Creature Pro Windows User Experience

Discuss issues pertaining to the Creature Animation Editor here.
zampano
Posts: 70
Joined: Wed Jun 07, 2017 3:37 pm

Creature Pro Windows User Experience

Post by zampano » Thu Jun 22, 2017 9:06 am

Hello!
I've been using Creature Pro for Windows for a couple weeks now and I really like it. It has a few bugs, but I can live with that so far for the results are superb. The amount of features is crazy.
There are however a few simple points I where I would want to see some improvement in order to make the user experience so much better, since it's quite a bit over complicated or even annoying at times. There are a lot of smaller things that could easily be improved but I'm just gonna talk about those that will make the biggest difference in my opinion for now.

So far, it mostly revolves around the spline view.

1. In spline view, the vertical zoom sometimes doesn't go far enough. Maybe it would help to have an (additional) slider or factor for each value, so that I could zoom x position more than angle if necessary
2. When trying to move the tangents of a keyframe in spline view, it's very annoying that I have to make two clicks each time: One to select the node and one to move it. It would be so much more comfortable to make it movable with the first click.
3. When moving tangents, it's tricky to not change the value at the same time, both because you always need to memorize the initial value and because it has to be pretty pixel perfect. If it would be possible to hold i.e. the shift key to lock the movement to horizontal only, that would be SO helpful.
4. Being able to select multiple keyframes in spline mode would help a lot, too.
5. Setting all nodes to curve doesn't work as expected. If I set all nodes to curve one at a time, the tangents are always horizontal. When setting all at once, it results in over- and undershooting the values I want to achieve in between the nodes. Also, the last node does not get a tangent at all.
6. When moving a node vertically, I feel it would be so much more practical to have the tangents move with it. This way, the animation would not be broken each time you change a value and you wouldn't need to manually correct the tangents over and over again.

I think that's all for now. It's a great program and it already has so many features but I think there's need for some polishing of the basic workflow things in order to match the ambitious overall scope.

That said, I'm looking forward to creating more amazing animations with it :)

chong
Posts: 1178
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 2:21 am

Re: Creature Pro Windows User Experience

Post by chong » Thu Jun 22, 2017 3:41 pm

Hello,

Excellent feedback and a fantastic writeup! Really appreciate it.
Those points you have written down are all very valid, some of them are easier to implement/fix than others.
The spline/tangent editing implementation is actually a bit more complicated than it seems ( as it always is ). However, I should be able to address at least some of what you raised in the short term. The 2 clicks to modify a point was something some other users wanted since they mis-clicked once before resulting in unwanted modifications. I will need to see what else can be done to address that issue.
I will study them right now and see what I can address for the next few updates.

Update Holding down the SHIFT key which will mean locking down x and only allowing y manipulation of tangent knots will be in for the next update. I will also try to add more fixes to your other points as well, so stay tuned. Next update will hit in 1 - 2 weeks or so.

Cheers

zampano
Posts: 70
Joined: Wed Jun 07, 2017 3:37 pm

Re: Creature Pro Windows User Experience

Post by zampano » Thu Jun 29, 2017 1:13 pm

Hey chong,
I've seen that you've already implemented a few of the things I suggested in the new version, which is great!
Unfortunately, holding shift does exactly the opposite of what I was getting at :D Oftentimes I just want to make the tangent shorter or longer without changing the value of the tangent end point, so I just want to move it on the x plane without changing y. Maybe it would be possible to add in ctrl, alt, or alt+shift for horizontal movement while keeping shift for vertical?

The fix of my 6th point is perfect, thank you!
Are 2, 4 and 5 trickier than expected or are they just further down on your to-do-list? :)

Oh, one more thing: It would be pretty great if the advanced export window would remember the last used resolution of the project.

Thanks again!
zampano

chong
Posts: 1178
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 2:21 am

Re: Creature Pro Windows User Experience

Post by chong » Thu Jun 29, 2017 4:01 pm

Hello,

So you want Shift to hold Y instead of X? Is that what you mean? Yes maybe ALT + SHIFT is what you are looking for to lock the other axis? I will look into that.

2,4 and 5 are a lot trickier. Those take time and I will need to investigate which ones are viable for the next few updates.
Advanced export remembering the last used resolution is also a good idea. Will look into that too.

Update: SHIFT+ALT will lock down your y displacement so you can only translate on X for the next update. This means you have the option to lock either translational axis.

Cheers

zampano
Posts: 70
Joined: Wed Jun 07, 2017 3:37 pm

Re: Creature Pro Windows User Experience

Post by zampano » Thu Jun 29, 2017 4:19 pm

Superb!

5 and 2 would be an enormous help with the workflow since it would basically cut the amount of clicks by half, so I'm looking forward to any news on those whenever there are any :)

chong
Posts: 1178
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 2:21 am

Re: Creature Pro Windows User Experience

Post by chong » Thu Jun 29, 2017 4:59 pm

Hello,

Good news. I should be able to give you 2) as well for the next update.

Cheers

zampano
Posts: 70
Joined: Wed Jun 07, 2017 3:37 pm

Re: Creature Pro Windows User Experience

Post by zampano » Tue Jul 04, 2017 10:07 am

That's great to hear =)

zampano
Posts: 70
Joined: Wed Jun 07, 2017 3:37 pm

Re: Creature Pro Windows User Experience

Post by zampano » Fri Jul 07, 2017 11:54 am

Thank you very much for the new changes, that really makes working SO MUCH more fluent! =)

Here's some more feedback, I hope I'm not annoying you :D
When importing PSD files, layers that are not graphically connected (for example an "eyes" layer with the two eyes on it that have a gap in between them) will be split to two meshes in creature, one called the same as the layer from the psd and one just called TextureMeshX.
1) It would be cool if the layers could be importing as they are.
2) Additionally, a button to merge two meshes would be great!
3) A button to draw completely new meshes would be great also, since it has happened that I needed to add more stuff to the spritesheet (manually) after starting to animate, but since I can't mesh the new elements without remeshing everything else, it requires me to start over again if I'm correct.

Also found a couple of bugs
- I can't put a "." into the expression field or any other popup field by hand, I need to copy it in because "." is shortcut for "next frame"
- setting playback speed to 30 or 24 fps in the preferences makes playing anymations impossible, they just jitter around like crazy for some reason. 60 and 100 work just fine.

Edit:
Has anything changed about the json export? I get

Code: Select all

CreatureMeshBone.js:2321 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'bones' of undefined
with newly exported files while the old ones still work.

chong
Posts: 1178
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 2:21 am

Re: Creature Pro Windows User Experience

Post by chong » Fri Jul 07, 2017 4:19 pm

Hello,

The mesh operation features are very good suggestions, I will again investigate and see how it should/can be implemented :)

For the pop up field input issue, are you referring to the pop up input fields in Animation mode when you try to say, rename a bone or motor?
Because inputting decimal values for the different motor parameters + animation spline knot values works. I just did a round of tests and it all functions properly. I can however fix the pop up input for the rename dialogs for you for the next update as well as the calculator expression field ( I assume that's where you hit the bug? )

Regarding the export, non of the code actually changed.
If you are still having issues, do you mind uploading your exported JSON files over to a service like dropbox and send me a link via private message so I can take a look?

If you don't mind, I will like to have your actual Creature project as well so I can test out the export.

Update: The way I ( or you can ) verify yourself is to run the WebViewer/Loader in Creature:
https://www.kestrelmoon.com/creature/We ... iewer.html

I just exported out a couple of models with no issues.

Thanks!

zampano
Posts: 70
Joined: Wed Jun 07, 2017 3:37 pm

Re: Creature Pro Windows User Experience

Post by zampano » Sat Jul 08, 2017 6:53 pm

Hey, forget about the errors... my bad, I realized I tried to load an animation that wasn't there. :roll: I'm sorry for the trouble!

I encountered the decimal problem in the calculator/expression window and in the "retime selected animation knots" dialogue so far and as you say it doesn't work in the rename dialogues also.

Anything on the playback speed bug? Do you experience it too?

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