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Article #1335: SmartBody 3D animation system

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Article #1335: SmartBody 3D animation system

Created at 09:11 Nov 29, 2013 by arishapiro

All,

We have released an SDK for SmartBody our 3D animation system: http://smartbody.ict.usc.edu

I originally posted information about SmartBody, our LPGL 3D animation system, this last year:

http://www.fltk.org/articles.php?L1251+I0+T+P1+Qsmartbody

We've added some great 3D features, like autorigging, autoskinning, online retargeting and multiplatform support. Here's a video showing some of those features and the UI:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZDIB83VE6s

I'm posting this information on the FLTK site since we used FLTK as a widget platform. Some comments on using it:

1) We integrated FLTK with Ogre3D, which worked fine on Windows. Generally, it worked with Linux, but we got unexpected crashes when rendering multiple windows in Linux with FLTK and Ogre. We weren't able to get FLTK + Ogre + OSx working, since the FLTK code still includes a mixture of old OSx APIs that prevented this from working.

2) We included some Flu widgets to supplement the standard FLTK ones (collapsible groups were needed). We had some problems getting the collapsible groups working 100% correctly on OSx. Other widgets that include 'Docking' capability are also needed.

3) One complaint that we frequent get is that the interface doesn't look 'modern' enough; the dark-themed widgets that you see nowadays on most new desktop applications is becoming the standard

Hopefully, the FLTK project can adapt to these needs. I've been using FLTK for over 10 years, used on it two major open-source projects, and appreciate its contribution to the software community.

Regards,

Ari Shapiro

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From miriam, 17:37 Mar 10, 2014 (score=3)

This is very cool. Great stuff.

Please don't worry about those who moan about something not looking "modern" enough. To chase fashion is to pursue an ever-shifting, illusory, and pointless set of goals. It has been said that whatever is fashionable today soon becomes old-fashioned, and that there is nothing as ugly and useless as old fashion.

By avoiding the superficiality of "modern appearance" you sidestep the whole problem. Practicality has its own intrinsic beauty that doesn't depend upon the whimsy of fashion. Much of the reason why our incredibly fast computers and networks seem only barely faster than they were a decade ago is because of this hollow siren-song luring the unsuspecting onto the reefs of fashion. It bloats and slows applications. It is why so many people make webpages where the amount of superficial style frippery often outweighs the amount of genuine information. It is the victory of superficiality over substance and actually contributes absolutely nothing to long-term computer use or even wider society.

Fashion, when you reduce it down to its essentials, is merely doing something a particular way based on nothing more than someone else did it this way. Not only is it independent of practicality, it often deliberately works against it, pretending to be rebelliousness.

When all those "fashionable" folks find their stuff is grindingly slow and no longer looks fashionable because a new fashion carrot is being dangled before them they will forever try to catch up, but will always be held back by their addiction to superficiality.

Please keep working toward efficiency. It truly is worth it. Look at the wing of a bird, or the shape of a shell, or the internal microstructure of a bone. Efficiency produces a kind of timeless beauty far more worthy than shallow fashion.
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From dejan, 02:59 Dec 02, 2013 (score=3)

Wow! Impressive! :)
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