link request for info

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CG7
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link request for info

Post by CG7 »

Documentation for Xnalara xps seems kind of scarce or at least fragmented.
Does anyone know of another source beyond TR forums and the official xps site to
get more info on how to use newer features?

Particularly, how to use the animation system and can animations
be saved for use with other models?
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thePWA
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Re: link request for info

Post by thePWA »

I'm not even sure the animation system was ever fully implemented BUT you can always ask via notes XPS's programmer XNAaral himself on deviantart.
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CG7
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Re: link request for info

Post by CG7 »

Thanks for the suggestion.
Considering the open hostility I've seen in the xps forum, I think
I will reserve contacting the developer as a last resort.
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thePWA
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Re: link request for info

Post by thePWA »

CG7 wrote:Thanks for the suggestion.
Considering the open hostility I've seen in the xps forum, I think
I will reserve contacting the developer as a last resort.
There's an XPS forum?
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CG7
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Re: link request for info

Post by CG7 »

Sorry

I was referring to xnalara.home-forum.com
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Re: link request for info

Post by iheartibuki »

If you have specific questions about any XPS functionality you can go ahead and ask them here. We have quite a few people who use XPS (including yours truly) so we'll try to answer any questions you may have to the best of our abilities. :)
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CG7
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Re: link request for info

Post by CG7 »

iheartibuki wrote:If you have specific questions about any XPS functionality you can go ahead and ask them here.
Thanks

I'm not sure what to ask, I don't understand the animation system at all.
All the animation functions in the menu and the animation dialog seem to be for pre-loaded/created motions.
There doesn't appear to be any function for importing motion files and from
what I've read animation can be created within XPS itself.

Is there a hotkey that opens the timeline?
Am I missing a plugin or something?
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Re: link request for info

Post by ProtocolX27 »

Unless something has changed in the new version(s), it's probably been 2 or 3 since I stopped using XPS, here's my crude understanding.

The animation system plays through a set of predefined pose files. Essentially you create a pose and then XPS treats that like an individual frame. It's really wonky in that it only adds a new 'frame' if you are at the last one. Their is no visible timeline so to speak, you have to step through each frame / pose until you get to the end. I don't remember, but I think when you add a new 'frame' it saves all of the pose data from your last frame into another pose file therefore simulating the appearance of an animation once you start to work on the pose for the new frame.

You should have a folder somewhere under your XPS file system when you start an animation what will have all of the pose files saved out. So you could technical copy an existing pose into that location an XPS will just step through those 'poses' in their alphabetical sort order. It doesn't actually have any means to play proper animation files, to my knowledge.

It's nice that XPS has it, but it's reaaaaaally clunky. I threw in the towel on it and figured I'd best invest my time in Blender or 3ds if I'm actually going to work on animation, but I haven't done that yet since animation in general is still very time consuming.
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Re: link request for info

Post by MisterHentai »

It's basically just old fashioned stop-motion style of animation.
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CG7
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Re: link request for info

Post by CG7 »

Thanks for explaining it to me

So, basically it's a feature for saving and playback of stop motion, rather than
an actual animation tool.

Well, I guess if someone went through the trouble of making an animation frame by frame
they would most definitely want to save it.

It's a cleverly devised feature, but it doesn't seem very practical.
I think your right ProtocolX27, It's probably not worth the time and effort.
I spend a lot of time creating and tweaking animations in Poser and iClone, it's hard to imagine being
able to create a decent motion frame by frame, at least within a reasonable amount of time.

Thanks for helping me out everybody 8-)
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