Instancer Plug-in

#21

Sorry you feel like a stepchild, but no there is no PC version… for 2 reasons, I have no way to dev for the PC, and little want to. I am sure if the plug is useful, someone else could port it to the PC.

Cj

#22

LOL! That’s o.k., sometimes there are things for the PC that aren’t on the Mac. Thanks anyway.

#23

Well, bad news… The link is working but not the plugin…
I thought you could have inverted the PPC and UB version but no. None of them work on my machine. Well, I’m sure it’s nothing.
Awaiting news…

#24

Here is the UB plug directly from my EI Socket’s folder:
http://www.cjberg.com/EI/temp_instancer.zip

I have not tested with v8 as I am still v7…

Cj

#25

No go…
I tried again with 6.6 and the project opens in V8 as it used to… Go figure.
I’ll try with EIAS7.01 tomorrow at the office.

#26

I have a straight forward project right now where and instancer could be a benefit. I’m going to give this a go for the first time now. Thanks for the update.

#27

This is what I needed. A quick way to do a wall of rectangles for a broadcast spot.

I have a couple of concerns but All’n All the plug is pretty stable and easy to use.

#28

OK. So here few constructive comments I have about the plug.

1. The instance generated from the plug is a solid group and in this case each column of squares must be animated. It would be nice if there were an option that each square could be independent or different grouping orders assigned. 

2. If I made one column to have one line of independently animateable column of square, then I could not group that column to the another instancers (instancing and instancer would crash.)

3. The rotation controls for instancing were only on the centeroid. There was no way that I know of to offset the centeriod in the plug so I could make the big arch on the wall. e.i. I could not instance one column, attach to another instance, then offset the rotation off that group to make a wall. 

4. Worked perfectly for the floor, solid group, was quick and precise.  I did not use on the logo block or the curved back way. It would be awesome if it could instance along a curve with this sample.  

This was a quick model I did for a paid client so Instancer was a benefit and help get me started and reduced tedium. I know this plug is new and these are only critiques. Lastly, I was impressed that it exported and the imported the instanced geometry correctly. 

[img]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f190/AVTPro/AVT_Cube.jpg[/img]
#29

They are animatable… the plug-in is designed to use XP to control the position/rotation/size of every single instance.

Instance of Instance wont work due to the underpinnings of EI… it would have to calculate 1 plug prior to the other, but it just doest work like that.

Nope, didnt muck with those…

Use Xp…

Cj

#30

Thanks for the immediate feedback CJ.

OK use XP to do those things.

This job is done and the plug was very handy.

It’s good to know and great to have. Thanks

#31

Honestly, I have some great examples of XP scripts to animate Instancer. It’s real power is from XP.

If people need, simply ask me with your needs and I can whip out an algorithm to do what is needed. If a lot of people need the help, I can create examples and tutorials. But I will only do this if there are a lot of people wanting to use the plug.(A lot isnt 2)

Cj

#32

What about 3 people? :slight_smile:
It will be very handy as Alonzo said if the plug could animate along a curve,with my experience in Xp(non existent) i dont see the power of it.
See my example with Mograph, if i could do the same that will be something where i animate a few rectangles along a curve where the rectangles had different scales and the rotation which was controlled by the curve.Which than was instanced as well keeping all the info intact.
http://vimeo.com/5781480
Edgard

#33

Would take a significant number, as I really havent had to use animator in years. I spend 99.9% of my time in modelers lately. So I have to take time from other projects to do it.

Even though I cant easily see what is going on in that animation, the Instancer plug was designed to do just that. One thing it can not do is bow and curve, that would have to be animated on the base object.

Cj

#34

Could you just have deformed the entire wall, Alonzo? Just curious.

#35

The problem that i found with deformers is the amount of subdivisions one must have.Instead you could use a cylinder and use the cylinder to create each instance per face.Is these possible CJ?

#36

This FREAKING ROCKS CJ. Thanks.

Great support.

#37

Yes, and good point Reg. Matter of fact, I did use EI Deformer Tools for the modeling the center logo panel cube. I find EIAS deformer tools to have one of the most intuitive interfaces for quickly bulging, tapering, twisting and bending geometry. (insert shameless plug for my Deformer Rig DVD here)

So I rounded the geometry in Maya, and added UVs, then imported into EI for the final deformations. It worked out very nicely. Only problem is exporting geometry out of EI can be frustrating.

One question, I used UVs on the face for the logo placement. It was excellent because I didn’t have to be concerned about the texture projecting through to the backside of the panel. However, the material of panel is refractive glass and I wanted the texture to have matte properties. How can the texture decal use a different material than the surface it is assigned to?

I haven’t done this in EIAS in eons, and I believe they changed the interface. I have a thing about not using duplicate geometry for decals or separte surface descriptions. thanks.

Unfortunately Reg, if I deformed a wall of cubes, the cubes would be deformed incrementally as well. They would be slightly trapezoidal. I wanted to keep the integrity of the cube. I just moved the centeroid to create a radius and duplicated with transforms in Maya, then imported in EI via FBX.

#38

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