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Changes is CAT 3

Table of contents

1 Rigging 1.1 New Features 1.2 Bugs Fixed 2 Layers 2.1 New Features 2.2 Bugs Fixed 3 Clip Saver 3.1 New Features 3.2 Bugs Fixed 4 Motion Capture 4.1 New Features 4.2 Bugs Fixed 4.3 New Features 4.4 Bugs Fixed 5 Utilities 5.1 New Features 5.2 Bugs Fixed 5.3 New Features 6 Script 6.1 New Features 6.2 Bugs Fixed 7 License Manager 7.1 New Features 7.2 Bugs Fixed 8 Installer 8.1 New Features 8.2 Bugs Fixed

Rigging

New Features

• Setup Controller
  Layers can now have a setup controller rather than just a value. We would expect users to only put procedural animation onto the setup controller rather than animate with keyframes as this violates the principle of SetupPose being static. Now any complex procedural animation can be configured onto the 'Setup' or 'Base' controller.
  • Foot Roll reaction controllers
  • Spring secondary dynamics for tails and ears
  • Auto ground surface collisions
  • Tail can be pre-configured with spline IK

• Extra Rig Nodes
  We have the ability now to add any extra bit-n-pieces on to the rig so that they get save/merged/deleted with the rig. This is going to allow us to save all sorts of things like muscle configurations and

skin meshes with a rig.

• • Skin Meshes
  • Muscle Configurations
  • Props

• New Rig Saver(*.RG3)
  We have a new rig preset system that actually saves an entire scene file containing the rig. We do some cool stuff like temporary un-parenting the CATBones form objects in the scene that they are parented to, and also making the whole layer system pretend that its empty so that the saved scene file contains just the rig and no animation.

• Re-loadable RG3 Rig Presets
  It is now possible to reload rig presets onto existing rigs to update the rig in a scene with animation. This work flow allows you to update many scenes with changes to your rigs. This is a far superior system to using XRefs to manage updating CATRig changes.
  • Update rigs in scenes with new rigs as changes are made in the rig file
  • Swap Hi-Rez versions with Low-Rez and vice versa to enable faster animating.
  • Scene files can automatically reload rig presets whenever changes are made to the rig preset.
  • Animators can start working before the final rig is ready for use. New changes will be carried through to your scene

• We now fully support X-Refs in Max
  This was achieved by moving all functionality off all the objects. Each object now simply displays itself, but performs no actual calculation. The CATParent object was the biggest change with many functions being moved onto the CATParentTrans.

• Real Limits on all CATBones
  In the hierarchy panel now we have sets of limit values that are applied .

• IK UpVectors
  Now CAT includes the option to pick an up-vector

• Palm/Ankle Tip Pivot Control
  The Palm now contains a user positionable marker that defines where the ankle pivots when it gets rolled. Right now it always pivots around the tip of the palm, and this means that the ankle always must be on some weird angle aiming at the foot platform. Biped allows the ankles to be flat and I now think that this is a good idea.

• CATMuscle Part of CAT3
  CATMuscle is now part of CAT3. This means we have real tendons and surfaces.
  • Polygon Skin Patches
  • Bone Skin Patches
  • Muscle Primitives with squash and stretch

• New Inheritance Settings on Bones
  Bones now have Inheritance options for Animation now as well as Setup Mode. It is possible with only one toggle to disable position, rotation or Scale inheritance for the entire bone including all layers.
  • Very usefull for creating COG nodes that are the parent of the hierarchy and yet driven by the hierarchy
  • Disabling Scale Inheritance for all layers at once

• It is now possible to remove a spine from a hub
  This means it is possible to have simpler characters with no spine separating the 2 hubs. Simply set the number of bones ina spine to 0, and then deselect.

• CATParent has a new default mesh that indicates the forwards direction
  Previously, it was very ambiguous which way a rig should point when creating a CATRig from scratch. This is because the CATParent had no defined forwards direction.

• CATParent now supports custom Meshs
  This means it is possible to have simpler characters with no spine separating the 2 hubs. Simply set the number of bones in a spine to 0, and then de-select.

• Stretchy Mode was removed and instead each bone has its own stretchy setting for animation.

The CATMode Button was changed from a flyout to a standard toggle button to toggle between 'Setup Mode' and 'Animate Mode'

• Pasting rig setting now maintain the scene size. So if you copy an arm off a big character and paste it onto a small character, the small character will get an arm the same size as the big character
• Legs now default to a length that is fits the height off the ground of the hub. This means that the default legs will not dangle if the hub is high.

Bugs Fixed

• Hubs would automatically rename themselves when being deselected ffrom the Modify panel. This no longer happens

Layers

New Features

• Baking Layer configuration
  Each layer controller can save a mini clip file that defines all the settings for that layer. When a new layer is assigned, the clip file is parsed and all setting loaded onto the new controller. This allows TDs to configure limit controllers and customize controller types or their Euler orders.

• Layer Stacks relative to Setup Pose
  each layer controller can now configure the entire layer stack top work relative to setup pose. This allows bones animation to be independent of the pose of the bone. Collarbones and Ankles should be set to work relative to setup pose to allow more seamless sharing of animation between characters.

• New Layer Collapsing Tool A new layer collapsing tool has been written with many new features
  • Preserve Source keyframe times
  • Keep constraints
  • Plot constraints to keyframes

• A new Layer Manager
  A whole new layer manager has been written. It is accessible from the CAT menu and from the layer manger for each CATRig.
  • Enable/Disable/Remove/Move multiple layers at once
  • Re-sizable window
  • Compact and Cleaner interface

• It was not possible to copy and paste CATMotion layers. Now it is possible to copy and paste all types of layers

Bugs Fixed

Clip Saver

New Features

Bugs Fixed

• Often the file browser would not fit onto the Load Pose/Clip right-click-menu rollout. Now it resizes to fit the UI.

• Pasting of poses or animation was causing problems on Max 9 builds.

• The Clip Loader was not loading the CATMotion Layer weights correctly when loading

• When the start time was offset from frame 0, keyframes were begin created at time zero making the time range bar ineffective in the Ranges Editor

• Mirroring of keyframe animation on TCB rotation controllers was not working correctly. This cause many problems including making it impossible to mirror collapsed animation, or mocap animation as these layers use TCB rotation controllers.

• Saving 'Link Constraints' that included 'world' targets would crash the clip saver. This now works correctly

• When clips or poses were loaded using the right-click menu, the transform offset was not being displayed correctly in the floating rollout. Initially all the values wer set to 0. This is now fixed.

• Saved clips did not include the time range specified int eh transform node.

• Clips were not saving position constraints, or orientation constraints, or path constraints correctly

Motion Capture

New Features

Bugs Fixed

CATMotion

New Features

• Any bone attached to a limb can be made into a stepping object.

For example, select and arm bone and add another extra bone. Unlink this bone from the arm and then add a CATMotion layer. The new bone will take steps at the correct time and distance as the rest of the character.

• • Walking Sticks

• There are new Scale and offset spinners on the CATMotion graph pages

Bugs Fixed

• The Clip Loader was not loading the CATMotion Layer weights correctly when loading

• When keys were moved in the CATWindow, multiple undos were being registered.

Utilities

New Features

• A new utility called the 'Rig Resizer was added. This is for making complete CATRigs bigger or smaller quickly to fit new scenes.
  • Resize whole rigs including skin meshes and animation.
  • Resize animation on a rig without changing the rig.

Bugs Fixed

New Features

Script

New Features

• Weights Controllers now expose a method "GetLayerController" to access the individual layer weight controllers.

Bugs Fixed

• Many script operations to the Layer Stack did not force and update the layer Manager rollout
  • Remove Layer
  • Move Layer Up/Down

• The pose mixer was not working on limb bones. Now it can blend transforms on any kind of CAT bone

License Manager

New Features

• The new CAT3 License manager is now distributed in this build allowing management of both CAT2 and CAT3 serial at once

• The licensing in CAT3 has been modified to only be tied to the machine name. This makes the licensing independant of any hardware.
  Previous to CAT3, the licensing was tied to both your network card and your hard drive ID. If any changes happened to your hardware, the licensing would break. Now, the licensing is tied only to your machine name. If your machine dies, they you can rebuild a new machine with the same name, and register CAT. The same license will be re-used.

Bugs Fixed

• When the license manager was opened from within Max using the Licensing rollout, then the licensing would fail, and then the User would be stuck with duplicate machines on their computer but their computer would not actually be authorized.

• It is now impossible to have duplicate machine names on one serial in the CAT database.

• The licensing system has been made much more stable.

Installer

New Features

• Now the installer performs no authorization and simply copies the files onto the computer. There is an option to run the license manager at the end of the installation process

Bugs Fixed