mode.
-
v.0.1.3- 07/18/2003
-
Detects and caches newly loaded background animations.
Changed cache from .BMP to .TGA - much faster to build, much less storage space
required!
Finally respects all End conditions and settings in the Viewport Background
dialog.
-
v.0.1.2- 07/17/2003
- First Public Version
-
v.0.1.0- 07/15/2003
- Internal Rewrite
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FIRST
STEPS |
- ScrubbyDoo is implemented as a
single floating dialog opened by a MacroScript.
- It provides a large scrubbing field with a
vertical line for each frame in the current animation segment.
- When you move the mouse over the scrubbing
area, a green marker will be displayed, including the frame number.
- Click and hold the left mouse button to scrub
the timeline - the marker will turn red.
- Release the mouse - the last (current) frame
will be shown by a blue marker incl. frame number.
- To jump to a specific frame, move the mouse
until the desired frame number is displayed, then click and release the left
mouse button - the blue marker will appear, and the time slider will jump to
the new position.
- While scrubbing with left mouse button down,
the cached background images will be shown dynamically in the viewports.
Quality of the cache will depend on the resolution used and on the settings
of the graphics card driver. Use OpenGL with Linear filtering for best
quality.
- When you release the mouse button after
scrubbing, the original background will be restored immediately.
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FREEHAND
MODE |
- The "Freehand Mode" allows you to
scrub through the animation without holding the left mouse button.
- To enter Freehand Mode, either press the
small checkbutton to the right of the 3 cache status lamps, or right-click
the floater and select "Setup>Toggle Freehand Mode" from the
context menu - the checkbutton will turn blue.
- Click the scrubbing field once to enter
scrubbing mode. After releasing the mouse button, you can move the mouse
left and right over the scrubbing field without holding the mouse button -
the animation will follow. Click again to exit the scrubbing mode. Toggle
the Freehand mode again to return to the default.
- The state of the Freehand mode will be stored
in the INI file and will be used next time you launch the utility.
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THE
CACHE |
- When the floater is first opened, any
existing background animation assigned via Views>Viewport Background will
be cached to disk using the Previews folder defined in 3ds max.
- The default caching format is 256x256 single
TGA files (uncompressed).
- Only the frames needed to display the
animation in the current scene animation segment will be actually cached.
Should the animation segment change during a scrubbing session,
additional frames will be cached when needed.
- If frames with the same name, number and
resolution are located in the Previews directory, they will be reused
immediately. This means that automatic caching will happen just once for a
sequence unless you decide to delete the frames or force an update using the
ScrubbyDoo Cache menu (see below) .
- All 3 supported resolutions - 128, 256 and
512 pixels - will be stored in separate files. Once created, you can switch
between resolutions without recalculating the caches. ScrubbyDoo will
remember the last resolution used and will reuse it next time you start it.
- The 3 lamps in the upper left corner
represent the 3 cache resolutions - 128x128, 256x256 and 512x512. The color
of the lamp will represent the state of the cache - red means no files
available, yellow means caching in progress, green means cache is available.
The respective lamp will light up when the corresponding cache size is
selected.
- The 128x128 mode is very low quality
but very fast. It should be used on slow machines with old graphics cards,
or for very fast previews.
- The 256x256 mode gives fair
quality and speed and should be used most of the time.
- The 512x512 mode is very slow to
update but yields quality similar to the one of the original background
display in 3ds max. In most cases, you will have hard time telling it apart
from the original background when releasing the mouse after scrubbing.
Recommended only when a lot of detail is needed.
- If you delete all caches using the
"Cache>Clear Disk Caches" described below and try to scrub
through the animation, the cache will be rebuilt automatically.
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MANUAL
CACHE CONTROLS |
- You can force a rebuild of each cache
size by right-clicking the floater and selecting "Cache>Force
Rebuild..." options from the right-click menu. Existing cache files for
the current animation and resolution will be deleted first, then
recalculated.
- Using "Cache>Cache..." will load
the respective resolution and recalculate only missing frames.
- "Cache>Clear Disk Caches" will
delete ALL 3 resolutions for the current background animation.
- Finally, restarting the utility will also
rebuild the cache in case any frames are missing.
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SETUP
AND ABOUT MENU ITEMS |
- "Setup>Background Settings..."
will open the standard Views>Viewport Background dialog.
- "Setup>Toggle Freehand Mode"
will check/uncheck the Freehand button in the UI.
- "About>Help" will open the
default Internet Browser and load this page.
- "About>About" will display
version and copyright info.
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POSITION
AND SIZE |
- You can freely move and resize the floater -
both position and size will be stored in the INI file under /Plugcfg and
reused next time you launch the utility.
- Only the width of the resized floater will be
stored - once you move the mouse over the blue scrubbing field, the height
will be restored to factory defaults, while the width will be set to the new
size.
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KNOWN
BUGS AND LIMITATIONS |
- If the background animation is very
high-resolution, releasing the mouse after scrubbing could result in a
slowdown when restoring the original background. An option to not restore to
original background after scrubbing might be added in a later version..
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PUBLIC
BETA DOWNLOAD |
ScrubbyDoo
v.0.1.4 - Current Version |
INSTALLATION |
- Download the file
- Unzip to your \Scripts directory,
- Select MAXScript>Run from the main menu,
run the file.
- Go to Customize UI...>Toolbar, select
the script from "Bobo_s Tools" Category
- Drag to a toolbar.
- Press the button to launch the Scrubbing
floater.
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Copyright
© 2003 by Borislav Petrov |