Digital Workshop

Well, never got any help with the Plexus problem, but might as well try again.

First, if anyone has a tip on a really useful animation program I'd like to hear about it. I've tried Photoshop, Animation Shop, a few other downloads and a thorough search of the web and this technology has suffered terribly since the great days of Deluxe Paint 15 years ago. No wonder one sees so few...

Not a thing I tried was as good as the tools already in Opus...which I thought were rather basic until I looked for something better! Anyway, I am trying to do a "simple" animation of a telescopic boom forklift, dealing first with simple boom elevation. Getting the boom to elevate is no problem using a simple script line (Frame_boom.Rotate(65, 5, false)), and reversing is no problem using the same. However, the forks must stay level and, of course, at least appear to be attached to the boom. Getting that to happen is beyond me in script, though easy using a path. Even syncing them is not that hard. But reversing is something I cannot figure out.

A script for the forks to maintain a fixed orientation along the curved path would work, but it's beyond me.

Hmmm...them help files actually have help in them. Figuring out the script to get the above sync'd was not so hard.

Of course, that is just the beginning...

Dave

Mallette,
I think I've seen some open source stuff some time ago that emulated 2D CAD and mechanical animations. Don't recall the specifics, but if you search and check their javascripts probably would get some idea.

Also, some time ago I found AnFx did some cool simple animations. But I came to the conclusion it was a limited scope product and have since purchased Opus. Ultimately much better control.

For your crane and boom, it seems you're using Frames around objects which I found a useful 'control' of configuration of objects. I think Opus has the means and it is just a matter of figuring out the math.

An open source program, The GIMP, has animation features.

You might like to visit here to see if they are what you want:
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Advanced_Animations/

The GIMP does everything that I need, but my needs are simple.

Thanks for the tips. Will check out GIMP.

As soon as I can find some moldy old Amiga head to help me archive the drive on my 1996 vintage SimStation, I intend to resurrect it for animation duty. It is rather a testament to how well Bill Gates statement back about Window for Workgroups 3.15 that he intended to "...change the way America computes." actually came to pass that one cannot do these simple tasks any more. Long lost nicetites like an "alias" command to make any drive relative rather than absolute, color cycling for almost zero CPU animations, pixel addressing for screens of any size including virtual screens the size of a wall that could be scrolled smoothly with not so much as a glitch with a move of the mouse, and so much more. Well, I still have such a machine and can make use of it for such things as animations that can be translated to WinTel, and I'm gonna do it.

Makes me sick to think how powerful Opus would be on the kinds of PC's we would have had by now except for the iron boot of monopoly.

Oh, well. Life is like that sometimes.

Dave

Oh how I agree - modern apps should fly but both they and the underlying OS have got lazy and bloated (yes, even Opus). Even on the PC Deluxe Paint was a joy and even now there's little or nothing on the PC to match the Amiga for simple animation. It's all too complicated without doing the key things easily IMO.

Oh and you're going to love Vista As far as I can see it carries an absolutely huge technical overhead for no real improvement in productivity just a slick looking interface which makes all your old programs LOOK prehistoric whether they continue to work or not. But the commercial world will be too scared to be left behind and will upgrade their PCs and perfectly good hardware will be dumped in landfills or sent to poor countries to be "recycled" and Bill's charity will be able to go in and help even more sick people.

Sorry - getting cynical in my old age

Paul Harris

One definition I like for a cynic is: A cynic is a realist who's been there.

I use two reasonably high-end computers which are Vista capable, but there's no way Vista is going on either. I see no bang for buck for me in installing Vista just for a fancy resource hungry fancy interface.

I have a few core programs (of which Opus is one) and they are all that I need. They do what I want how I want, and so I rarely need to upgrade to later bloated versions. Therefore, I do not need to buy new hardware and OS.

When MS brought in their authentication system I stopped buying new MS software except for Win XP. There are many great open source programs out there, plus much fantastic shareware. I know there's Linux, but I'm too old to make that big a change.

Incidentally, when I moved from Win 2K to Win XP, I lost the ability to use probably the best dictionary/thesaurus program I've ever had. It worked fine from Win 3.11 through to Win 2K, but XP killed it. I hate to think what Vista will do to some of my legacy programs.

Closer to home, I'm looking forward to assessing Opus 6 when it's released to see what it offers me. If it has things I want I'll probably upgrade -- if it doesn't, I'm unlikely to.

Well, I haven't been back in a bit. Nice to know I am not the only old goat left who remembers the world before the empire struck back.

Most "computer youngsters," which is pretty much everybody these days, just look at you with pity if you criticize Microsoft. They've no idea what we lost. In 1996 I was planning real-time VR simulators based on the existing work we'd done. It was not even that big a deal. Now it is at least as far into the future as it was in 1986.

I am currently working on an extended boom, rough terrain forklift simulator. I estimate it would have taken perhaps two days to get the basic engine going in 1996. Now I've been at it for a week and still cannot get the carriage (forks) sync'd with the boom extend/retract and raise/lower. Further, even with 4gb RAM, a 500.00 graphics card, and 4ghz processor the dang thing jerks randomly.

Makes me look forward to retirement so I can just sit around and talk about the good ol' days...

Dave

Hi Dave

I've animated a "ReachLift" before (in another program), so I think I understand what your looking for

Check out the attached, not graphically pretty, but I think it might help

Cheers
Chris

Chris: OUTSTANDING! Haven't studied it yet but you have this licked. This forum makes OPUS what it is!

Can't thank you enough...unless you are interested in some business along the way. I've got one forum member quite busy writing for my employer at the moment and expect to have a lot of of work over the next couple of years.

Kind regards,
dave

Just realized...if you are the Chris doing the sub work, you are ALREADY working for us. Either way, I am on a winning streak here!

Dave