Recent changes to Home

WikiPage Home modified by Mr Lange

Mr Lange — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:20:31 -0000

WikiPage Home modified by Mr Lange

Mr Lange — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:20:05 -0000

--- v7 
+++ v8 
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
-Two new articles, to begin breaking in the concepts behind Helix.
+Current Articles:
 [Helix Theory Part 1]
 [Helix Theory Part 2]
+[About Mods]
 
-Update. Article on Mods.
-[About Mods]
+Latest Article:
+[About Tools]
 
 And to accompany these articles is a large diagram visualizing the basics of the animation concepts. This will make sense to any experienced Flash user, and is especially necessary for making sense of the reams of text in these articles. It should help at least.

WikiPage Home modified by Mr Lange

Mr Lange — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:37:34 -0000

--- v6 
+++ v7 
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 [Helix Theory Part 1]
 [Helix Theory Part 2]
 
+Update. Article on Mods.
+[About Mods]
+
 And to accompany these articles is a large diagram visualizing the basics of the animation concepts. This will make sense to any experienced Flash user, and is especially necessary for making sense of the reams of text in these articles. It should help at least.
 
 ![](http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/1249/helixmethoddiagram.png)

WikiPage Home modified by Mr Lange

Mr Lange — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 05:49:35 -0000

--- v5 
+++ v6 
@@ -2,5 +2,9 @@
 [Helix Theory Part 1]
 [Helix Theory Part 2]
 
+And to accompany these articles is a large diagram visualizing the basics of the animation concepts. This will make sense to any experienced Flash user, and is especially necessary for making sense of the reams of text in these articles. It should help at least.
+
+![](http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/1249/helixmethoddiagram.png)
+
 [[project_admins]]
 [[download_button]]

WikiPage Home modified by Mr Lange

Mr Lange — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 01:43:38 -0000

--- v4 
+++ v5 
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
-Wiki in progress. See Home for now.
+Two new articles, to begin breaking in the concepts behind Helix.
+[Helix Theory Part 1]
+[Helix Theory Part 2]
 
 [[project_admins]]
 [[download_button]]

WikiPage Home modified by Mr Lange

Mr Lange — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 07:45:22 -0000

--- v3 
+++ v4 
@@ -1,17 +1,4 @@
-This is the beginning of Helix, an open source animation program.
-I'm Mr Lange, I came up with the idea, everything about it, and I'm directing the project.
-I have over eight years of experience with all kinds of animation software. Flash, Anime Studio, 3ds Max, Maya, Blender, you name it. I'm also well experienced with any kind of graphics software, I'm a sound designer and a musician, and I have a bit of programming experience.
-Having worked with so much software, I've seen where all of them have distinct advantages, and disadvantages, and wondered why this can't have this, or why this doesn't do that.
-Over time I've narrowed down these observations to a science and realized some very important things.
-Since programming is my weakest subject, the program is being written mostly by some very awesome and very smart programmers who have also taken interest in the idea, namely Runouw who is beginning the program and will be creating the majority of the protoypes, and likely the complete versions as well.
-
-It would be difficult to explain what makes Helix so important in a summary, that information will be covered in a series of documents that I'm still writing.
-What I've noticed with virtually all animation software is the sickening amount of linearity. Keyframes are merely containers for single values. Every object must exist all the time through the entire animation, with all of its properties, and all of its modifiers. You just key things as needed, such as visibility to make it go away, or switch off the influence of a constraint. To repeat things such as particle effects requires many hard duplicates with associated data, tweaking key offsets... this might be nice for a team of fifty animators, involving other software for compositing and editing cuts and all that, but its really a stifling and overwhelming workflow that bogs down the animator's freedom. Its as if the entire animation is just a solid state.
-Then there's Flash. Whoever came up with that system was really thinking. Keyframes are not value containers. They are temporary states that store any amount objects and all of their properties. They can exist, cease existing at anytime, instantly be replaced with a different state, or it can attempt to interpolate all the data in these states. Yes, tweens are not the dominant concept, but static states that CAN be tweened explicitly, making the "constant" interpolation type meaningless. States are built, put in sequence, then interpolated at will. It also uses clips, instancing, as its primary means of working with objects. This system is completely nonlinear, much more powerful, much more intuitive, and can accomplish very broad tasks infinitely more effectively than any other animation program. Flash however is entirely 2d, has a very dry set of tools, its meant for games and web ads, and will never live up to the potential power that its system unknowingly has.
-
-Helix is a very powerful cross breed of these two worlds. It uses the state-based methodology for animation seen in Flash, as well as storing all content in a library which can be instantiated non-destructively, any number of times. Furthermore, the observed shortcomings and limitations of Flash's system will be transcended. Helix will also have more advanced features and tools seen in higher end software, such as a particle system, constraints, visual effects, and robust tools for editing frames and keyframes. Above all, Helix will have the ability to use programming-like expressions in every property, which can retrieve or store values across objects, and use a simple procedural events system for dynamically controlling things, like spawning objects or particles and controlling values based on collisions, testing properties, etc (much in the same way a game engine can do).
-
-A lot of documents detailing the way the program will work have already been written, along with concept designs for the UI. There's a lot to do and before too long I'll have some very interesting things online here. Stay tuned.
+Wiki in progress. See Home for now.
 
 [[project_admins]]
 [[download_button]]

WikiPage Home modified by Mr Lange

Mr Lange — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 03:37:40 -0000

--- v2 
+++ v3 
@@ -15,4 +15,3 @@
 
 [[project_admins]]
 [[download_button]]
-The wiki uses [Markdown](/p/helixproject/wiki/markdown_syntax/) syntax.

WikiPage Home modified by Mr Lange

Mr Lange — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 05:57:45 -0000

--- v1 
+++ v2 
@@ -1,5 +1,18 @@
-Welcome to your wiki!
-
-This is the default page, edit it as you see fit. To add a page simply reference it within brackets, e.g.: [SamplePage].
-
+This is the beginning of Helix, an open source animation program.
+I'm Mr Lange, I came up with the idea, everything about it, and I'm directing the project.
+I have over eight years of experience with all kinds of animation software. Flash, Anime Studio, 3ds Max, Maya, Blender, you name it. I'm also well experienced with any kind of graphics software, I'm a sound designer and a musician, and I have a bit of programming experience.
+Having worked with so much software, I've seen where all of them have distinct advantages, and disadvantages, and wondered why this can't have this, or why this doesn't do that.
+Over time I've narrowed down these observations to a science and realized some very important things.
+Since programming is my weakest subject, the program is being written mostly by some very awesome and very smart programmers who have also taken interest in the idea, namely Runouw who is beginning the program and will be creating the majority of the protoypes, and likely the complete versions as well.
+
+It would be difficult to explain what makes Helix so important in a summary, that information will be covered in a series of documents that I'm still writing.
+What I've noticed with virtually all animation software is the sickening amount of linearity. Keyframes are merely containers for single values. Every object must exist all the time through the entire animation, with all of its properties, and all of its modifiers. You just key things as needed, such as visibility to make it go away, or switch off the influence of a constraint. To repeat things such as particle effects requires many hard duplicates with associated data, tweaking key offsets... this might be nice for a team of fifty animators, involving other software for compositing and editing cuts and all that, but its really a stifling and overwhelming workflow that bogs down the animator's freedom. Its as if the entire animation is just a solid state.
+Then there's Flash. Whoever came up with that system was really thinking. Keyframes are not value containers. They are temporary states that store any amount objects and all of their properties. They can exist, cease existing at anytime, instantly be replaced with a different state, or it can attempt to interpolate all the data in these states. Yes, tweens are not the dominant concept, but static states that CAN be tweened explicitly, making the "constant" interpolation type meaningless. States are built, put in sequence, then interpolated at will. It also uses clips, instancing, as its primary means of working with objects. This system is completely nonlinear, much more powerful, much more intuitive, and can accomplish very broad tasks infinitely more effectively than any other animation program. Flash however is entirely 2d, has a very dry set of tools, its meant for games and web ads, and will never live up to the potential power that its system unknowingly has.
+
+Helix is a very powerful cross breed of these two worlds. It uses the state-based methodology for animation seen in Flash, as well as storing all content in a library which can be instantiated non-destructively, any number of times. Furthermore, the observed shortcomings and limitations of Flash's system will be transcended. Helix will also have more advanced features and tools seen in higher end software, such as a particle system, constraints, visual effects, and robust tools for editing frames and keyframes. Above all, Helix will have the ability to use programming-like expressions in every property, which can retrieve or store values across objects, and use a simple procedural events system for dynamically controlling things, like spawning objects or particles and controlling values based on collisions, testing properties, etc (much in the same way a game engine can do).
+
+A lot of documents detailing the way the program will work have already been written, along with concept designs for the UI. There's a lot to do and before too long I'll have some very interesting things online here. Stay tuned.
+
+[[project_admins]]
+[[download_button]]
 The wiki uses [Markdown](/p/helixproject/wiki/markdown_syntax/) syntax.

WikiPage Home modified by Mr Lange

Mr Lange — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 03:59:34 -0000

Welcome to your wiki! This is the default page, edit it as you see fit. To add a page simply reference it within brackets, e.g.: [SamplePage]. The wiki uses [Markdown](/p/helixproject/wiki/markdown_syntax/) syntax.