Working only on selected points in a layer

GCharb · Post by **GCharb** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:11 am

Hello all

Anyone knows of a way to select some points in a layer and work only on those points without afecting the other points in the layer.

And yes, I know, this is what layers are about, so no wise cracks!

Thanks for any inputs!

GC

DK · Post by DK » Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:48 am

Not that I know of....but what a great idea for a script

Point locking!

EDIT: Oh....Other than assigning points to bones and then moving the bones....but that could get tedious and it's not really a practicle workaround.

D.K

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:59 am

Mmm, so like a translate point tool that will only effect a selected named point group?

Could you give us a specific example of where you might need this? At least for me, the more useful the script the more motivated I am to work on writing it.

GCharb · Post by **GCharb** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 6:01 am

DK wrote:Not that I know of....but what a great idea for a script Point locking!

Got tons of those!

I might try bones actually, with manual binding, all on the same layer, that way I might be able to edit points in the main window.

Gotta love trial and errors!

GC

DK · Post by DK » Tue Jan 20, 2009 6:29 am

sythnsin75 wrote:

Could you give us a specific example of where you might need this?

Don't know about GCharb but point locking script would be extremely usefull for people who do a lot of point animation. Let's say you want to do some traditional frame by frame type animation and want to take advantage of Switch Layer Interpolation. As you know Switch Layer Interpolation only works with points on single sub layers to a Switch Layer. When animating you basically have to manipulate all of the points in the entire character including areas like eyelid points which overlap the outer eye points. These points tend to become completely lost to the eye and very dfficult to select to move. It would be extremely handy to lock points groups in this case.
Also, you might want to lock points from bone influence or from moving at all for a certain amount of frames....similar to the footlocking feature. Don't know if that's possible.

Cheers

D.K

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:04 am

Have you seen my scripts in the forum?
I did a freeze points script utility. Check it out and tell me if it is the what you are looking for.

Cheers!
-G

DK · Post by DK » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:33 am

Hi Genete.

I just installed your scripts but they are not quite what I had in mind. I was thinking more of a button that worked with the grouping menu. More like a checkbox that would lock the points in a particular selected group so that they could not me moved at all with the translate tool. Maybe this is asking a bit too much sorry

D.K

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 1:01 pm

Yeah, I immediately thought of Genete's freeze points script.

Overall though, I think point groups pretty much solve point selection problems.

In the script interface, I think you can basically discard a points motion, but doing that selectively would be difficult. You'd have to somehow store the info of what points you want locked, and having that animated would probably be a nightmare.

For now, Genete's script is probably the best bet.

....But what about a script that cycles through single point selection? if you can't select it, just select a point you can and use like the arrow keys to cycle the selection.

GCharb · Post by **GCharb** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 2:58 pm

Hello all

The idea here, like DK suggested, is to be able to lock selected points so that one layer model could be tweaked (here's that word again) for frame by frame animation in a switch layer.

You got your character all set in a single layer, with bones setup with manual binding and parts separated with points groupping.

You setup basic poses, select groupping for a body part, freeze all the other points then tweak (here we go again) that particular body part.

So I guess it would be a "lock unselected points" type of function!

GC

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:35 pm

So I guess it would be a "lock unselected points" type of function!

Lock unselected is the same that select the ones you want to tweak, select inverse and freeze the selection with my tool script. Maybe I can change the script to do the freeze the not selected. It is the same concept.

-G

GCharb · Post by **GCharb** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 4:04 pm

Genete wrote:Lock unselected is the same that select the ones you want to tweak, select inverse and freeze the selection with my tool script

DOH!!

I need to look more at those menus, thanks for the tip!

BTW, I've installed your script, works for the x axis but the points keep moving on the y axis, is that normal or did I miss something?

GC

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 4:43 pm

GCharb wrote:
Genete wrote:Lock unselected is the same that select the ones you want to tweak, select inverse and freeze the selection with my tool script
DOH!!

I need to look more at those menus, thanks for the tip!

BTW, I've installed your script, works for the x axis but the points keep moving on the y axis, is that normal or did I miss something?

GC

There are three scripts: One for freeze x other for freeze y and other for freeze both (the first one created) which one is failing and how?

-G

GCharb · Post by **GCharb** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 4:55 pm

Helle Genete

Got it to work, thanks a bunch for the script man!

GC

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:42 pm

Point groups need some work.

I hardly use them because I find that they are "fragile". They tend to vanish during certain point operations. Many times I go to use a point group and they are all gone or no points are selected or only a few points are selected from the "original" group. I use point groups for temporary purposes or "at the end" when I know I won't be doing massive copy/paste or adding/deleting changes.

I like Genete's scripts and use them. However they aren't "intuitive". There is no visual feedback as to what points are locked. I also have to roll over the icons to remind myself which one is which. Teeny tiny complaint Genete. Great scripts. I shouldn't complain so much about a script being easy to use compared to some of mine.

Many many new features like this could be created with more script access to the interface (like small pop up tool palettes).

One of the big issues with scripts like this is that we COULD make splines or bones have a different appearance (locked points are "grayed back" for instance) if that were available in the script reference AND if one tool easily worked across all the tools without needing to edit every tool. My bone groups script "colorizes" bones but only if you use that tool or add that code to every other tool... as I've done... 3 times, because of updates or reinstalling and overwriting the dang tools by mistake.

-vern

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 8:37 pm

i dont know if this is at all relevant, but fazeks magnet tool allows you to only effect selected points with the magnet... maybe this functionality can be translated to another script?