RecordNavigationPath |
MaxScript 0.5.0 for 3ds max 7 (2004/10/16) |
Copyright © 2004 by Borislav Petrov |
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WHAT DOES IT DO? |
RecordNavigationPath (RecNavPath, RNP) allows you to record,
save and load viewport animations, especially when using the new
Walkthrough Mode in 3ds max 7. |
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FEATURES |
- The text field on top of the dialog lets
you specify a file to output the recording to.
Default is "..\Previews\path_recording.cnp", You can type in a path
manually, too.
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- Press the Get... button to select the file
and path.
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- There are two recording options:
EventDriven and Polled. They can be selected from the drop-down
list next to the START RECORDING button.
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- EventDriven Recording will only
record changes to the camera and ignore pauses. This means that if you
move the camera, then pause for 5 minutes to drink tea and go back and
rotate the camera, the pause will not be recorded. This also means that
a large number of samples will be recorded, as many as the issued
viewport redraw callbacks.
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- Polled Recording will record
everything that happens, including pauses. It will record at a fixed
frame rate identical to the scene frame rate set in the Time
Configuration dialog, by default 30 samples per second.
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- Information about your choices and feedback
from the tool can be monitored in the listbox in the middle of the dialog.
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- To start recording, select a viewport and
press START RECORDING. The button will change to STOP RECORDING.
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- To stop recording, uncheck the STOP
RECORDING button.
If you switch to a different viewport while recording is on, it will be
disabled automatically. If you close the dialog for some reason, the
recording will also be disabled and the file will be closed before exit.
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- Currently there are two animation import
options: Realtime Animation and
All Samples.
When recording using the EventDriven Recording option, a large number
of samples will be saved. Every sample will have a time stamp in
milliseconds.
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- If you want to create an animation that
runs in realtime (using the current FPS settings of the scene),
select Realtime Animation. Keyframes will be created only on full
frames, all other samples will be discarded.
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- If you want to create an animation that
has all samples recorded in the file, select the All Samples
option. A keyframe will be created from every sample, completely
ignoring the time stamps info. Depending on the actual redraw rate
during recording, the animation can run longer or shorter...
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- To import a file, press the IMPORT
ANIMATION... button. A file dialog will
let you pick a .cnp file (currently stored by default in the \Previews
directory).
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- If nothing is selected when importing,
or more than one object is selected, a new free
camera will be created and animated using the information from the
selected file. The camera will be automatically selected AND placed in
the currently active viewport.
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- If a single camera or ANY OTHER scene
node is selected, the animation will be applied to that object. (but you
will be prompted first so you can still create a new camera instead).
This lets you record a viewport but apply the keyframes to something
else, like a Dummy, a Teapot, a Light etc.
The imported animation will always start on frame 0. The animation
segment end time will be set to the last frame imported if the current
segment is too short.
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- Note that you can create a spline path out of
the keyframes using the
Motion tab>Trajectory>Convert To menu. Since a spline does not record
rotations correctly, I decided to stay away from spline creation and record
the complete transformation matrix.
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- Some basic settings of the Walkthrough mode
incl. Level, Step Size and Sensitivity are exposed as controls in the
dialog. You can also enable Walkthrough mode using the Enable Walkthrough
button.
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- You can record ANY viewport including
Perspective views and Orthographic views.
NOTE that Importing an Ortho viewport (or example Front or Top)
animation as Camera animation will contain only the Pan but not the zoom
info.
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HOW DO I INSTALL IT? |
- Download the MS file, save under \Scripts
- Unzip to \Scripts
- In 3ds max 7, go to MAXScript>Run
Script... and select the file
- Go to Customize>Customize User
Interface>Toolbars, locate "Record Viewport Navigation" under "Bobo_s Tools" category and drag to
a Toolbar.
- Press the new button to open the dialog.
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DOWNLOAD |
Download
RecordNavigationPath v.0.5.0 |