A friend of mine has closed the loop between maya and his system for doing IK track compensation moves. Ideal for multi-scale moves. Having looked into this myself years ago I know that this is non-trivial. Impressive work Gerald Thompson!
Demo showing creation of animated camera in Maya with export to Mantis Motion Control from Gerald Thompson on Vimeo.
I've been working on this on and off for a while now. Ever since I got Maya talking with the Arduino. I thought to myself, "wouldn't it be nice if there was a free app that wasn't bloated and designed just for animating parameters?" Well, I just hit my first milestone for this goal. Eventually I would like to add multi-segment Bezier Curves. Then I would like to have multiple channels of animation. It's all written in Processing so serial communication with the Arduino should be simple. The trickiest thing to get working was the lookup of the Y value on the curve based on where the Time Slider is.
Many thanks to Ben Paschke for finding the function I needed in the Blender Source Code and helping me port it to Processing.
There is another Processing Tool out there called Timeline but it's heading in a different direction than I am and I wasn't a fan of it's mixed languages and non-realtime Y lookup function. Plus, I thought this would be a good challenge to set for myself considering the industry I am working in :)
Hotkeys:
Spacebar = Play/Pause
J = Play Forward
K = Play Backward
L = Pause
Left Arrow = Step Backward 1 Frame
Right Arrow = Step Forward 1 Frame
Click and Drag to Position the Handles or Timeslider
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Stepper Motor skecth for use with the EasyDriver v4.2 //
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Dan Thompson 2010
//
// Use this code at your own risk.
//
// For all the product details visit http://www.schmalzhaus.com/EasyDriver/
// For the full tutorial visit http://danthompsonsblog.blogspot.com/
////// ED_v4 Step Mode Chart //////
// //
// MS1 MS2 Resolution //
// L L Full step (2 phase) //
// H L Half step //
// L H Quarter step //
// H H Eighth step //
// //
////////////////////////////////////
int DIR = 3; // PIN 3 = DIR
int STEP = 2; // PIN 2 = STEP
int MS1 = 13; // PIN 13 = MS
int MS2 = 9; // PIN 9 = MS2
int SLEEP = 12; // PIN 12 = SLP
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600); // open the serial connection at 9600bps
pinMode(DIR, OUTPUT); // set pin 3 to output
pinMode(STEP, OUTPUT); // set pin 2 to output
pinMode(MS1, OUTPUT); // set pin 13 to output
pinMode(MS2, OUTPUT); // set pin 9 to output
pinMode(SLEEP, OUTPUT); // set pin 12 to output
}
void loop()
{
int modeType = 1; // This number increases by multiple of 2 each through the while loop..
// ..to identify our step mode type.
while (modeType<=8){ // loops the following block of code 4 times before repeating .
digitalWrite(DIR, LOW); // Set the direction change LOW to HIGH to go in opposite direction
digitalWrite(MS1, MS1_MODE(modeType)); // Set state of MS1 based on the returned value from the MS1_MODE() switch statement.
digitalWrite(MS2, MS2_MODE(modeType)); // Set state of MS2 based on the returned value from the MS2_MODE() switch statement.
digitalWrite(SLEEP, HIGH); // Set the Sleep mode to AWAKE.
int i = 0; // Set the counter variable.
while(i<(modeType*200)) // Iterate for 200, then 400, then 800, then 1600 steps.
// Then reset to 200 and start again.
{
digitalWrite(STEP, LOW); // This LOW to HIGH change is what creates the..
digitalWrite(STEP, HIGH); // .."Rising Edge" so the easydriver knows to when to step.
delayMicroseconds(1600/modeType); // This delay time determines the speed of the stepper motor.
// Delay shortens from 1600 to 800 to 400 to 200 then resets
i++;
}
modeType = modeType * 2; // Multiply the current modeType value by 2 and make the result the new value for modeType.
// This will make the modeType variable count 1,2,4,8 each time we pass though the while loop.
delay(500);
}
digitalWrite(SLEEP, LOW); // switch off the power to stepper
Serial.print("SLEEPING..");
delay(1000);
Serial.print("z");
delay(1000);
Serial.print("z");
delay(1000);
Serial.print("z");
delay(1000);
Serial.println("");
digitalWrite(SLEEP, HIGH);
Serial.println("AWAKE!!!"); // Switch on the power to stepper
delay(1000);
}
int MS1_MODE(int MS1_StepMode){ // A function that returns a High or Low state number for MS1 pin
switch(MS1_StepMode){ // Switch statement for changing the MS1 pin state
// Different input states allowed are 1,2,4 or 8
case 1:
MS1_StepMode = 0;
Serial.println("Step Mode is Full...");
break;
case 2:
MS1_StepMode = 1;
Serial.println("Step Mode is Half...");
break;
case 4:
MS1_StepMode = 0;
Serial.println("Step Mode is Quarter...");
break;
case 8:
MS1_StepMode = 1;
Serial.println("Step Mode is Eighth...");
break;
}
return MS1_StepMode;
}
int MS2_MODE(int MS2_StepMode){ // A function that returns a High or Low state number for MS2 pin
switch(MS2_StepMode){ // Switch statement for changing the MS2 pin state
// Different input states allowed are 1,2,4 or 8
case 1:
MS2_StepMode = 0;
break;
case 2:
MS2_StepMode = 0;
break;
case 4:
MS2_StepMode = 1;
break;
case 8:
MS2_StepMode = 1;
break;
}
return MS2_StepMode;
}
I made a curve editor thingy! Well, not really a curve. It only does Linear Interpolation. It's a start. ;)
Press the hotkeys 1 or 2 and move the mouse to change the keyframes. If it doesn't work first time, try clicking in the frame first.
Edit: Check out the latest progress with this curve editor here!
Just another Iteration. This one has button images! Find out more in the Original Post
I have started contributing to the OpenMoco project. It's basically a well thought out motion control engine and intervalometer that people can use to build their own motion control contraptions.
The first GUI is going to be based on the Touchshield Slide by liquidware. This is a very exciting time for us DIY moco enthusiasts.
The applet you see above is purely to test functionallity. There are already several people designing the look of GUI and I gotta say I like what I've seen so far. I will slowly add flashy buttons and sliders as the are discussed and agreed upon. If you want to contribute to the project I suggest you head on over to open moco forums and make yourself known!
You can check out the next iteration of the GUI here.
I have finally taken the plunge and released Servo Tools For Maya to the world!
Servo Tools For Maya is a Python Plugin that sends rotational values over USB the the Arduino Micro Controller. These values are then converted in to Pulse Width Modulation which is used to control multiple Hobby RC Servo Motors.
Applications for the plugin are only limited to your imagination. Some popular examples could be to drive complex animatronic puppetry or kinetic sculpture art installations.
Current Features Include:
- Control up to 4 Servos simultaneously. (see tutorials on how to add support for more)
- High Level GUI for building servoWrite node network.
- Ability to calibrate you servo's range and limits directly from Maya.
- Serial Connection over USB cable to hardware
Hardware Requirements:
- USB Cable
- Arduino Micro Controller
- At least 1 RC hobby servo
Software Requirements:
- The Scripts and Plugin available from this page
- Python (separate from the one that comes with Maya 8.5+)
- PySerial Python Module for Serial Communication
- Maya 8.5 or Higher (32-bit only)
- Latest Arduino Software
PLEASE NOTE:
I'm still prepping the Documentation in Video Form. So unless you are familiar with all of the above concepts, I would wait for the videos before you dive in. They should be ready in a week or two when I get back from holiday.
This looks awesome. Exactly the kind of thing I'm after. I love it's modular design.
Check out gadgetgangster.com for more info.
A friend of mine recently brought this product to my attention. It looks to be acceptional value for money at an introductory price of $999.99(I'm assuming it's USD) . We are both curious about the timelapse and repeatable motion capabilities on this unit. From what I can tell, it's just a remote control speed and direction pan tilt head.
I'm wondering if anyone reading this has bought one or knows any more. If nothing else I imagine you could modify it with your own stepper or servo motors based on your moco requirements. This is the best value for money unit I have seen so far. As always, your comments are welcome.
Check out this link for more details on the PT-2100
Shutterdrone has done it again with another great tutorial. If you are into DIY timelapse photography then you can't go past this one. It's part of a fast growing body of knowledge on the open moco website. What is open moco? It's not to be confused with open moko(open source mobile phone platform). Openmoco.org is a website dedicated to DIY motion control.
This tutorial is not only an introduction to Inervalometers, but also a step by step guide on how to build your own with a few simple components.
For the full tutorial and more moco goodness visit the openmoco.org.
So it's been several weeks since I posted any real progress on the DIY Moco front. So here is a bit of an update.
