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User posts Mentalist
30 January 2016 22:10
@cloudou A workflow that may work for you is:
Animate different empties to represent your camera views in Blender. Use Copy Transform constraints to attach your camera to the empties. Then you can keyframe the visibility (or influence sliders) of these constraints, and in doing so "hand-off" the camera between the empties.



Example setup: empty_handoff.blend

When you're done animating the empties and constraints (remember to Save As), you can bake the camera's movement.
Object > Animation > Bake Action
Remember to enable the Visual Keying option so that the effect of your constraints will be taken into account.





Example result: empty_handoff_baked.blend

The only drawback of a sudden camera hand-off is that if you are using motion blur it will blur between the huge leap the camera takes and look wrong. Currently B4W does not have motion blur, so don't worry about it. There is indication that motion blur is planned for the future, but by then support for multiple cameras may also be added. Anyway, this technique is something you can use for now.
30 January 2016 20:10
I have created the following setup using the new Transform Object node. This causes the object to begin moving when clicked.


speed_and_direction.blend

I would like to control the speed so that it gradually accelerates and decelerates. I would also like to be able to steer it using input from the keyboard.
Thanks in advance for any help.
30 January 2016 07:38
This is excellent news! I had been eagerly waiting for 16.01. Just installed it now and can't wait to try it out.
29 January 2016 05:50
You can also sort of get "the look" by using a matcap of a rough metal material. It's easy to create such a matcap texture with Cycles. Of course it won't be a true accurate reflection, but it's something for now. In the SDK there some matcap examples for reference.
28 January 2016 16:26
OK, thanks for explaining this.
28 January 2016 14:12
Thank you, Konstantin.
Is there a way to play them both at the same time?
28 January 2016 13:54
First, here is Configuration A, which is working. An armature that is the parent of a cube moves (LocRot). The cube follows.

cube_rig_a.blend

Configuration B is similar, except that in addition to the armature moving, a bone is also supposed to move, causing a face of the cube to open like a door. The setup isn't working, and I'm not sure what to do instead.

cube_rig_b.blend

I'm hoping someone can kindly explain the right way to trigger two Play Animation nodes from a single Switch Select (user's mouse click).
Thanks
27 January 2016 16:08
Now you can find all settings in blend4web engine mode.
Good to know. I suspected that, but wanted to confirm.

Collision matials is a special material that need to detect collisions between dynamic objects and object that have this collision material.
Interesting! I had never heard of anything like this before. I have only known materials to influence the appearance of objects.
I looked this up in the B4W Manual and it's listed under Static Physics Type. Does this mean it can't be used on a moving character, only things like ground, walls, and other unmoving geometry?

All animations are in charachter_animation.blend file, look at the animation list.
I see now - I was expecting all animations to be visible in the Outliner, but Blender will only show the active one.

Thank you for explaining these things!
27 January 2016 12:37
I am following the tutorial: Making a Game Part 1: The Character
and I am noticing there are some parts of the tutorial that don't match with what I'm seeing in the source files. I thought maybe some techniques or structure of Blend4Web may have changed since that tutorial was published, so I would like to ask about those parts.

Question 1) Where it instructs "Lets switch to the Blender Game mode" I was confused because I thought it should be "switch to the Blend4Web engine" or something like that. Just today I read that the Blend4Web engine switch menu is relatively new, so maybe using the interface of the BGE is the old way of doing it?



Question 2) There is a section that explains about the environment group inside of main_scene.blend, which is linked to by game_example.blend:
"The environment group of objects (from the main_scene.blend file) - this group contains the static scene models and also their copies with the collision materials."
What is meant by "collision materials", and why are they stored in the environment group?
My only guess what that somehow the material changes when a collision happens, but I think that can be done by animating just the materials (no need to swap the whole object). Is this a legacy technique being described here, or am I completely misunderstanding?

Question 3) Inside character_model.blend there is a mesh object called character_collider, and it is the parent of character_body (mesh) and character_rig (armature). The animations are stored in a separate file called character_animation.blend. The tutorial mentions these animations as components linked to game_example.blend:
"The baked animations character_idle_01_B4W_BAKED and character_run_B4W_BAKED (from the character_animation.blend file)."
What's confusing is that I don't see any data named character_idle_01_B4W_BAKED or character_run_B4W_BAKED.
Inside character_animation.blend I see character (mesh) and character_proxy (armature). character_proxy has one animation data block on it, but it is named character_run.
This is why I am confused about where the idling animation is stored, and why the names don't match what is described in the tutorial.



Thanks in advance for any help. I would really like to understand how this game demo works. Many questions arise as I study.
27 January 2016 03:25
@LukeVideo Sorry that I can't offer any advice for your issue, but I am curious and want to ask - what is the benefit of using FBX?

I don't know anything about the format other than what I've read on Wikipedia.
So it seems this is something proprietary by Autodesk? Do you mostly use an Autodesk application for creating your 3D content? If I only use Blender is there any reason I might want to use FBX?
Thanks