What's New - studio 2.1/animate 5.1

Version 2.1 (messiah:studio) and 5.1 (messiah:animate) contain several new features as well as fixes and modifications. The list below will fill you in on what's new.

Features & Modifications

KeyCommandManager

Reassign the world view navigation hotkeys
- Note: The navigation assignments are stored in the keycommand settings files. You can use this mechanism to mimic the navigation & command keys of other apps.
Standard Navigations
- World View Rotate HP
- World View Rotate B
- World View Pan XZ
- World View Pan Y
- World View Zoom
- World View Dolly
New Navigations
- World View Rotate -HP
- World View Rotate -B
- World View Pan -XZ
- World View Pan -Y
- World View -Zoom
- - Note: These new navigations remap the mouse movements to be opposite that of messiah's standard settings. These are provided to mimic the behavior of other apps. More to come...
World View BoxZoom
World View BoxDolly
- Note: The navigations allow you to drag a box in the world view to zoom or dolly. Drag right to dolly/zoom in, left to dolly/zoom out.
- Issue: The dolly navigation may prove difficult, at times. This feature is still in progress

Particles

Plane emitter - A Plane emitter is now available in addition to the existing Cone and Object emitter types.
Draw type - Particles can be drawn as circles or squares
Air Resist by Size Scale - T
Randomization - A new block has been added to the Animate tab when Particles are selected. This is where you set the minimum and maximum values for Directional Velocity, Rotational Velocity, Size, Weight, and Wind.

Onionskin

New Target Types
- Select Object: choose an object to "onionskin"
- Select Group: choose a group to "onionskin"
- Use Item List: current list items will be onionskinned
- Issue: when selecting a new target type, the interface doesn't update. Just click on a sub-tab and click back to force the update. This will be addressed.
Customize Menu->OnionSkin
- Use Current Object
- Note: will select the current object as the target. The object will be locked to onionskin even if you select another object. Choose another target to release it.
Use Current Primary Group
- Note: will select the current primary group as the target. The target will be locked to onionskin even if you select another object/group. Choose another target to release it.
Use Item List
- Note: Uses the current items in the main list as the target.

Play-->Animation Preview

AVI Labeling
- Label: the desired label to draw in the lower left of the AVI
- Frame: draw the frame number
- FPS: draw the fps
- Time Code: draw the time code

EditSphere CoordSys Alignment

The Edit Sphere will align to the chosen coordinate system.
- Issue: Parent coords may provide difficult mouse movements.
Only the channel group controls will be visible when editing
A ghost of the original position is left on screen

LMR Mouse Buttons On Minisliders (floats only)

Using the Left, Middle, & Right mouse buttons gives a greater degree of control. When using the Control key, the Middle & Right buttons modify the values in smaller increments (respectively). Without the Control key the values will be modified in larger increments.

TextureMap (messiah:studio)

Params->Remap values (F3)
- Note: this feature is designed to eliminate the need for a separate node (e.g. MinMax) when doing displacement mapping.
Spherical (Probe) mapping type
- Note: use this mapping type with Lighprobe images (HDR or otherwise)
HDRI Image Light mapping type removed
- Note: this mapping type has been replaced to address the various HDR formats. Your older files will be converted to the new params.
HDR Prefilter (F3)
- Note: this replaces the old HDRI Image Light mapping type.
HDR Intensity (F3)
- Note: this value controls the intensity of diffuse light gathered from the HDR image.
- Issue: when using HDR Prefilter your images will appear washed out (or even white). This is because "Prefilter" essentially gathers all available light. HDR Intensity allows you to reduce the lighting. Alternatively, if you're using GI, lower your GI Intensity.

Gradient & Fresnel (messiah:studio)

Interface cleaned up to remove unused controls.
Glossiness is now mapped to 0.0-1.0.
- Note: your old files will be converted
Fresnel affects Light & Specularity options
- Note: previously, only Camera was affected.
Undo/Redo gradient edits
- Note: undoing/redoing gradient edits will automatically update the material samples. This is also true of any channel edits performed on any shader.
Gradient Menu (right click on gradient)
- Reset - reset to the default black & white gradient
- Clear - clears all gradient markers
- Flip - flips the gradient
- Invert - inverts the colors
Params->Boundary (F3)
- Note1: this feature determines the behavior when the generated "u" is outside the range of the gradient.
- Note2: you can use the Range In & Range Out params to squeeze the gradient and create gradient strips with the following settings.
- Hold (default) - will use the start/end color on the range
- Repeat - will repeat the gradient
- Oscillate - will ping-pong the gradient
- Clear - will not draw any gradient
Params->Incidence (F3)
- Note: this feature will either compute the incidence angles for camera & light fresnel within 90 degrees (hemispherical) or the full 180.
Interface Modifications
- The Lights list has been moved to its own block
- The Output Buffer channel & input has been removed
- - Note: this feature was no longer functional
- The Min/Max range channels & inputs were removed
- - Note: these features we never active and are not necessary

ShaderFlow (messiah:studio)

Undo/Redo node connections
Connections retain their operator when moved/rearranged
Shader channel controls have a color indication for connections

Plug-Ins

Taron has updated several of his plug-ins and added a couple of new ones.

Ansiotropic (New)
Basic Shader
Color Correction
Doll Eyes 1.2 (Now supports Global Illumination)
MinMax (Now has "Clamp" and "Smoothstep" per channel)
TextureDeformer (New -- as seen in the CG Talk threads about the "Neckling")

Functions

ChainTwist - banks a chain of objects. Can also produce a roll effect
EffectEnable
EffectDisable
EffectIsEnabled
EffectToggle

Fixes

No longer crashes when lights reside above lightmasters in the Item List
Gradient is more stable
Curve point order no longer shifts when exiting Setup
Flexmotion and the AlignToCurve funcs now respect the Vector Object
No longer crashes when adding procedural shaders (via shader channel popup)
No longer crashes when objects can't be found when loading setup files
Connection reordering now functions properly
Floats are converted to/from vectors on node connections
"Surface" removed from the File->New Item block
Metablob now functions properly when using bump.
Fixed false coloration problem on image control samples when using HDR, OpenEXR, and other high dynamic range images.

API

Features

fxShaderSpot*
- fxShaderSpotRotate
- fxShaderSpotScale
- fxShaderSpotXForm
- Note: these functions allow you to transform any point in space. You can also perform inversion (to xform for texture space) using the FX_SPOTXFORM_INVERSE flag.
fxRenderSettings
- Note: this function allows you to get render params. See messiah_shader.h for the available flags.
fxGroupFirst
fxGroupNext
fxGroupPrev
ChainTwist

Modifications

fxInterfaceBlockSet, additional arg (flags) has been added.

Fixes

- Choice control now functions properly with fxConParam

Note1: If you recompile old plug-ins with these new headers, you will have to modify your fxInterfaceBlockSet calls in your interface code.

Note2: Use a flag (FX_BLOCKSET_DEFAULT) to set the default block for your interface.

Issue1: the FX_BLOCKSET_DEFAULT flag only works for shader interfaces, but not for effects or tools. This will be addressed in a later update.

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