Keyframe reintroduction #48

thomgrand · 2021-03-17T13:50:05Z

Overview

This feature branch reintroduces keyframes from the standard Blender API back into the node tree. Every exposed property on any node should be animatable this way. This feature uses the fcurve feature along with the Global Time Keeper node to keep track and update the keyframes. It has been tested in limited ways, but looks to bring back a lot of animation functionality usable in other parts of blender. I'm looking forward on your thoughts.

Features

Keyframes can be easily inserted using the hotkey I (default) when hovering over a property.
Alternatively, one can hover and right-click -> Insert Keyframe.
Keyframes can be also deleted this way by right-click -> Clear Keyframes
All animated attributes and their keyframes are displayed in the Global Time Keeper
Keyframe are saved in the current blender version in the .blend file
The Global Time Keeper will dynamically update properties in each frame (if necessary) and backtrack all converter nodes to be updated. This is done by comparing the new fcurve value with the current property value and if the value has changed, looking up all output links from this node recursively until it ends up in one of the following nodes:
- VTK To Blender (Mesh)
- VTK To Blender Volume
- VTK To Blender Particles
The Time Selector node now has an optional flag "Use Scene Time" for backwards compatibility. If true, the time selector node's time step is always equal to the current frame. If disabled, the property can be animated using the Global Time Keeper

Preview

Limitations

Keyframes are not accessible and editable over the dope sheet or graph editor
The interpolation mode will always be set to LINEAR currently and can not be changed. This could be implemented using enum properties, but would need to be dynamic.

Related Issues

… branch. The Global Time Keeper node updates all keyframed properties using the fcurve feature. Not yet tested with the TimeSelector node. Code needs a bit of cleanup.

tkeskita · 2021-03-19T07:04:01Z

Hi Thomas,
this is very interesting, since missing animation possibility in custom nodes is a long standing sore issue in Blender. I'll try to check this out this week!

tkeskita · 2021-03-20T09:58:03Z

__init__.py

+                connected_converter_nodes = backtrack_converter_nodes(node)
+                #Append, ignoring duplicates
+                nodes_2b_updated = nodes_2b_updated.union(set(connected_converter_nodes))
+


Need to add break here? Disabled Scene Time does not seem to work when frame is changed..?

The problem comes probably from the ordering of the node tree. I will fix this by ignoring Time Selector nodes with active scene time directly in the AnimationHelper. Otherwise the Global Time Keeper can potentially overwrite the changes in these lines.

tkeskita · 2021-03-20T10:14:11Z

errors/bvtk_errors.py

@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+
+class BVTKException(Exception):


Here comes now the question: Do we need a custom exception handler? Is it beneficial and justified, or could we use standard exception handlers?

I found the custom handler helpful down the line to distinguish between expected and unexpected errors, but I'm not very attached to the idea. I'll leave this decision up to you.

Well, maybe leave custom exception out now and add later on if needed. My aim is to try to make also error handling clearer in #45. Thanks!

time/animation.py

tkeskita · 2021-03-20T10:22:31Z

time/animation.py

+    current_frame = invalid_frame
+    vtk_time = invalid_vtk_time
+    def setup(self):
+        self.current_frame = int(-1e6)


=invalid_frame ?

tkeskita · 2021-03-20T10:29:19Z

time/animation.py

+        self.current_frame = int(-1e6)
+        self.animated_properties = None
+
+    def get_animated_property_list(self):


Somewhat long and indented function, can it be split?

Maybe I can extract common submethods with update_animated_properties to shorten the method

tkeskita · 2021-03-20T10:30:18Z

time/animation.py

+                    for f_curve in self.f_curves:
+                        prop_path = f_curve.data_path
+                        delimiter_index = prop_path.rindex(".")
+                        node_name = prop_path[7:delimiter_index-2]


Please add comment what is happening here

tkeskita · 2021-03-20T10:35:16Z

time/animation.py

+        animated_properties = {k: (v[0], v[1], v[2], [tmp for tmp in zip(*v[3])], v[4], v[5]) for k, v in animated_properties.items()}
+        return animated_properties
+
+    def update_animated_properties(self, scene):


Similar code here and in get_animated_property_list(), maybe refactor common parts to own function possible?

I will try to refactor the methods

tkeskita · 2021-03-20T10:39:50Z

customfilter.py

+        return self.get_persistent_storage()["updated_nodes"]
+
+    def setup(self):
+        if self.bl_label in persistent_storage["nodes"]:


Add from .cache import persistent_storage needed?

tkeskita · 2021-03-20T10:43:22Z

time/animation.py

@@ -0,0 +1,170 @@
+'''


Lonesome file in own directory. Move to root and rename to animation_helper.py?

Ok, I'll move it to the main directory as suggested.

tkeskita · 2021-03-20T10:51:14Z

OK I've added comments to code, please check them in github (I edited some comments). Overall this feature looks very promising! It also allows to keyframe Time Step value in Time Selector, so it should be possible to get arbitrary time point data from reader in, which I think was the idea in #44 .

thomgrand · 2021-03-22T09:23:33Z

Many thanks for the thorough review and bug-checking. About the error handler, I'll await your decision and otherwise replace the exception thrown in assert_bvtk with a generic one.
I'll try to implement the changes this week, then only the documentation would be missing. Do you have any recommendations where the feature should be promoted in the documentation?

tkeskita · 2021-03-22T15:44:21Z

OK, so let's leave error handler out for now.
For docs I think there could be a new special node section for Global Time Keeper right after Time Selector.
Thanks!

- Invalid frame correctly referenced - Fixed a missing import in setup of Global Time Keeper - Removed the custom BVTKException and moved bvtk_assert to the core - animation.py moved to the main directory and renamed animation_helper.py - Fixed a bug where the Global Time Keeper could overwrite changes in Time Selector nodes with active 'Use Scene Time'

thomgrand · 2021-03-23T08:46:14Z

The new commits should resolve the issues and leave only the documentation to be done.
Edit: The documentation is also now finished.

tkeskita · 2021-03-23T16:06:45Z

Found few bugs:

getting this error in customfilter.py line 495 when changing frame number: return self.get_persistent_storage()["updated_nodes"]
KeyError: 'updated_nodes'
raise BVTKException in customfilter.py
persistent storage is not cleaned if: open file with empty node tree --> add Global Time Keeper -> reload same file without saving -> add Global Time Keeper -> error about second Global Time Keeper node.

… any animated properties.

thomgrand · 2021-03-23T17:50:19Z

The last two commits should hopefully fix the bugs you mentioned.

tkeskita · 2021-03-24T15:47:50Z

Thank you so much! This feature addition is great! Everything I tried worked nice.

thomgrand added 2 commits March 17, 2021 10:37

Initial commit of the standalone keyframe reintroduction from the dev…

9d3f4ca

… branch. The Global Time Keeper node updates all keyframed properties using the fcurve feature. Not yet tested with the TimeSelector node. Code needs a bit of cleanup.

Cleanup of unused code and features

c6b5a8a

tkeskita reviewed Mar 20, 2021

View reviewed changes

time/animation.py Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

tkeskita reviewed Mar 20, 2021

View reviewed changes

thomgrand added 2 commits March 22, 2021 21:54

Refactoring to extract common submethods in animation_helper.py

3db3ce3

Added documentation for the Global Time Keeper feature

80397c2

thomgrand marked this pull request as ready for review March 23, 2021 13:04

thomgrand added 2 commits March 23, 2021 18:30

Fixed a bug when using Global Time Keeper on empty node trees without…

0e4a370

… any animated properties.

Fixed an issue with the Global Time Keeper when reloading the file

d024071

tkeskita merged commit 8b09ab1 into tkeskita:master Mar 24, 2021

tkeskita mentioned this pull request Mar 28, 2021

CountourFilter contour value keyframing does not work #53

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Keyframe reintroduction #48

Keyframe reintroduction #48

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Keyframe reintroduction #48

Keyframe reintroduction #48

Conversation

thomgrand commented Mar 17, 2021

Overview

Features

Preview

Limitations

Related Issues

tkeskita commented Mar 19, 2021

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tkeskita commented Mar 20, 2021

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