OK, sold! what convinced me especially was
> Marking set is a custom parameter set with a hard-coded
> name(everything will break if you would rename it)
and
> The proliferation of filters and menu commands in XSI is
> symptomatic of trying to do everything excessivly generic
> and non-commital at the cost of complexity, in some cases
> innability to optimize
So when I move to XSI 5, I'll do a little script to convert marking sets
to keyable parameters so that I can continue to use Biped Guide and Rig,
until they are updated. However, the Animation->Actions->Store menu
should be updated ASAP with a "Keyable Parameters - Current Values"
choice. Maybe Softimage could provide a plugin for that?
Thanks for the explanation,
Christian Rittener
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM
> [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of Luc-Eric Rousseau
> Sent: December 1, 2005 13:06
> To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM
> Subject: RE: questions about the animation editor in V5.01 Part 2
>
>
> There are some advantages to Market Set, yes, and not all our
> content has been updated yet.
>
> However the Key Panel are not necessarily more complicated,
> it's more complicated only if you only know XSI and have an
> heavy investement in market sets. Keyable parameters in XSI
> is exactly the way that Maya works, so anyone comming out of
> school with Maya rigging training gets it.
>
> The TD hides (or shows) the real parameters from the
> animator, not make a copy in a separate property set. If you
> need more 'meta' parameters on an object to key something,
> you add a custom parameter onto the object, linked with an
> expression from the actual parameter (wherever it lies,
> including a geometry parameter or other object), and make it
> keyable. Or non-keyable if you only needed it for your
> implementation. And you'll hide the parameter which the
> animation shouldn't ever see or touch. You can prevent the
> animator from keying parameters by mistake through srt
> marking and similar.
>
> The animator selects control objects, and keys all keyable
> parameters (object or branch), locking the rig in place. The
> keyable parmeter selector, combined with expressions and
> custom parameters is the Interface Builder for the rig, and
> that interface apears in the Keying Panel (a.k.a Channel Box).
>
> --
>
> Marking set is a custom parameter set with a hard-coded name
> (everything will break if you would rename it), with a link
> to other parameters, it doesn't do anything to protect the
> other parameters, and you loose some of the grouping UI
> information and proper title. The software is often confused
> as to what to show because the same parameter is in two
> places. Parameters apear in two places, sometimes alongside
> parameters that should be hidden. Keyable Parameters leave
> parameters where they are and just set a flag on them to show
> or hide them.
>
> Keyable parameters are not about seeing stuff in the explorer
> (as mentionned below), it's actually about hiding stuff.
> (note : the Scene Explorer DOES have a keyable parameter
> filter) The TD works with everything visible, and the
> animator with everything set to Key Panel Parameter filter.
> In the future we can optimize more, and build more tools for
> the TD-side to design the animator-side of the user interface
> with less SPDL hacking, scripting, etc, necessary.
>
> --
>
> For the non-TD person, which we'd like to be always in
> Keyable Parameter filter mode (the default I believe in maya
> mode), they can just show or hide parameters from the Keying
> Panel with the GUI. The non-TD person is also very important
> to Softimage, the software's gotta be easy to use without training.
>
> The software can provide proper good defaults in the future
> for various commands so that the user doesn't have to ask
> "do I want the Marking set parameters, the marked parameters,
> the transforms, the animated parameters?" in multiple menus
> and views. The proliferation of filters and menu commands in
> XSI is symptomatic of trying to do everything excessivly
> generic and non-commital at the cost of complexity, in some
> cases innability to optimize (for performance and UI) for
> real-life senarios. No doubt some people will disagree with
> this, but XSI needs to understand that the user is animating,
> animating what, with that can provide a better user experience for it.
>
> ------------------
> Luc-Eric Rousseau
> Team Leader, User Interface
> Softimage|XSI
>
>
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