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Animax - Procedural Animation System

by Monaime in Scripts and Addons

Video Demo

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 1.5.0)

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