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Dev update #10: Five year Mine-iversary, an overdue update and new developer


Message added by david

You can now download and use the new version!

https://www.mineimatorforums.com/index.php?/topic/46014-mine-imator-112/

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1 minute ago, WithBonMC59 said:

Will it have Minecraft 1.10 features?

Yes(And up to 1.12 and 1.13 if that comes out before the update does.), along with a system to handle new Minecraft content much better so you don't have to download a new update to get the new content, but rather have it downloaded automatically into Mine-imator soon after a Minecraft update is released.

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By import things by .json files, does that mean you could just import the current mobs from minecraft itself? And better yet, import actual models/shapes into Mineimator?

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Sounds good. I have been stuck with "mi106noyyc" release because the regular versions would be a mess when loading .objects, particles, and generally crashing a lot. This one has been more stable, but still sometimes crashes happen and it is a pain in the ass loading projects with it because the noyyc version is so slow loading the .schematic files.

Looking forward to finally being able to smoothly animate without having to make a backup every 5 minutes under a different folder just in case.

Additional very handy features I would like:

-Have a way to sticky the "Camera" on the timeline so you don't need to scroll up and down looking for it. Maybe add an icon next to every object and when you click it, it doesn't scroll up and down and stays fixed.

-Being able to change "Sunlight range" with the keyframes. Sometimes you can get away with a big sunlight range to get a nice view with the shadows activated if it's a far shoot and there aren't any close mobs near where it would show the graphical glitches. It would be good being able to change this on the fly.

-Being able to zoom in and out with the mousewheel while selecting stuff. This is basic... say you need to select a bunch of keyframes at once, so you need to zoom out. What happens when you zoom out, you can't precisely select when you want to cut the selection, so you would need to zoom in again while you are pressing the mouse button still selecting. I don't know if this makes sense but every editor allows this.

mineimator_selection.png

As you see, when there's a bunch of keyframes together, I would need to be able to zoom back in to precisely know what im selecting but I cant.

 

-A button where if you press it, it puts a keyframe on everything on the selected object. This is insanely handy so you don't need to constantly click click click on keyframes when you want your character to have a totally different position on the next scene. I don't know if im being clear but is also very basic and very handy.

-A search button on the timeline to find stuff quickly:

mineimator_search.png

WIth these simple additions, the workflow would improve a lot.

 

I would like to see the shadow glitch fixed too if possible:

 I don't need to cut that frame on every camera movement on Sony Vegas. It is all about saving time and making it fun and this is specially annoying.

The program also needs to be smoother. When you open the camera windows, the FPS drop a lot and it becomes annoying. Community Build is smoother for some reason.

 

 

Edited by moniker
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Long requested feature? Model importing or multiuser/online support?

This might just bring me and others back into the community. If there are features that will help me make nonminecraft animations then I'll definitely get back into it

My one request is to fix how characters bend. If the size is manipulated in one axis, one half of the arm would be not proportioned correctly when bent.

Edited by GbStudio
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8 hours ago, david said:

cakes.png

Greetings animators!
 
Five years ago on this day I unveiled the first Beta version of Mine-imator to the public, hyped up by the popularity of @Frossa's semi-viral TF2 "Meet the Team" remakes in Minecraft. Despite the program being crude and severely lacking in features and graphical effects, pumped fans jumped head first into it and started making content, and the creation of these forums shortly followed to allow everyone to share their work. I would have never imagined that five years later, people of all ages would still be using Mine-imator to make awesome animations and art. In fact, judging from the number of daily downloads, Mine-imator is more popular than ever, and has started to be used professionally to make graphic novels and to teach animation in tech camps in the US, which of course wouldn't be possible without your continued support!

Now I must admit that, while functional, the program has failed to keep up with the never ending stream of new Minecraft content, and there are still serious issues halting the creative process for some users, occasionally leading to projects getting corrupted and hours of work being forever lost, which sucks. Hard. Therefore, I have decided to take some time off from other projects to deal with these problems before passing over the development torch to someone else. However, since I now also have a full-time job alongside personal projects, progress will take longer than usual, so bear with me!

I'm now announcing that after a 1½ year long wait, a new Mine-imator update is in the works that will be publicly released within the next month or so, first as a pre-release before fully replacing the now outdated version. I can say right now that it will not contain any crazy new rendering effects or animation features, but rather focus on stability and keeping the program up-to-date with all previous and future Minecraft versions, which are the two current main issues with the program.

"But, wait...", I hear you think (yes, mind reading is a neat little perk of being a developer), "...future Minecraft versions? How will that work?". Just read on...

To start off, the update will bring some fundamental changes behind the scenes regarding how character models, blocks, items and schematics are loaded into the program. Without going in too far into the technical details, a big flaw of the current Mine-imator is that everything is stored inside the program executable (hard-coded), which makes it a significant effort trying to keep it up-to-date with all the new mobs and blocks being added into Minecraft at an ever increasing pace. However, in the next update, all the assets will be located in an external archive, along with a specification file that defines what it contains and how it's used.

Along with this, the file handling will be given a make-over, to address some of the crashes and corrupted files people have been having. The program's engine will also utilize a newer DirectX version that could increase the rendering performance for some users.

Among other goodies, this is what you can expect in the update:

  • More stable project/rig loading
  • Blocks and characters being loaded from external JSON files (that may be customized if desired)
  • System for auto-downloading new Minecraft models and textures
  • Some minor graphics-related features
  • New settings for character models and block variations

I have been collaborating with @Nimi, the current undefeated champion of Mine-imator modding, and he has decided to discontinue his "Community Edition" mod in favor of me letting him take over the development of future Mine-imator versions. As an extra bonus, Nimi has been working on a long-requested feature to go along with this update. Exciting, right!? More will be revealed soon... :steve_sneaky:

So basically, a pre-release of a shiny new Mine-imator update will be available for download on the forums within the coming month. I'd appreciate if you could try it out with your new and old projects (just be sure to save some backups if you value them!) so I can iron out the biggest bugs before making it official!

Until then, keep calm and animate on!

What about the Community Build/Community Edition features like Bloom and stuff?

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