peterbone wrote:I may add an option for disabling snapping in 4.2. I'd like to keep it snapping by default for beginners so you'll probably have to hold down shift and ctrl at the same time while stretching a segment to stop it snapping. Same with bendy lines in v5. I won't use ctrl for bendy lines - that's just for the demo.
An option to avoid the snapping would be great! I think much animators would like it.
peterbone wrote:I think that some of you haven't fully appreciated how useful bendy lines could be, so here are a few ways I see them being used.
- The body of figures, instead of multiple straight lines.
- Ropes and other bendy objects such as an archer's bow.
- Creation of backgrounds and ground (hills, etc) using fewer segments.
- To create the illusion of movement. In the same way motion blur is used, I think bendy lines can do this - for limbs for example. Think about how a pencil appears bendy when you wave it about quickly. People have been using this technique for hand drawn animations for years.
- More realistic collisions - deformable objects.
- Much faster to position figures that need to be bendy because you have to move far fewer handles.
I would like to give you some feedback of a year long user of Pivot and pivot lover (..hi! : D )
I am not speaking for people who just begin with pivot. I want to tell you how (maybe) some people use pivot. This is my experience with it.
- body of figures- most people make figures with bendABLE backs or bendABLE segments to make them bend at any time- bending it like in your demo would mean that a segment only could bend in the middle, which isn't the case when using more segments.
- ropes- I always enjoyed the possibility to move every joint of a rope on its own to make it move nice.
Imagine the bendy tool on one single segment. The segment moves like a wave. Not like a rope.
Ok so far, for amateurs I guess. Imagine bendy segments on a rope with more than one, like, 3 segments. every segment has the same bending point. I couldn't make a good rope with it, since every segment only has one point where it bends- makes me think about making more segments to make it more realistic- which makes me think about animating it "old style" to get it good.
Sure, there will be a way to make it possible and realistic with the bendy segments. I am just questioning if it really would be easier.
- Creation of backgrounds and ground (hills, etc) using fewer segments- yes, that would be useful. But since I didn't see a limit of segments by now, It would'nt be that neccessary (I created a PIV with at least 400 or 500 segments, if not more, connected with others and it still works fine.)
-To create the illusion of movement- This is a nice Idea, and yes, i would appreciate this. but on the other hand, you are saying that the segment is just bending with the original length- which would mean, that it will be neccessary to add segments to make a big bending complete (I hope you can understand what I mean)- or to stretch the segment- which would, I guess, cause a different way of bending.
-More realistic collisions - Every animator I know by now uses editor mode to make it. Since your new update, making stretching easier, uses more joints, or simply adds more joints afterwards and then stretches it.
I personally use transparent windows to make such demolished figures. I click "edit" and place it over the actual figure, and then make a new figure. With transüarent windows I can see the original figure and the one I just edit right now.
there would be a very big place for improvement: I cannot see the actual figure withwout adding a new segment- when I am about to add a new segment, I can see the figure without the red dots.
I want to give you feedback with this, please don't hate me now :/ The bendy tool is a cool Idea, but I think it is not that useful.
what I personally would really wish for, would be a polyfill option (just saying again)
Means, the option to fill a space with color.
Not circles. Did you ever see stykz? I don't want to advertize but simplify what I am questioning... I would highly appreciate the ability to select at least 3 joints of a figure and make the selected space filled with color.