Bulge definition file
 
 
 

Platforms

Windows

Description

The character builder feature allows you to create muscle bulges on the geometry around skeleton bones. You can freely define their shape using the Section editor in the CHARACTER BUILDER frame type of the deformation control window.

You can define any number of bulge shapes. The bulge definition shapes are not stored in the wire file, but in an ASCII file called bulge_types which resides in your misc_data directory of your current project. The advantage of storing these bulge shapes in a separate file outside of your wire file is that you can build a catalogue of bulge shapes, and reuse them from wire file to wire file, and even from project to project (you can copy the bulge_types file from one project directory to another).

NoteBe careful when you modify or delete bulge definitions in the interactive package.

When you “assign attributes” to a skeleton joint, one of the attributes is the bulge definition. The skeleton joint does not store the whole bulge definition, but rather the bulge definition code. Thus if you have several wire files that use the same bulge definition and you modify the bulge definition in the interactive package, you are actually modifying the bulge definition for all wire files that reference that bulge code. In particular, if you delete a bulge definition in Alias, you may be deleting a bulge definition that is used not only by a skeleton joint in your current Alias session, but also in any other wire file you may have previously saved that used that bulge code.

In Alias, if you start to delete a bulge definition, a confirm box will appear warning you to this effect.

bulge_types file format

Each bulge shown in the Bulge Definitions Lister in the Deformation Control window is defined in the bulge_types file in the misc_data directory.

If this file doesn't exist, Alias copies a default version of the file to the misc_data directory.

A bulge definition comprises a sequence of keywords (followed by a colon) followed by values related to the keyword.

A bulge definition is complete when it contains one “Initialization” section, at least one “Section Definition” per Initialization, and at least two “Keypoint Definitions” per Section Definition.

Any incomplete or poorly defined bulge definition is omitted from the Bulge Definition Lister entries. The errlog will contain a record of bulges not added to the Lister.

Bulge initialization

Section Definition

Keypoint Definition

>> 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 >>      0.291667 0.291667 0.012503 >>      0.629167 0.629167 0.120864 >> 1.000000 0.954167 0.012503

Restrictions

Example

A sample bulge definition (from the default bulge_types file) is as follows:

>> bulge: “Generic” code: 5 >>      angle: 0 >> 0.000000 0.000000 0.008335 >>          0.500000 0.500000 0.250000 >>          1.000000 1.000000 0.000000 >> >> angle: 180 >>          0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 >> 1.000000 1.000000 0.000000
NoteSections in the same bulge definition do not have to have the same number of keypoint definitions.