Kinemac - Kinemac Release Notes 1.5.0

What's new in the 1.5.1 version (Jan 15th 2007)
The version 1.5.1 just fixes some minor bug coming with the previous version 1.5.0. Please find here below what's new in the version 1.5.0. The final versions 1.5.0 and 1.5.1 are free upgrades.

		• Move objects along a 3D Path You can link any object to a 3D path or to any other moving object and get your object moving along that path or together with another object. Look at the animation here aside. To link a 3DPath (or any other sprite) to an object, select the object, then, from the hierarchical sprite list, drag a 3DPath (or any other sprite) onto the "Add Positions from Sprite" field on the Inspector/Geometry panel.

		• Background with gradient and transparency

		Fill Color. This feature was the only one already present in the previous version. You can set one background fill color choosing the menu item "Fill" from the Background Color pop-up menu. Then click on the color well and choose a color from the Color palette. Alternatively you can open the Color palette with Command+Shift+C then drag a color from the Color palette onto the Stage window.

		Gradient Color. Select the item "Gradient" from the Background Color pop-up menu. Then click on the color wells and choose the 1st and the 2nd color from the Color palette. Last, rotate the direction of the gradient acting on the "Angle" wheel.

		None. Select the item "None" from the Background Color pop-up menu to set a transparent background. To preserve the transparency when exporting to a QT movie (File:Export Movie), choose the Animation Codec with "Millions of Colors +". To preserve the transparency when exporting to a still image (File:Export Frame), choose the "tiff" or the "png" image format.


		• Master Volume In the Inspector/Stage panel you can now set the Master Volume of the animation. This value belongs to the application preferences and doesn't affect the animation file nor the volume of the embedded media files. It just affects the master volume of the animation during the playback.

• Multiple Views

In this version you will be able to set up to 4 views on the Stage window pressing the / key (the slash key). On each view you can set an independent projection (Work, Front, Top, Sprites Camera View... - pressing respectively w, f, t, s...), turn the grid on or off (press g), set the polygon mode to wireframe or fill (press .) and rotate, zoom and translate the view (press 1, 2, 3 and drag). This way you can easily control your animation (objects, cameras, lights, 3D paths...) through the multiple reference views. In order to run your animation in real time, we always recommend to set one view only. However, we have been running some of the animations posted on our web gallery (like the one shown here below, containing a QT movie) on a G5 dual 2GHz with ATI Radeon 9800 with 256 VRAM and it did run in real time even with 4 views set to polygon fill... Great Kinemac!

• One Window

For the users who love to work on one window only, we have added a command which groups the Stage window, the Inspector window and the Sprites window in one window only. Just press Command-Control-1 to toggle between the Grouped Windows and Ungrouped Windows. Click here to see a bigger screenshot.


		• Lights You can now easily drag the light source and target icon on the Stage. Hold down the command key when dragging to snap to a 10 points grid. If you set the Stage to display 4 Views you will simultaneously see the changes on the 4 projections.


		• Cameras You can now easily drag the camera eye and target icon on the Stage. If you set the Stage to display 4 Views you will simultaneously see the changes on the 4 projections. The Sprite Camera View will display the result of your changes. Hold down the command key when dragging the eye or target icons to snap to a 10 points grid.


In the Inspector panel, Surface Textures subpanel you can see the list of all the surfaces of the selected object. Then you can select some of these surfaces cicking on the row of the list or, on the Stage window, clicking on the surface holding down the "q" key. Then you can split the selected surfaces to a new sprite clicking on the button "Surface to Sprite".		• 3DS Surface Selection and Split You can now click and select any surface from a 3DS object and split these surfaces to a new sprite. Then you can animate the new sprite independently. For example, let's suppose you import a 3DS model of a car. It comes into Kinemac as a unique sprite. So you can animate it as a unique block. Let's suppose you want to open and close a door of the car in your animation. You have to move the door surface into a new sprite such a way you can animate the new sprite independently. On the Stage window, hold down the "q" key and click on the door of the car. You can select the door surface only if the original 3DS model had the door on a separated surface (see here aside). Now you click on the button "Surface to Sprite" (Inspector panel, Surface Textures subpanel) and the door surface will be removed from the 3DS sprite to a new sprite called "door". Now you canimate the door of the car independently. In the case of the picture below, we have splitted the black surfaces to another sprite called "black" then we have changed the size of this sprite during the animation. Look at the animation here aside.


		• 3DS Surface Copy, Cut, Paste and Delete Furthermore, you can copy, cut, paste and delete the selected surfaces from a 3DS object. For example you can cut the selected surfaces from a 3DS sprite and paste them into another 3DS sprite. You can select all the surfaces and delete them from the 3DS sprite such a way to create a 3DS sprite empty, with no surfaces. Then you can paste into this sprite the surfaces you have copied from some other 3DS sprites and compose your new 3DS object. As written above you can either select the surfaces on the Stage clicking onto each surface holding down the "q" key (to extend the selection hold down the Shift key), or, in the Inspector:Surfaces/Textures subpanel you can click on the rows of the surface list. To select all the surfaces in the list press Command–A (Select All) when the list is active (one of the surfaces is selected).


		• Drag onto a Surface The version 1.5 lets you drag an image file or a movie file from the Finder onto the surface of an object selected on the Stage to apply that texture on that surface. Likewise it lets you drag a color from the color palette onto the surface of an object selected on the Stage to assign that color to that surface. The two methods let you avoid to assign textures and colors using the Inspector panel.

• Custom Background with Image or Movie

The previous version did let you set an image to the background. This version lets you set a movie too. Just drag a movie file onto the "Image/Movie" well (see here aside) to set it to the background. Alternatively you can drag a movie file onto the Stage window holding down the Option key. In this version we have added the "Custom" menu item to the "Fill Mode" pop-up. Click on the button "Options" to set the texture values as Origins, Repetitions, Scale, Rotation Angle, Gap, Movie Start Offset...

You can easily reach results like the one here below. Here we have set 3 x 3 Repetitions and a Gap (the lines between the images) of 0.021. An external Gap is visible too (the border lines).

In the image below we have set a 30º rotation and a x1.8 Scale.

		• Multitexturing You will be able to apply up to 8 different textures (movies or images) onto each single surface. This number depends on your graphic card. Most of the cards allow 8 textures. Some other card allows 4 or 6 textures, but it’s quite good as well. • You can translate and resize each texture (image or movie) such a way to apply it on a given part of the surface. For example you can apply a label on a beer can choosing the origins and the size of the label. • You can set the trasparency to the alpha channel of movies and images. • You can choose your own reflection mapping file (image or movie file). You can apply more than one reflection texture. • On each texture you can animate: position, size, rotation and opacity. • On each surface you can set: surface color, emission (internal light), ambient, diffuse, specular and shininess... • You can set the texture to “Tile” and set the number of horizontal and vertical repetitions.

		• Closed 3DPath In the Inspector panel, 3DPath subpanel, you will be able to choose whether a 3D path should be closed or not. Just mark the check-box "Close Path" to turn an open path to a closed path.
The path is open. The first and the last points move independently.
The path is closed. The first and the last points move together.

Other Features/Fixes/Improvements
• Fixed a bug which caused Kinemac to crash at the end of the exporting to a QT movie.
• Fixed a bug when exporting to a QT movie or Image and a texture movie is applied to several sprites with different start sprite point.
• Fixed a bug at the Sprite Lights and at the Static Lights. Bulb, Infinite and Spot lights now work properly as Static Lights and Sprite Lights. Furthermore, as shown avobe, we added source and target draggable icons.
• Fixed a bug when resizing the Stage window and a Sprite Camera is selected.
• Fixed a bug when using a Sprite Orthogonal Camera and switch to the full screen.
• Fixed a bug when selecting (click on the Stage) an object shooted by a Sprite Orthogonal Camera.
• Fixed a bug when removing a point from a 3D path.
• Fixed a bug at the Paste Sprite Values dialog.
• The Paste Sprite Values command now works on multiple sprite selection too.
• The Paste Frame Values command now works on multiple sprite selection too. Furthermore it pastes the keyframes state too (if the copied frame had keyframes) then paste the values. The keyframes already "on" will not removed.
• You can now horizontally zoom-in the Sprite view.
• The Bezier view can now be scaled negatively allowing to see the whole view in the Bezier window.
• Improved the Motion Blur quality when exporting to a QT movie.
• When adding point to a 3DPath you can now see the pen cursor at the mouse position.
• You can drag an image file or a movie file onto an object surface on the Stage to quickly apply that texture on that surface. The object on the stage should be selected. Also you can drag a color from the color palette onto an object surface to apply that color to that surface.
• When the Stage window groups the Sprite and the Inspector window and the visible rendering view is only 1 (not 4) you'll get a layout color outside the bounds of the rendering view. You can drag a color from the color palette onto this area of the Stage to change the color of the layout.
• Added the Undo command when working in full screen.
• Added the change view commands when working in full screen.
• The "Camera" tool has been removed. In order to modify a camera/view now you don't have to switch to the camera selection mode anymore. Just press the "1" or "2" or "3" key to modify the camera/view as the following:
     • Press the "1" key and drag to rotate the current view (if not orthogonal) or the selected camera sprite.
        Hold down the Shift key to rotate the target point around the eye point (as moving a photocamera).
     • Press the "2" key and drag to zoom the current view or the selected camera sprite.
        Hold down the Shift key to move both the eye and the target along the view direction.
     • Press the "3" key and translate the current view or the selected camera sprite.
• In order to toggle on/off the symbols of the selected camera (top, front, axo, sprite camera,...) press the key '.
• Addressed issue at the object selection on the Stage window.
• Addressed issue at inserting frames to the sprites with Alt+Drag on the Sprites Window.
• Addressed issue at deleting the unused media files when saving the animation.
• Reuse of the Texture Image files. Kinemac now internally reuses the image texture (already it did with movie textures), so you can apply the same texture to several objects without wasting your video-memory.
• When replacing a texture with a new one, Kinemac updates all the objects' surfaces binded to that old texture.
It's no longer needed to do it manually or to reload the animation file.
• In the Sprite window, drag the Time Marker holding down the Control key to snap to the existing key frame markers.