Kinemac - Kinemac Release Notes 1.2

What's new in the 1.2.0 version (June 16th 2006)
The final version 1.2 is a free upgrade. It is an Universal Binary application, therefore it runs on both Mac-PowerPC and Mac-Intel machines with MacOS X 10.4 or higher. See what's new in this version here below.

		• Universal Binary The version 1.2 is an Universal Binary application, therefore it runs on both Mac–PowerPC and Mac–Intel machines with MacOS X 10.4 or higher.

		• Import 3DS You can drag a 3DS (3D Studio) file onto the Stage window to import your 3D model into your animation. Then, on each surface of the model you can apply: on/off, color, reflection, specular, shininess, image texture and movie texture. Also you can detach one or more surfaces from the model to create a new independent sprite. This way you can easily animate a part of your model separately as e.g. a door of a car in the new sprite. Watch this movie Watch this movie As you can see by the picture here aside, the texture panel now shows only the surfaces belonging to the selected object in a dinamic list. Every Kinemac object now has its own list of surfaces with the right surfaces names. Rollover the sliders in the list to know which parameters they control (e.g. Reflection, Specular and Shininess). Hold down the SHIFT key while modifying a slider or a color or a check-box to apply the same value to all the surfaces.

		• WireFrame Added the menu items "Polygon Fill" and "Polygon WireFrame" to the "Views" menu. This way you can set the Stage to display the objects as solids or as wire frames (faster rendering). You can quickly toggle the polygon mode Fill/WireFrame pressing the key "." (the dot).

		• Multiple Selection You can now select more objects and move, rotate, delete, change hierarchy, set key-frames, align, duplicate... the selected objects in one shot only. To extend the current selection in the Stage Window, hold down the SHIFT key and select the next object. In the Sprite window, like in the Finder folder list window, you can continuosly extend the selection holding down the SHIFT key and click onto the next sprite. To extend the selection non-continuosly hold down the Control key and click onto the next sprite. To deselect, press the "Escape key" or, in the Stage, click on an empty zone.

		• Align Positions You can select several objects or "one" folder containing several objects and align the objects along the X, Y and Z axes. You can align the objects to the min value, middle value and max value along each axis. In these icons, the red line represents the X axis, the green line represents the Y axis and the blue line represents the Z axis. You could use this option together with the feature "Align Anchors" (here below) to align the bounding box of the selected objects. See in the Inspector the "2D Text & Alignments" panel. • Align Anchors You can select several objects or "one" folder containing several objects and set their anchor points along the X, Y and Z axes. You can set the anchor points to the min value (0%), middle value (50%), and max value (100%) along each axis. You could use this option together with the previous feature "Align Positions" to align the bounding box of the selected objects. See in the Inspector the "2D Text & Alignments" panel.

		• Align Text You can select several 2DText or 2DCounter objects or "one" sprite folder containing several 2DText or 2DCounter objects and set their paragraph alignment and the text color in one shot, without opening the edit-text window. Choose the alignment and the color in the Inspector:2DText panel or Inspector:Alignment panel. You could use this option together with the previous features "Align Positions" and "Align Positions" to align the bounding box of the selected objects and the paragraph of the text objects selected.

		• Change Font/Style/Size/Color You can select several 2DText or 2DCounter or 3DText objects or "one" folder containing several 2DText or 2DCounter or 3DText objects and change their font/size/style/color in one shot, without opening the edit-text window. Just select the objects in the Stage window or in the Sprite window then choose the font/size/style from the Font panel and the color from the Color panel. Open the Font panel with Command-T. Open the Color panel with Command-Shift-C.

		• Sprite Library In order to speed up your work we have created a sprite library. The library comes already with some sample object, like animated 3D text, various scrolling text, ...but you can add your own sprites to the library at any time simply dragging a sprite from the hierarchical sprite list onto the library list. You can put in the library the object you will reuse often, like your spinning 3D logo, animated text of any kind and format, coming from the left, coming from the right, scrolling text... etc. How to use the library Select an object in the library list to see its preview in the Image View at the bottom of the list. You can quickly add an object from the library to the current animation simply dragging it from the library list onto the Stage Window. The object will come with its own animation, textures, settings... and will be inserted at the current playback time. You can drag the sprite in the sprite view to adjust its start point. Also you can resize the sprite to adjust its duration. See how to vary the sprite parameters. Modify a sprite after the import For example, you can save to your libary a series of animated 2D or 3D Text object reporting the string "Enter Text Here". Later on, when you want to reuse those objects, drag them from the library list onto the Stage window, then replace the text with the text you like (double click on the object to replace the text). If your object is a sprite folder containing several text objects, you can quickly select the sprite folder then change the font/style/color/size to all of its nested text objects, in one click only, using the Font panel and the color panel (see new feature here below). Usually the animation of an object is defined by 3 parts. • The beginning of the sprite defines the way the object goes into the animation. • The central part defines the way the object stands in the animation. • The end sprite defines the way the object goes out from the animation. If your objects are defined this way, after you have imported an object from the library into the current animation, you can quickly vary the duration of its sprite by inserting or deleting frames in the middle of the sprite (see the new feature here below) therefore leaving untouched the beginning of the sprite and the end sprite.

• Insert Frames
You can insert frames in a given point of a sprite using the mouse. Just hold down the Option key while rollover a sprite and you will be shown a pop-window reporting the insertion point, current start sprite, end sprite and duration. Move the mouse until you reach the exact insertion point.

Now click and drag the mouse to the RIGHT direction until you reach the exact amount of frames inserted (see the value "Frames Inserted: 100" in the pop-up window). Hold down the Command key to snap to 10 frames inserted.

Release the mouse. You will notice that the key frames at the right of the insertion point have been translated to the right while the key frames at the left of the insertion point have been left untouched. The duration of the sprite will be increased by the amount of the frames inserted.

If you add frames to a sprite folder, kinemac will automatically add frames to all the sprites nested in that sprite folder. If you don't want to add frames to the nested sprites, hold down the Shift key before clicking and dragging the mouse.

• Delete Frames
You can delete frames in a given point of a sprite using the mouse. Just hold down the Option key while rollover a sprite and you will be shown a pop-window reporting the insertion point, current start sprite, end sprite and duration. Move the mouse until you reach the exact insertion point.

Now click and drag the mouse to the LEFT direction until you reach the exact amount of frames deleted (see the value "Frames Inserted: -100" in the pop-up window). Hold down the Command key to snap to 10 frames deleted.

Release the mouse. You will notice that the key frames at the right of the insertion point have been translated to the left while the key frames at the left of the insertion point have been left untouched. If a key frame was in the red zone (frames deleted) Kinemac will remove that key frame. The duration of the sprite will be decreased by the amount of the frames deleted.

If you delete frames from a sprite folder, kinemac will automatically delete frames from all the sprites nested in that sprite folder. If you don't want to delete frames to the nested sprites, hold down the Shift key before clicking and dragging the mouse.

		• Spot Light Addressed the "Bulb" and "Spot" options in the sprite light "Kind" menu. You can choose and assign key-frames to the angle of the spot light, the focus and the decay. Also you can see the cone of the spotlight when selected.

		• Link Source/Target Light to Sprite Addressed the "Link Source Sprite" and "Link Target Sprite" features to the sprite light. Now you can tell a "sprite light source" or a "sprite light target" to move toghether with a given sprite on the Stage. For example you can draw a 3B Bezier path and tell a "sprite light source" to move along that path. And you can move a sprite cube on the Stage then tell a "sprite light target" to follow that moving cube on the Stage. To link a sprite to the light source, drag a sprite from the hierarchical sprites list onto the field "Link Source" in the Inspector panel. To link a sprite to the light target, drag a sprite from the hierarchical sprites list onto the field "Link Target" in the Inspector panel.

When a sprite camera is orthogonal, the slider "Distance" will turn to "Zoom" reporting the level of
the orthogonal zoom of the camera. When the zoom
is 1.0, the object will be drawn with the size reported
by the Inspector:Geometry panel and will be not affected by the perspective projection.

• Orthogonal Camera
With this version you can set a sprite camera to "Orthogonal". This way the objects following the Orthogonal camera in the sprite list will be drawn just as they were in a 2D space. The advantage to draw in a 2D space is that the objects will be represented with their original size and 2D coordinates as you were paginating a sheet.

In order to get the result shown here above we can arrange the sprites in 2 ways. The first way is shown in the sprite list here below. The "Cam_Ortho" sprite (see its setting in the Inspector panel here aside) sets the orthogonal view for the following sprites "Picture" and "ScrollingText". Then the "Cam_Perspective" sprite sets a perspective view for the following sprite "Cube". The result is that the sprite "Picture" and the sprite "ScrollingText" will be drawn in a 2D space while the sprite Cube will be drawn in a 3D space, over the other objects.

The second way is shown in the sprite list below. You can create a sprite folder and put the orthogonal sprite camera and the 2D sprites within this folder. The result is the same as the one of the sample here above. Anyway, this way, only the objects within this folder will be represented by the orthogonal camera, so you will not need to create another perspective camera (like in the sample above) to restore the perspective view for the next sprite "Cube" in the list.

Please note, the 2D objects should not have rotations along the X axis nor the Y axis if you don't want to get a distorted image. You can quite place them at the Z coordinate 0 (zero) and move them on the X and Y axes. Rotate them on the Z axis.

Last you might like to see the objects (e.g. pictures) with their original colors, and not affected by the position of the lights in the 3D space. If so, select the object then go to the "Inspector:Textures" panel. Turn off the check-box "Receive light" and set the Reflection slider to zero .

		• Rulers Units: Ticks or Seconds In the Preferences panel, General sub-panel, you will find the radio button to set the Sprite Ruler Unit to Ticks or Seconds. The sprite ruler, the inspector panel sliders (Sprite Start, Sprite End, Sprite Duration and Animation Duration) and the sprite tooltip will report the values with the measurement chosen.

		• Percentage Indicators If a slider represents a parameter whose values are limited within a fixed interval, like the anchors (0 - 100), the fade (0 - 100) and the volume (0 - 255), the current percentage of the value is indicated by a darker zone over the slider itself (see here aside the anchors sliders).

		• Animation Controls In the sprite window you will find a set of animation controls to go to the beginning, rewind, play/pause, forward, and loop the animation. Hold down the rewind or the forward button holding down the Option key to rewind/forward faster.

		• Remote Control If your Mac includes Front Row, you can play/stop rewind/forward the Kinemac animation using the remote control. Activate the use of the remote control with the "Animation:Use Remote Control" menu item. Use Kinemac 3D animations in your real time conferences!

		• 2D Counter Added the "Value Offset" parameter (slider) to the "2D Text Counter" object. Now, more than scaling a value taken from a given sprite, you can add a constant value to the counter.
		The "Take Value" pop-up menu of the "2D Text Counter" now lists only the available parameters of the linked sprite. In the image here aside, the linked sprite is a sphere, therefore the pop-up menu lists the sphere parameters.
		When the "Of Sprite" field is set to "me", the "Take Value" pop-up menu of the "2D Text Counter" object lists a new menu item called "Custom Value". You can choose this parameter from the pop-up menu then assign key frames to this parameter in the "Custom Value" slider below. This way you can have a counter totally customized on the values described by a key–framed bezier curve belonging to the 2D Counter itself. You can edit this curve in the Bezier window (open the Bezier window with Command-3).

Other New Features/Improvements
• Improved the quality of the compression when exporting to a QT movie. The quality of the image-frames is definitively higher than in the previous version.
• Improved the speed at exporting to a QT movie.
• While exporting to a QuickTime movie or still images, the monitor window now shows the remaining time and the frames/sec exporting speed.
• Improved the interface at drawing and modifying a 3D Bezier Path. You can edit the points in all the orthogonal and perspective views (included all the Cameras and the Work view) much easier than with the previous version. When moving a point you can quickly constrain the movement along a given axis just pressing the axis initial key. For example, to move a point along the axis "x" only, just hold down the "x" key and drag the point. If the view is a perspective view (like the Work view or any Camera view) you can move a point along the x and y axes just dragging the point. Hold down the "z" key to drag the point along the "z" axis.
• Added the Undo and Redo options when moving a point of a 3D Bezier Path.
• The commands "Animation:Insert Frames" and "Animation:Delete Frames" let you now insert/delete frames to the selected sprites only or to all the sprites and to vary/keep the "End Animation". Furtherore, as explained here above, you can insert/delete frames quickly dragging the mouse over a sprite holding down the Option key.
• Added the progress bar when loading a file.
• When activating the application, Kinemac now brings to front all of its windows.
• If the Stage window is on a second monitor, the full screen will be done in the second monitor too.
• Added the menu item 1920 x 1080 (HD) in the Stage size popup menu in the Inspector panel.
• Improved the speed at creating charts.
• Improved the speed at creating SVG extruded with multiple objects.
• Changed the sprite's toolTip to a shadowed window. The toolTip is visible when the user clicks or drags a sprite horizontally.

Fixes
• Fixed a bug when resizing a sprite.
• Fixed a bug when inserting/deleting frames (with the menu "Animation:Insert Frames" and the menu "Animation:Delete Frames").
• Fixed a bug when exporting a very long animation to a QT movie.
• Fixed a bug when exporting to a QT movie with H.264 codec.
• The anchor point (cyan) and the center point (orange), when visible, are shown by any selected object in the Stage.
• Addressed some issues to the sprite lights diffuse color and specular color.
• Addressed the update of the key frame markers in the Bezier Window.
• Addressed the snap while dragging the right handle of a sprite holding down the Command key.
• Other fixes and improvements.