Embedding resources in scripts
This article describes how to embed certain texture and model resources within your script. Using this technique allows you to distribute or move your script to different locations without needing to worry about copying any resources along with it.
Full Screen Anti-Aliasing (FSAA)
One of the simplest ways of improving the visual quality of your scripts is to enable full screen anti-aliasing (FSAA). Anti-Aliasing is a technique used to make jagged edges of polygons appear smooth. Most modern graphics cards support FSAA and it only takes a single line of Vizard code to enable it.
Display background texture
Vizard provides the option of changing the background color of the scene, but some users need the ability to display an image instead of a single color. This article describes how to replace the background color of your scene with any texture object, including images and videos.
pywin32
The pywin32 package provides access to various Windows APIs within Python. These APIs can be used to create UI objects (windows, dialogs, etc..), interface to native or 3rd party libraries using COM, access low-level OS functionality, and much more.
Avatar Collisions
This article descibes how to detect collisions on individual body parts of an avatar. Included is some sample code and a short video of this in action.
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matplotlib
Matplotlib is a library with a very 'Matlab' like environment for generating publication quality figures. You can output to raster formats (e.g., PNG, TIFF, JPG) immediately in a pop-up window or to vector (e.g, EPS, PS) formats that are saved as files. The style of graphs and syntax for creating them, especially when combined with the added Python language constructs through NumPy will be very familiar to users of Matlab.
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NumPy
NumPy is a package that provides support for large multi-dimensional arrays and matrices in Python. This is essential for anyone doing scientific computing with the Python language.
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ReportLab
The ReportLab Toolkit allows you to create PDF files within Python. There is a library of functions to create your document using headlines, paragraphs, fonts, tables, charts, etc. By installing the Python Imaging Library (PIL) you can also add images to your documents.
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MotionBuilder actor using PPT
Autodesk MotionBuilder is a powerful character animation and motion editing tool. WorldViz Precision Position Tracker (PPT) can be used to stream data from a live actor into MotionBuilder. This video tutorial will teach you how to map the optical data being streamed by PPT onto a MotionBuilder actor.
Key-points covered in this video are:
- Loading PPT mocap plug-in
- Adding live marker data to scene
- Inserting & transforming an actor
- Previewing live actor within MotionBuilder