Hey Theiss sounds like you've got quite a lot going on there! tbh collada animation was a tough one to test - we've only really got the static stuff to a stable state in the latest revisions.
it may be possible for us to fix the start stop bug if you can send over a sample collada file loaded into a demo that can give us a starting point to debug. The exporter has been given a fairly major facelift recently, allowing multiple containers and meshes to be saved in the as3 class definition. But bones being the complex beasties they are were not included in the current update of the exporter format because of time contraints. most of us are absolutely stacked at the moment with engine dev work, so i have a suggestion. If the project is for a big commercial undertaking with timelines and budgets etc, you may want to consider hiring an Away3d consultant to help solve some of the trickier problems you encounter. This is a service provided though our 'corporate wing' of the engine - Away Media Ltd. Employment is based around flexible hours, and can range from offering pointers on how best to tackle 3d problems, to assisting with code patches that get the features you require working in the time you have available. You might get a core team member on the job, or one of our developers from the Away3d developer network - a collection of freelancers who all specialise in Away3d development. If you're interested then drop me a mail offlist. atb Rob On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 11:04 PM, theiss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Ok. We're planning on doing a pretty ambitious game using simple boned > characters. They need to have multiple animations and textures. Having > the ability to have multiple objects making up a character would be a > bonus (say a gun that can be holstered and drawn for example). > > The main 3D app being used is Maya in OSX, with the COLLADA 3.05b > plugin (the next gen one won't load - says it's missing a library). > > I've tried: > > Method 1: > Creating one long animation in Maya and exporting to COLLADA format. > Loading is fine, but I can't break up the main animation into clips. > > Specifying start and length parameters on the SkinAnimation works > great the first time through, but on all loops after the first, the > start time is being reset to 0 (although the length value seems to > remain constant): > > skinAnimation = model.animationLibrary['default'].animation as > SkinAnimation; > skinAnimation.start = 0; > skinAnimation.length = 0; > > Method 2: > I tried adding a <library_animation_clips> set after the closing </ > library_animations> tag like so: > > <library_animation_clips> > <animation_clip id="anim1" start="0" end="1"> > <instance_animation url="#joint1.rotateX" /> > <instance_animation url="#joint1.rotateY" /> > ... > </animattion_clip> > <animation_clip id="anim2" start="1" end="2"> > <instance_animation url="#joint1.rotateX" /> > <instance_animation url="#joint1.rotateY" /> > ... > </animation_clip> > </library_animation_clips> > > and loading them with: > > var animationData:AnimationData = (model.animationLibrary['anim2'] > as > AnimationData); > if (animationData != null && animationData.animation != null) > skinAnimation = animationData.animation as SkinAnimation; > > but both anim1 and anim2 play as the whole clip (the main testing > animation is 72 frames). > > I tried altering the COLLADA data as suggested elsewhere in the group > discussions like: > <animation_clip id="anim1"> > <instance_animation url="#joint1.rotateX" start="0" end="1" > /> > <instance_animation url="#joint1.rotateY" start="0" end="1" > /> > ... > </animattion_clip> > > but that didn't work either. The animation played was the entire clip. > > Method 3: > I tried exporting mesh "keyframes" from Maya as DAE, pulling them into > Blender and exporting those as AS3 classes, then using the animator > class to tween between them, but ran into a problem because (I'm > assuming) when I baked the meshes, I excluded the bones (as they were > now unnecessary), which removed the connections between objects, and > now each mesh is composed of multiple objects. This results in only > the first object being tweened across the meshes and some oddness in > the tweening (I'm thinking because of the multiple objects thing). > > If we make sure all of those AS3 classes only contain one object, it > works fine (multiple objects work in the COLLADA animation files in > methods 1 and 2, but that may be because of the bones connecting > them). > > The biggest issue we have with using the animator class like this is > when we update geometry, we have to export all of the mesh keyframes > again, pull them into blender, export as AS3... It's an overtly > complicated workflow and we will have a *lot* of characters to work > with. > > Don't get me wrong, the animator class is pretty damn awesome, we're > just finding needs that seem to break it and we'd like to keep the > amount of files to a minimum. > > What we need: > We'd prefer to be able to call out animation clips inside the COLLADA > file, making them available to call, by name, when needed in the > ActionScript. Being able to to dat would make any change made to the > geometry/animation relatively easy to update, but I just can't get the > clips to work right. > > Unfortunately, the MD2 format and Blender are not production options > for us. > > We chose Away3D for its animation support and, for simple animations, > it's been great. It's just this latest, more-complex issue we've run > into (oh, and while we can't cut up the clips, the bones animation > works *really* well - I am truly impressed, devs!). > > Any suggestions, ideas, whatever would be *extremely* appreciated. > I've been trying to work this out myself for 3 days now and I fear I > may be going insane. A lot of the Away3D classes, when I look at them > make my head swim. This is some seriously complex stuff you guys have > got going on here. =) -- Rob Bateman Flash Development & Consultancy [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.infiniteturtles.co.uk www.away3d.com
