Hey all… My background is in video, 2D, and 3D animation, mainly as a hobbyist but with professional logo animation and effects experience. I also have experience as a concert video performer and I have been brainstorming about a VJ tool that could utilize user made polygon mesh animations for concerts, parties, live events etc… eyecandy essentially — a game engine seemed the obvious choice and Panda is definitely the obvious choice there. The specs would be very simple but the most important would be the use of primary and secondary displays-- the primary being the GUI and the secondary would be the output…beyond that the execution would seem to be relatively straightforward-- really just a way to get sequences made in Maya to be manipulatable in a live environment via user input. My scripting skills are still developing but I am somewhat comfortable with MEL-- and Python is an obvious next step here.
if you are still listening, these are my questions:
a) how can I get Panda to work with a MIDI controller?
(assuming this would require C++ which I don’t know, but have seen C++ libraries available for online and I am blessed with friends who know C++) --also I realize I could fall back on a midi to keypress translator which may serve just as well…
b) How would you make a secondary display in Panda? I can only make one window…
c) If you, as experienced Panda developers, were to undertake this venture, how would you go about it from a development standpoint?
Thanks for any and all input, I am excited to find yet another tool for artistic expression and another online community to share vision with.
dp
Hi, welcome to panda3d
while i didnt entirely read your entire history textblock your questions answers would be:
a) search for a python midi library/module (there are severals out there , i’m sure one will fit your needs)
b)http://www.panda3d.org/manual/index.php/Creating_Windows_and_Buffers
c)(darn i just noticed i has to reat the text above to anser) ahm. learning python would be my first step, and then starting to tinker around with panda.
Python is on my list… I am a quick learner so hopefully I will have some stuff to share in the coming weeks.
Thanks!
dp
one of my goals for this eyecandy program is to be able to loop animations in time with music— I will have to figure out a beat tap function, but that is later…
right now I am trying to figure out a way to make simple modular LFO (Low frequency oscillator) functions. All these need to do is pass through a series of values to whatever I need them to… e.g. a simple sine wave. Rather like keyframe values that can be scaled and reused on anything, like animation sequences or joint Pos or Hpr.
All I need is a little nudge in the right direction so I don’t spend too much time trying to reinvent the wheel.
questions:
a) should I focus on creating individual tasks for each LFO, or one task that handles all oscillations, or…
b) should I not worry about tasks at all and store my oscillations values as dictionary key/value pairs to be executed via tasks or other functions?
c) I have also considered creating a dummy actor node that is not rendered and running various oscillations as joint animations and drawing my values from those…(too circuitous?)
I imaging I may need more than one of these solutions to pull off the flexibility that I am attempting— I also expect that I am totally misunderstanding the problem and there is an x.factor that will put me in my place.
Thanks!
dp