Forum: Poser Technical


Subject: Explanation of animation keys in Poser file?

kuroyume0161 opened this issue on Nov 01, 2004 ยท 7 posts


kuroyume0161 posted Mon, 01 November 2004 at 12:00 AM

I'm looking for information on what these keywords mean (guesses in parentheses) and what others are available: sl 1 (spline linear TRUE) spl (spline) con (constant) br (spline break) sm (smooth spline?) Haven't seen any others, but seems that there are other choices for some of these. Thanks, Kuroyume

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

Contact Me | Kuroyume's DevelopmentZone


jupiterkris posted Tue, 30 November 2004 at 7:35 AM

Linear starts a linear extrapolated segment . Spline starts a spline segment . Break splits a spline segment into 2 independant spline segments . Constant straightens the segment . Don't know about the others ?


kuroyume0161 posted Thu, 05 May 2005 at 6:55 PM

Here's what I have so far - determined: ****** spl|lin|con spl = spline lin = linear (a straight line between this key and next) con = constant (value does not change from this key until the next) ****** br|sm br = break spline sm = smooth spline Why they didn't just have 'br' or nothing is beyond me. ****** sl N No idea still. Can't find a way to change it from the standard "sl 1" that always appears. So far, I've guessed as linear spline and loop interpolation, but these don't pan out. I can't find it again, but think that I've encountered a line such as "sl 0.5" which would indicate a real value between 0 and 1. For what? I don't know... Solutions welcomed! Thanks

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

Contact Me | Kuroyume's DevelopmentZone


lesbentley posted Sat, 07 May 2005 at 4:32 AM

I have no idea what the 'sl' line does either. The rest of your interpritation seems to be correct. The 'Loop' setting is NOT saved to pz3, or pz2. I am quite certain of this in P4, and though I have not tested this in other versions, I suspect the same holdes true. It's interesting to note that there are 'loopStart' and 'loopEnd' lines in the 'movieInfo' section of the pz3. If, for example, you set 'loopStart 5' and 'loopEnd 7, Poser will only play k frames 5 through 7, irrespective of wether 'Loop' is set on or off. Also note that these will display in the interface as frames 6 through 8. In library files the k frame numbers start at 0, but in the interface 'k 0' is represented as frame 1. P.S. I just added the above trivia because I have nothing really usefull to say.


kuroyume0161 posted Sat, 07 May 2005 at 10:48 AM

Besides that one odd line that I've seen before, every file that I scanned had "sl 1" and it always appears if there are these other values included with the key. In the Poser 'dump' file that someone produced (can't remember the chap who did it), it has "sl %g" which indicates that sl has a real (floating point) argument. That fits in with "sl 0.5", but changing sl in the PZ3 file doesn't seem to change anything in Poser (and the changed value is saved right back out without modification). My hypothesis: sl is another archaic parameter still saved to file but which has no real purpose anymore. Thanks for the trivia, lesbentley. :) Yes, I had already noticed that looping is stored in the movieInfo section only, but it is interesting that the file setting overrides the user setting.

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

Contact Me | Kuroyume's DevelopmentZone


lesbentley posted Sun, 08 May 2005 at 10:09 AM

Perhaps it is an archaic parameter, but people have a tendency to call anything they don't understand an archaic parameter. I have herd this said of 'clearFigureKeys' which if fact (contrary to what the name sugests) adds frames to a document.


kuroyume0161 posted Sun, 08 May 2005 at 10:47 AM

Right, but you can see the effect (and I'd realized its purpose while working on my ASL animated hand pose set). When something is both not understood and has no apparent effect whatsoever - that makes the qualification 'archaic' seem more likely. :0)

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

Contact Me | Kuroyume's DevelopmentZone