ANIMAX

ANIMAX is a procedural animation system for Blender that makes animating multiple objects simple. It allows you to create complex animations – which are hard to achieve using Blender's built-in animation tools – much quicker and easier.

Why ANIMAX ?

You may be asking yourself: why should I use this plugin?

The short answer is: it allows you to make highly professional animations with very little effort in a short space of time.

The workflow is straightforward. Simply choose an effect (or make your own), then play with the parameters and the timing, and you’ll have an animation in no time – all with no math or programming required.

If you’re a motion graphics artist, ANIMAX makes a great addition to your toolbox.

Features

• 18 different effects to choose from + the custom mode to create your own effects.
• easy to use, simple UI and straightforward workflow.
• tools for splitting/shattering a mesh object into pieces.
• convert the procedural animation to keyframes or to shape keys.
• the animation is procedural, but it's possible to keyframe many of the parameters to make more complex animations.
• and much more… 

The limitations

ANIMAX isn't an all in one solution for every type of animation, as it's designed for certain specific animation types. If you want a more complete tool (although with a steeper learning curve), check out Animation nodes.

• ANIMAX can animate a limited number of objects (3000 to 4000, with 3-5 fps on my computer); unfortunately, a stronger computer won’t help much, due to the nature of Python.

• The add-on relies on a Python library called "Numpy", which is bundled with the official Blender builds, but not the daily builds.

• You can only Bake (convert to keyframes) one group of objects at a time.

• You can only control the location, rotation and scale of the objects.

Change Log

V 1.6.0

• bug fix: Wrong index on the UI list when deleting all the elements, it was a harmless bug, but fixed anyway.
• New fracturing tool named “Mesh Slicing”.
• Performance improvement, approximately double the speed in most cases, the more objects in the collection the more performance gain.
• New, more robust way for adding the collections, now it’s possible to add multiple collections, and to enable and sort the collections in one go.
• Bake to the delta transform.
• Bake only the Location, the Rotation or the Scale.
• Set the start and end frame of the baking automatically.
• Copy/Paste the effects.
• The possibility to invert the random direction.
• Hide the objects of a the collection from the add-ons list.
• “Clear Keyframes”: it’s possible specify what channels you want to remove.
• Butterfly effect: The vibration not uniform.
• Custom selection order speed up.
• Small UI improvements and another round of code clean-up.

V 1.5.0

• bug fix: Incorrect icons for the random addition (Custom mode).
• bug fix: "Keep Original" in the "Split Operator" was not working as expected.
• Start frame could be a negative number.
• Exposed the "Material offset" of the Solidify modifier in the UI (Split Operator).
• Improved performance for the Follow Curve effect + the ability to change the resolution of the curve right from the add-on's panel.
• Refactoring of the Copy Animation effect, almost 50% speedup.
• Shoot effect performance improvement + new parameter "Add Noise" to randomize the movement of the objects.
• The easing list has separated words for better readability.
• The ability to run the "Cell Fracture" add-on from the split tab (if enabled).
• Optimization of the "Custom Selection" operator, at least 400% faster now.
• Code cleanup and some small optimizations.

V 1.4.4

• bug fix: Deleting the wrong Collections when using the Split operators.

V 1.4.3

• bug fix: Rotation panel not showing up in the Custom mode (Blender 2.82).
• bug fix: Local Rotation not showing up in the Copy Animation effect (Blender 2.82).
• bug fix: Object selection in drop down lists not working properly.

V 1.4.1

•  bug fix: (Scene has no attribute cursor_location), do to this change in the API on March 1st 2019. ANIMAX 1.4.0 works with the versions of Blender prior to March 1st.

V 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.

V 1.2.1

•  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