A version for Blender 2.80 Beta is now available !
ANIMAX
ANIMAX is a procedural animation system for Blender. Useful for animating multiple objects. It allows you to create complex animations that are hard to achieve using Blender's built in animation tools.
Why ANIMAX ?
You may ask yourself: Why should i use this plugin?
The short answer is: because you can get some professional looking animations, with a very little effort, in a very short time.
The workflow is straightforward, just choose an effect (or make your own), play with the parameters and the timing, and you have your animation ready, no math or programing required.
If you are a motion graphics artist, then ANIMAX would be a great addition to your arsenal.
Features
- 15 different effects to choose from + the custom mode to create your own effects.
- Ease of use, a simple UI and a straightforward workflow.
- Tools for splitting/shattering a mesh object into pieces.
- Convert the procedural animation to keyframes.
- The animation is procedural, but it's possible to keyframe a lot of parameters for more complex animations.
- And much more…
The limitations
ANIMAX isn't an all in one solution for all your animations scenarios, because it's designed for some specific animation types, if you want a more complete tool check out Animation nodes.
- When using ANIMAX you can animate a limited number of objects (2000 objects, with 3-5 fps in my computer), a stronger computer will not help a lot, do to the nature of Python.
- The add-on relies on a Python library "Numpy", which is bundled with the official Blender builds, but not with the daily builds.
- You can Bake (convert to keyframes) only one group of objects at a time.
- You can control only the (loc, rot, scale) of the objects.
Change Log (The latest version is 1.4.0)
- Upgrade to Blender 2.80 Beta.
- Tracking the selection order is now a modal operator.
- New parameter (Seed) for the Random Direction.
- Now uses the new Collections system instead of the old Grouping system.
V 1.3.0 - Video demo
- Presets system for the Custom mode, you can save, load, and share your custom presets.
- Convert the procedural animation to a single animated object using Shape Keys. It's pretty much the same method used in the awesome add-on Animation Joiner.
- Now it's possible to animate the different properties without disabling the Interactive mode.
- bug fix: incorrect baking results when the objects are parented.
V 1.2.0 - Video demo
- Object Picker: To quickly pick an object.
- The possibility to change the location of the add-on's Panel (Tool Shelf, Properties).
- Pushing the objects away (Custom mode, Transformers effect).
- Local Rotation (Custom mode, Copy animation effect).
- The possibility to sort a single direction.
V 1.1.0 - Video demo
- 3 New Effects (Collapse, Rain, Elastic).
- 9 New easing types.
- A new parameter (Offset) for the Spiral effect.
Gratitude
A big THANK YOU to:
Jacques Lucke, Pratik Solanki , Sean Kennedy
A written documentation is included.
And here is a playlist to answer the FAQ (requested by the customers).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEKm0IJXFko&list=PLHQA94bJq143vVSp22yb_lMRtAskqTB-3
First make sure that you are using the latest stable release, daily builds and 2.8 branch are not supported.
You will find the installation instructions in the Manual.
Do not extract the zip file, just install it as is.
For MAC OS users the zip file might be extracted automatically after the download, in this case compress the folder "ANIMAX" to a zip file, then follow the instructions in the Manual.
Some effects are better for transition like (Shoot, Popcorn, Zigzag, Sparks II, Streaks, Custom...etc)
It's not really morphing from an object to another, but it's an illusion, to make it work the most important aspect is timing.
Here is a video in how to do it.
There are several ways to do so:
- By keyframing the Time parameter
- By keyframing the In/Out parameter and the start frame.
- Baking.
And for multiple effects in a row, just keyframe the Effects dropdown menu.
Here is a video in how to do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmkKh463avo
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There are several Blender addons for procedural motion but ANIMAX is by far the most intuitive to use. And the results are great. It has saved me a lot of time on several recent jobs. I am happy it's being updated to work with 2.8!
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good addon and best for creative peoples.
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Excellent addon for anyone wanting to do motion graphics, animated titles, etc. It's easy to use, very customizable (to avoid a recognizable "footprint"), and fast. I was up and running in under an hour without reading the manual. Great work on this! It's a welcome addition to Blender!
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A different way to be creative, great tool
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Great time saver. Prompt and helpful support.
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Good, simple and straight forward animation tool. Thumbs up!
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Awesome. Easy to understand, but powerful and flexible enough to get very unique results. Still experimenting to find all the possibilities. Had some crashes while rendering but baking the animations to keyframes seems to have solved that.
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This little addon is great If you want to create a nice text animation for your video/presentation.
It may not be perfect but It's a good start.
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Easy to achieve impressive effects. Good documentation too.
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Simple to use. Glad I got it.
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Easy to use and happy to see it being updated!
One thing I would love to see as a feature (although don't know if it is intended to be used that way) is to be able to use it for some motion graphics. A bit like the Commotion addon.
Cheers :)
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One of my favorites. Easy to use and powerful results!
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Thanks, I'm glad to hear that!
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I totally love it, very simple to use and great results in no time. Thank you!
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Thank you Zacharias! I'm glad you like it.
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Well done. Easy to use with good results. A good way for quick animation.
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Glad you like it!
Purchase this item to leave a review!
Monaime Zaim over 1 year ago
Thanks for rating, if you mean animating the Shape keys, then Yes it's not intended to do so (at least for the time being).