Object Hierarchy | Related C++ Class: ActionSource
ActionSource
v1.5
ActionSource objects are a specialized type of Source object, representing
sources for action and shape animation clips. These types of sources Action sources are composed
of DataSource items (such as FCurves, Expressions, etc.),
which you can access as AnimationSourceItems via the
ActionSource.SourceItems property. See the
siAnimationSourceItemType enum for a list of supported animation source types.
Actions are based on changes to parameters, usually called 'low-level animation' because it is
parameter-based. Typically, action components are FCurves, Constraints,
StaticSources (static poses), and ShapeKeys. You can bundle these
components as action sources using the Model.AddActionSource method.
Shape animation is based on changes to the positions of points, thereby changing the overall shape
of the geometry from the reference shape. (The reference shape comprises the results of the modeling
operator stack.) These changes to the clusters are saved as ShapeKeys under the
Clusters node of the object's Geometry in the UI. In the Mixer, the ShapeKey is
instantiated as a ShapeClip.
Note: In action sources, the path to the parameter to which it will be applied by default is always
stored as a Relative Name so that sources can be instantiated
under any other model without having to necessarily provide a connection mapping template.
Action sources are often tied to the Mixer because of the Mixer's interaction with Clips; however,
actions which have never been instantiated or which represent caching in the
SimulationEnvironment object may not be associated with any Mixer or Model, but
only under the Sources container or the Scene > Environments > Environment > Caches container.
In these cases, some of the functionality is limited (for example, calling the base properties
SIObject.Parent or ProjectItem.Model will not work since there is
no Model that contains these sources.
To get a pointer to an existing action source from its clip, you can use the Clip.Source
property. All action sources, whether instantiated or not, are also available as a
DataSourceCollection from the Model to which they belong via
the Model.Sources property.
Important: Although these sources are available as a DataSourceCollection, when you iterate over
them, you are actually getting ActionSource objects, not individual DataSource objects
such as FCurves, Expressions, etc. This is important to know because
the ActionSource object gives access to a specific set of methods and properties.
To create ActionSource objects using the object model, you can use the
Model.AddActionSource method. There is also a variety of scripting commands that
also create ActionSource objects by loading presets (LoadActionPreset), storing
current low-level animation (SIStoreAction and StoreAction),
and by plotting (PlotToActions and PlotAndApplyActions).
Note: If you are working in a version of Softimage older than v4.0, the ActionSource object will not
support the Source interface, which means that you cannot access the contents
of the source via Clip.Source. Calling the base property
SIObject.Parent on an ActionSource returns the
Model. If the ActionSource is an environment cache, the
parent returned is the SimulationEnvironment.
'
' This example illustrates how to create a simple actionsource from position animation. The
' AnimationSourceItem.Source property will be used to get the fcurve source and modify the keys.
'
NewScene , false
set oRoot = Application.ActiveProject.ActiveScene.Root
' These commands were cut and pasted from scripting history and modified to work in a script.
' They create a simple actionsource from animation on the null's position
set oNull = GetPrim( "Null" )
strPosParams = oNull & ".kine.local.posx," & oNull & ".kine.local.posy," & oNull & ".kine.local.posz"
Translate oNull, -8.153, 7.015, -0.702, siRelative, siView, siObj, siXYZ
SaveKey strPosParams, 1.000
Translate oNull, 8.350, -8.935, 0.894, siRelative, siView, siObj, siXYZ
SaveKey strPosParams, 50.000
Translate oNull, 9.413, 8.935, -0.894, siRelative, siView, siObj, siXYZ
SaveKey strPosParams, 100.000
StoreAction oRoot, strPosParams, 2, "StoredFcvAction", True, 1, 100
' Get the actionsource from the model
set oActionSource = oRoot.Sources("StoredFcvAction")
' Find animation source item with posx and mute it
for each oSourceItem in oActionSource.SourceItems
if instr(1,CStr(oSourceItem.Target),"posx",vbTextCompare)<>0 then
logmessage "muting " & oSourceItem.Target
oSourceItem.Active = False
exit for
end if
next
' Apply actionsource with muted posx
ApplyAction oActionSource, oNull
' Output of above script:
'INFO : muting null.kine.local.posx |
