Plugin - XStacy::Powerslider & XStacy::Elements

[SheepFactory]

That looks amazing man! If i were a c4d animator i'd be all over this.

[Hilt]

Thank you.
Cant say more than :applause:
.mjt

[LucentDreams]

I'm already using it on production, and I must say its really speeding up the workflow. granted we are only doing animations tests of the rig but maniuplating keys and only having the keys of the object tyour working with show up is so nice. Its actually more powerful then mayas with features like ripple editing, PSR key visibility, its a dream come true.

[Byla]

Wow! mdme_sadie, great. This actually looks like an improved Maya timeline, something that every animator would need if he wants to get serious with Cinema.

One thing that really bothers me though is the fact that this kind of timeline should be implemented in the core Cinema and not avaliable as a plugin! But that is Maxons fault, not yours of course.

Great stuff mdme_sadie

[ooo]

Looking very usefull! I will try with my next animation. Thanx for the free xtc too :bounce:

odo

[JamesMK]

Looking very usefull!
And it certainly is. I've had the priviledge of beta testing this baby, and all I can say is that I will never animate anything without it ever again.

Even simple animationwork benefits greatly from this functionality, so it's definitely not only useful for CA. Since it lets you block out and adjust animations without having to fiddle around with the timeline or f-curves, it's simply a huge time-and-headache-saver.

[rsquires]

It looks very interesting but a bit of a fiddle to set up. For instance I don't know how to use the scripts. Also the default layout doesn't look like the one in the manual. Most of the functionality looks hidden and it could really do with a video tutorial to explain some of the workings. Although the manual is well written, it doesn't really explain how this fits into a workflow. I like to see and edit f-curves so how does this work with them.

At the moment 75 euro for a slider seems a bit much. I can't see the benefit, but maybe a video would sway me

regards

Richard

PS This is in no way intended to say the plugin is too expensive. I just can't figure out how to use it.

[moka.studio]

looks interesting, will have to try it out (thanks for making a demo)
and thanks for the new Xtasy stuff Per,
jp

[Chrissyboy]

Hi Per, it's always a good day when we see a new plug from Third party :D Had a good trawl through the docs, looks very interesting - however there's quite a bit of use of three button mouses (mice?); can you replicate this functionality with a one-button mouse, using modifiers etc? Also is it possible to swap Ctrl for Cmd on a mac?

Thanks for any info - Chris

The Third Party is pleased to announce the immediate release of XStacy::Powerslider. XStacy::Powerslider is a brand new animation workflow tool for Cinema 4D R8.2 and above.
www.thirdpartyplugins.com (http://www.thirdpartyplugins.com)

[Byla]

ok one thing I will never understand is how the hell on earth can someone work in 3d graphics industry and use one mouse button? Mistery.

[moka.studio]

ok one thing I will never understand is how the hell on earth can someone work in 3d graphics industry and use one mouse button? Mistery.

I thought apple had re-invented the multi-button mouse for mac users lately ;)

[LucentDreams]

sorry if I steal this thread or sent it too off topic but a little justification for the design of the plugin.

First of all, yes there is a lot (and I mean a lot) of 3 button mouse functionality, and no room to use modifiers for those functions because there is also heavy use of modifiers as well. I'm not sure there any modifier/keyboard shortcuts left really unless per jumped onto making it for five button mice which is a little much to expect someone to own.

Seriously nowadays the only reason not to have a 3 button mouse for CG is because you have a tablet, and even then, you just need to setup your buttons right to make tgood use of 3 moust buttons on the tablet (using the advanced mode on all newer intuos and grphire drivers or tablet PC's is much better for programs that make heavy use of multiple mous buttons and precision clicking.)

The reason for all this three button and modifier control, to make it quick and efficient, the more time you spend switching modes, activatin tools, and jumping back and fourth between the buttons to activate those things and the timeline, the slower you'll get. A good timeline system should offer as much functionality without having to change things as possible so that one can just worry about animation and not how to edit things.

It may seem complicated at first, but practice with it and learn the shortcuts you'll soon find ytourself flying with this. This is why max and maya have had such system for ages, and why XSI 5 added all this functionality in. (really XSI 5's is the only one that really compares to powerslider feature wise)


How is it beneficial?

1)More feedback then cinemas timeslider which really only allows you to scrub through time, to get the same sort of feedback you'd need cinema's timeline window.
2)compact, saves screen space compared to a timeline window being docked in your interface.
3)Streamlined, it only shows key when an object is selected, and only the keys for that object, no clutter and scrolling to see what you want to work with. The preview range is much easy to control and set, as well as changine project settings right in the powerslider.
4)eliminates problems with accidently moving keys onto other sequences or moving sequences instead of keys etc.
5)Allows me so have multiple objects displayed on a signle line and edit their keys together rather then scrolling in a huge window over 20 objects and the likes.
6)RIPPLE EDITING, I think xsi 5 is the only other 3D app that has this in the timeslider.
7)ability to record a pose at framesbesides the currently active one, allowing an easy way to record the same pose at many frames, or save yourself when you pose a character and then realize you forgot to move the time slider first.


For your editing and refining you'll likely work entirely in Fcurves and possibily the timeline window, but the idea of this is to help you when first animating, recording poses and timing things out. It streamlines what your dealing with so that you can focus on animation.

And if its too hard or you don't see a benefit you should look at how other apps work, this is how most animators work, Messiah, motionbuilder have this as well. Cinemas been the lone dog that hasn't had one. I agree that it should be in the core, but csince maxon hasn't produced one I jumped for joy when Sadie told me he was going to make one.

[Katachi]

Well,

here is another one who had a chance to take a look at the plugin just before release. I am actually not an animator (only sometimes for contract work) but I just couldn´t resist installing the beta and have a look at it.

And it really is a very useful plugin, definetly increasing the workflow! I especially like that I can see my PSR keys directly in the timeline without switching to the timeline for example. This saves me lots of times. Also increasing the Project length without having that PrSett dialog open is god send.

I recommend to dl the demo and have a look at it. It´s definetly worth it.

[moka.studio]

Regarding Xtasy elements,
is anyone else having trouble adding tool options to the HUD if they are in one of the Xtasy forms.
Even if I then change them to a standard C4d user display, they are still grayed out. Seems to happen with modelling tools...
jp

[lllab]

i have troubles with the updated xtacy plugin regarding the sky module, it is broken now in the demo and also the 32 bit exposure tool in the picture manager- it seems it is not full 9.5 compatible...

stefan

[Venkman]

Clamping onto thread...

[chris_b]

Fantastic! Thank you so much.
I have really been missing this in C4D!

[LucentDreams]

i have troubles with the updated xtacy plugin regarding the sky module, it is broken now in the demo and also the 32 bit exposure tool in the picture manager- it seems it is not full 9.5 compatible...

stefan

uhm was the 32 bit working in the demo before you isntalled powerslider. Seems to me that since it only works when you set the rendersettings to save as a32bit miage type (therwise its greyed) that you won't have it available without setting these settings first, which may not be possible in the demo since it cna't save at all.

[LucentDreams]

Regarding Xtasy elements,
is anyone else having trouble adding tool options to the HUD if they are in one of the Xtasy forms.
Even if I then change them to a standard C4d user display, they are still grayed out. Seems to happen with modelling tools...
jp

this is a limitation of cinema that the thirdparty can't do much about. Even in cinema when you make user data regardless of what you change a data's interface to, it still uses whatever you created it as when adding it to the HUD, so if I make a user data that is a float, and then change it to a floa tslider, it still adds as a flaot in the hud.

[tmas73]

404 error when I click on your here link in your forum!!

Thanks

[Per-Anders]

Hi, Sorry there was a glitch! We had to re-upload a new version thanks to a very nasty crash bug we found!!! This is now fixed. Just download away now :).

**************************************************************
IMPORTANT NOTICE:

I would advise everyone else who downloaded, to redownload the new version too so that it doesn't mess anything up for them! Just go to http://www.thirdpartyplugins.com/powerslider to do this.
**************************************************************

and your'e right something seems askew on the forum side of things :( seems an unfortunately day to have technical difficulties, i'll try and sort that out in due course

Thanks.

[PetrolUk]

What a great addition to Cinema. Been using it all afternoon and wouldn't be without it now. Also I love the XStacy 2 Scheme, looks brilliant :)

[bobzilla]

Thanks, Per. Looks like a great addition to the toolset.

BTW I like your new site design!

[interactiveBoy]

**************************************************************
IMPORTANT NOTICE:

I would advise everyone else who downloaded, to redownload the new version too so that it doesn't mess anything up for them! Just go to http://www.peranders.com/powerslider to do this.
**************************************************************

I get a 404 following this link.

[williamsburroughs]

Use this one as he posted in the beginning of the thread:
http://www.thirdpartyplugins.com/powerslider/index.htm

:thumbsup:

[JoelOtron]

This is looking very interesting. Installed the PS demo as well as the Xctasy 2 scheme--which I really like. Very well designed.

Everything is working with the powerslider, except for one thing. Tapping the space bar while having the pwerslider area active does not produce markers as it should, unless I'm doing something wrong.

That feature in itself is a biggie and would like to get it working. Quite used to creating timing markers this way in FC and AE.

[Chrissyboy]

Well, maybe one day... I actually use a tablet not a mouse for pretty much everything, and yes, I do know that I can use the pen buttons as RMB and MMB, I've tried it with Cinema and found that it's just that my hands don't seem to like that way of working, I've always preferred to use the left hand to make the shortcuts work and save the right purely for clicking, mouse or pen, this is just the way I work fastest.

So I guess that means that I need a 3-button mouse to use the plug? :shrug:

Cheers - Chris

ok one thing I will never understand is how the hell on earth can someone work in 3d graphics industry and use one mouse button? Mistery.

[Per-Anders]

JoelD- yes there's a bug i've found on the mac, i'm working to get that fixed (somehow).

Chrissyboy - yup, 3 button mouse is required for this.

[JoelOtron]

JoelD- yes there's a bug i've found on the mac, i'm working to get that fixed (somehow).

Great--for once its not me. :)

[Chrissyboy]

Thanks for the info Per, I'll keep my eyes on this one anyway, see if I can't drag my right hand into the 21st Century... I've just set up my pen's buttons to replicate MMB and RMB; now to try working with it - :argh:

Cheers - C

Chrissyboy - yup, 3 button mouse is required for this.

[interactiveBoy]

are you guys running the demo of PS with version 9.1? or are you using the demo version of C4D to try out the demo of PS? I'm presented with the screen saying wrong serial for Xstacy::powerslider. If I hit OK, then it pops back up again, if I hit cancel it doesn't load. Or maybe I'm looking in the wrong place. It doesn't show up in the plugins menu.

[Per-Anders]

Oops,. if you get that then put in "DEMO" and it shoudl work fine :)

[interactiveBoy]

Oops,. if you get that then put in "DEMO" and it shoudl work fine :)

ahhh! must be case sensitive...i was putting 'demo' at first, but then i read all the stuff that said to leave blank.

Thanks!

off to play with it now. :)

[danb]

This is just awesome. I will be getting this much needed plugin.

[rsquires]

Well, maybe one day... I actually use a tablet not a mouse for pretty much everything, and yes, I do know that I can use the pen buttons as RMB and MMB, I've tried it with Cinema and found that it's just that my hands don't seem to like that way of working, I've always preferred to use the left hand to make the shortcuts work and save the right purely for clicking, mouse or pen, this is just the way I work fastest.

So I guess that means that I need a 3-button mouse to use the plug? :shrug:

Cheers - Chris


I am having the same problem. I use a tablet all the time Chris and I want programmes that allow me to customise keyboard shortcuts how I like. I don't see why one has to use a mouse if you don't want to. I stopped using them and moved to a trackball for rsi reasons. but Intellipoint does some weird shit with the middle mouse button. I also have a contour shuttle which I have set up for moving in the viewport.

regards

rich

[rsquires]

Thanks for the info Per, I'll keep my eyes on this one anyway, see if I can't drag my right hand into the 21st Century... I've just set up my pen's buttons to replicate MMB and RMB; now to try working with it - :argh:

Cheers - C


Chris

I just checked and you can make a profile for Cinema in the Wacom set up utility that uses the top part of your pen clicker as middle click. It works fine. If you have one of the swanky new tablets I am sure you could get one of the buttons on the tablet to do the same thing. So wacom works with it. I am using a mac

regards

Rich

PS I am starting to get the hang of it and it is very sweet indeed

[danb]

Is there anyway to keyframe parameters with PowerSlider? I have 8.5 and its a pain in the rear to have to right click->animation->add keyframe, all the time.

I use cactus dan's hand expressions a lot. It would be great if i could generate keyframes for each finger/thumb in PowerSlider.

Great job though. Animating is much faster now.

[Per-Anders]

unfortunately the powerslider will only key the same things as hitting the record button. though if you set up your keyframe selection and use automatic keys mode then this can help there (unfortunately keyframe selection doesn't work with the normal record button in c4d for some reason).

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