Creature 2D Animation Tool runtimes?

  • #1, z kestrelmMonday, 10. July 2017, 01:13 hodinky 7 years ago
    Hello all,

    I am the developer of the Creature Animation Tool:

    This is an advanced 2D Animation Tool that does mesh deformation, cloth, soft body dynamics and other complex procedural motion using its animation motor system.

    I already have runtimes for a wide variety of game engines and I am wondering if it is also possible to get something working for Visionaire Studio.

    Will anybody be interested in a potential Creature Animation runtime for Visionaire Studio? Please let me know.

    You can also contact me back on the webpage provided.

    Cheers,
    Kestrel Moon Studios

    Bažant

    4 Posts


  • #2, z MachtnixMonday, 10. July 2017, 01:51 hodinky 7 years ago
    The Trial version is completely Free and has features like data saving removed.
    That means I can't save? OK, if I can't use / save my datas I can't check if the tool is useful for Visionaire... wink wink

    Kapitán

    1097 Posts

  • #3, z sebastianMonday, 10. July 2017, 08:20 hodinky 7 years ago
    The Trial version is completely Free and has features like data saving removed.
    That means I can't save? OK, if I can't use / save my datas I can't check if the tool is useful for Visionaire... wink wink

    thats normal business, Machtnix. 
    Your animations will only be saved in the editors own format but cant be exported to be used anywhere else... 

    The Spine Integration also works only with exported spine files - which are only saveable when you at least buy the essentials pack. 

    Same goes for VS itself. Free version = test it, see it, but dont export it wink 


    regarding kestrelm's tool itself:

    Never heard of that tool before, but seems to be roughly the same coverage of features as spine, spriter or dragonbones deliver. 

    i guess the Integration has to be handled by Simon himself to make the engine make use of your files, api or whatever. If your programml can expkrt in spine compatible files it should already work... 


    kind regards 
    Sebastian 

    Kapitán

    2346 Posts

  • #4, z JoelMonday, 10. July 2017, 10:38 hodinky 7 years ago
    Creature looks very interesting i've seen it mentioned more and more as an alternative to Spine and a very capable one smile I think a runtime for Visionaire would be great! The more Compability with Animation Tools Visionaire has, the better in my opinion and if the developer of Creature even approaches us and offers his help, i think Visionaire should grab the Opportunity wink

    Fanoušek fóra

    129 Posts

  • #5, z SimonSMonday, 10. July 2017, 12:24 hodinky 7 years ago
    I've been asked for runtimes for:

    - Spine (done)
    - Spriter
    - DragonBones
    and now this one.

    Adding runtimes is very time consuming. Also I must make sure it will work with all graphicbackends.

    Kapitán

    1582 Posts

  • #6, z afrlmeMonday, 10. July 2017, 13:12 hodinky 7 years ago
    I've been asked for runtimes for:

    - Spine (done)
    - Spriter
    - DragonBones
    and now this one.

    Adding runtimes is very time consuming. Also I must make sure it will work with all graphicbackends.
    Well, on the plus side mate, there does seem to be a dedicated normal map application to go along with it. Guess you could kill 2 birds with 1 stone. wink


    Spriter makes sense as it's one of the most popular sprite part animation applications & it's fairly cheap, whereas DragonBones is 100% free, but has Spine export anyway, so would there even be a point in creating official support for it seeing as you've already implemented Spine runtime?

    Anyway... some of the features listed in Creature look very promising. I really should learn how to use one of these sprite part animation programs at some point.

    Imperátor

    7285 Posts

  • #7, z kestrelmSunday, 16. July 2017, 08:55 hodinky 7 years ago
    Hello,

    Thanks for the very useful discussion on this thread! Very informative smile
    In terms of actual features, Creature is 100% mesh based ( even the Standard version offers mesh skinning. Full blown IK is also offered in the Standard version, as well as a variety of physics motors for all sorts of interesting dynamics effects )

    I think having a Creature runtime will add quite a bit of visual fidelity to your engine. Here is an example of what the Creature runtimes are capable of producing:

    There is also a lightweight version of it called CreaturePack that is even easier to integrate ( also 100% mesh based ) It is designed for large crowds of characters and very performant. Here it is running ( everything authored in the scene is done with Creature, with the exception of particles):


    If your backend is C++, C# or WebGL, I will be happy to help integrate the runtimes into your system.

    Cheers

    Bažant

    4 Posts

  • #8, z afrlmeSunday, 16. July 2017, 12:16 hodinky 7 years ago
    Hello,

    Thanks for the very useful discussion on this thread! Very informative smile
    In terms of actual features, Creature is 100% mesh based ( even the Standard version offers mesh skinning. Full blown IK is also offered in the Standard version, as well as a variety of physics motors for all sorts of interesting dynamics effects )

    I think having a Creature runtime will add quite a bit of visual fidelity to your engine. Here is an example of what the Creature runtimes are capable of producing:

    There is also a lightweight version of it called CreaturePack that is even easier to integrate ( also 100% mesh based ) It is designed for large crowds of characters and very performant. Here it is running ( everything authored in the scene is done with Creature, with the exception of particles):


    If your backend is C++, C# or WebGL, I will be happy to help integrate the runtimes into your system.

    Cheers
    It's c++ but very unlikely that Alex or Simon would let you anywhere near the source code, let alone mess about with it. Simon, never said "never", but he's currently working on other stuff that he needs to finish first.

    Quick question: is C# the only option for manipulating the sprite part animations during runtime? The reason I ask this is because the extensible scripting language of Visionaire Studio is Lua script. I think they used that because it's fairly easy to learn & it's fairly fast - at least with LuaJIT.

    Imperátor

    7285 Posts

  • #9, z MachtnixSunday, 16. July 2017, 18:16 hodinky 7 years ago
    thats normal business, Machtnix. 
    Your animations will only be saved in the editors own format but cant be exported to be used anywhere else... 

    The Spine Integration also works only with exported spine files - which are only saveable when you at least buy the essentials pack. 

    Same goes for VS itself. Free version = test it, see it, but dont export it wink
    That's what I mean: I can't check if the tool file formats fits to Visionaire before buying the unknown stuff. Maybe I can export png-files to test a frame animation.

    Kapitán

    1097 Posts

  • #10, z kestrelmSunday, 16. July 2017, 19:27 hodinky 7 years ago

    It's c++ but very unlikely that Alex or Simon would let you anywhere near the source code, let alone mess about with it. Simon, never said "never", but he's currently working on other stuff that he needs to finish first.

    Quick question: is C# the only option for manipulating the sprite part animations during runtime? The reason I ask this is because the extensible scripting language of Visionaire Studio is Lua script. I think they used that because it's fairly easy to learn & it's fairly fast - at least with LuaJIT.

    Hello,

    So right now the supported languages are: C++, C#, JS, Java, Haxe ( to Flash )
    You can check out the list of runtimes here:

    I also have the full documentation online:

    It wouldn't be impossible to do a lua version of it, but I did remember at some point I attempted to port it to LuaJIT but the initial results from loading the point meshes were not very acceptable. Maybe LuaJIT's performance has improved since then?

    Cheers

    Bažant

    4 Posts

  • #11, z kestrelmMonday, 17. July 2017, 01:37 hodinky 7 years ago

    thats normal business, Machtnix. 
    Your animations will only be saved in the editors own format but cant be exported to be used anywhere else... 

    The Spine Integration also works only with exported spine files - which are only saveable when you at least buy the essentials pack. 

    Same goes for VS itself. Free version = test it, see it, but dont export it wink 


    regarding kestrelm's tool itself:

    Never heard of that tool before, but seems to be roughly the same coverage of features as spine, spriter or dragonbones deliver. 

    i guess the Integration has to be handled by Simon himself to make the engine make use of your files, api or whatever. If your programml can expkrt in spine compatible files it should already work... 


    kind regards 
    Sebastian 
    @Sebastian Hello, sorry I missed out on a couple of the thread messages smile The format Creature exports out is much more general than Spine, Creature is 100% mesh based and optimised for high performance 2D mesh deformation. Spine's format, though supporting mesh deformation, is still quite a bit different and less general then what Creature does.

    Creature, other than exporting out its own format, also exports to industry standard mesh skinning formats like FBX and Alembic point caches. The file format of Creature was designed around an Animation Industry Standard toolset. This means users can also choose to export out Creature animations into tools like Maya, Houdini etc. for further polish. Of course if Visionaire has plans to support FBX import in the future, then most of the Creature animations will also work in the engine.

    Cheers

    Bažant

    4 Posts