Animatronic Control Software | AnimaMaestro Composer
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2024
- As I was developing the hardware components required for my animatronic project through the years, I had to write some software along the way to test, control and configure my hardware.
As time passed, the software evolved, and it started to look like a genuine animatronic control application, with keyframe animation capabilities to control all the servo motors, NeoPixel lighting, and every other aspect of the animatronic.
Today, AnimaMaestro Composer can not only control my AnimaMaestro hardware suite, but also servo motors through Arduino boards, Pololu Maestro servo controllers, and much more to come, thanks to the plug-in based software architecture that I used.
I did it all for fun over the years, but let's see what the future has in store for this animatronic show controller application! Welcome to AnimaMaestro!
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:45 - Recap of the AnimaMaestro hardware components
01:40 - Birth of AnimaMaestro animation software
02:10 - AnimaMaestro, Arduino, Pololu, DMX, and more!
03:00 - Plug-in based software architecture
03:40 - AnimaMaestro servo motors configuration
06:15 - AnimaMaestro knee demo
06:45 - AnimaMaestro NeoPixels configuration
07:20 - AnimaMaestro NeoPixels demo
08:10 - Basic animation sequence
09:35 - Timeline track and markers
10:40 - Video and Audio tracks
11:45 - Animation tracks, keyframes, interpolation, curve editing
13:35 - Live Edit mode demo
14:25 - Simple animation playback demo
14:55 - Selection and saving of keyframe actions
15:30 - Webcam and multi-monitor support
16:25 - Arduino Nano board demo
20:15 - A few items on the roadmap
21:30 - Integration with Fusion360 demo
Website: www.animamaestro.com
Discord Server : / discord
Instagram: / animamaestro
Facebook: / animamaestro
Twitter: / animamaestroprj - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Wow great work! That software looks amazing, I need that in my life! 😁
Ready to use this software RIGHT NOW.
Thanks for you interest !! I have made progress by integrating Unity to display a 3D model of an animatronic made in Fusion 360. This allows to work offline without the actual hardware. But I still have stuff to do to complete the software and I am currently learning WPF on another project in order to eventually port the AnimaMaestro Composer to WPF because it is currently coded using WinForms and the performances are not there when having many animation tracks along with audio, video, and 3D model view. I wish I could work on all my projects full time !!!
Wow this looks awesome, great work!
Thanks a lot!
Wow, bravo. C'est vraiment intéressant.
Merci !!
Station!
Is it compatible with servo-dmx421?
Vraiment un GRAND BRAVO !!! Incroyable travail..!! je vous ai envoyé un message via FB, au plaisir de dialoguer !!!
Merci beaucoup !!
This is the most advanced software I have ever seen for this type of application. I have several hobby projects I would love to try and learn how to complete using this. Let us know when we can download/purchase etc!
Wow ! Thanks a lot ! As I developed it for my personal project, I appreciate the compliment ! I keep working on the project (hardware and software). Hopefully when all of this comes together, I'll be able to makre the hardware and/or software available somehow !
Grr I don't have the time for finisht the video tuday but don't worry I will watch all tomorrow!
lies
hi! you know how can control stepper motor with d mx? im looking for a way, and is very dificult...i think its very good actuator, the stepper motor, but in dmx for animatronic don ´t exist a driver stepper-dmx. you know something?
Wow, your software is yust incredible! I am currently building a camera-motion-control system for a short film project i am working on. Therefore i am searching for something like your software since months. But nothing comes close to the capabilitys of yours! Would it be possible to become a beta-tester and use AnimaMaestro Composer for my project?
I am still looking at ways to make my hardware and software available. When the time comes, I will gladly consider you as a beta tester.
Is this available for download? Or purchase?
im a mentor for a high school club that competes in an animatronic competition. I was wondering if this software could be shared or made open source to be used for their project?
Thanks for your interest ! I develop the software for my personal projects so it is not in a state to be shared right now. But as I keep developing the project (hardware and software), hopefully I can find a way to make it available somehow.
Hi maestro. Im using director software with dmx421 servo controller. But that software doesn't run synchronized video. You think i can work with your system better? I need to run servos, video and lights. Thanks.
My software is currently not available as it is only a personal project for now. Moreover, the video playback is intended only to help during the animation process and the video track is currently not intended to be "part of the show" as the audio tracks are.
… this is brilliant. How are you not selling this software??????
This is a persnonal project and unfortunately not at a quality level I would feel comfortable selling it. The major issus is performance as it was developped using the older WinForms technology. As such, as soon as you are adding actuators and keyframes, the performance degrades. My goal is to port it to WPF eventually. This would ensure better performances as well as support for modern audio and video formats. Finally, a buch of editing as well as clip and keyframe manipulation functions are still missing. But if I had more time, I would definitely dive into it as my dream would be to sell my hardware and software !!
Awesome work ! Is anyone of this going to be open-sourced ?
Thanks ! If there is some demand, I'll see what I can do to make it available in one way or another. Do you have some projects that could benefit from an app like that ? I'd like to know !
How kool i need this is in my life to be able to program my animatronic band were building were about to order Mini Maestros servo controller well 4 of them how can I get this software
Thanks for your interest !! The software is not available (yet?) as I developed it for my personal animatronic projects. But as I keep developing the project, (I'm making a more compact, portable, and autonomus controller system), I keep evolving the software so hopefully when all of this comes together, I'll find a way to make the hardware and/or software available in one way or another. Meanwhile, stay tune and let me know of what types of features you would need.
I’m currently working on a horror short film and I wanted to make a animatronic doll for the film will these courses be able to help me out with making a Chucky animatronic and puppet?
If you have some specific questions, I can try to help. But my first advise would be to just start doing it and then solve the problems one by one.
👏👏👏👏🙌🙌🙌👐👐👐👐🤲
Can you help me desing a pneumatic based animatronic controller?
Unfortunately, I do not know anything about pneumatic actuators. What type of electronic signals do you need to control the actuators ? I imagine they are valves ? Do they work with relays or more sophisticated control systems ? Do they include position sensors ?
@@AnimaMaestro they work with relays, and i already now how it probably need to work. There is a part hardware, the computer sends a audio file to the hardware, i think they use midi. And thad file gets decoded by the pcb. For each tone is a different chanel thad conects to the valves. If the tone is high the valve gets activated and the air direction changed. For the softwere part: you make a file and give it a name. Then you select one of more movements of the character. And asing them to (keyboard)buttons. And press record. Once a button is pressed the computer saves a tone thad can be decoded by the pcb. So basically you record a audio file thad gets decoded by the pcb, each tone correspond to a different valve. This also works for the lights. I hope i explained it clearly because english is not my first language.
Greetings Aron Bakker
@@cliffcoastcafe Very interesting ! I believe this is how the first audio-animatronic were working but I never learned about them. My project is all based on motorized actuators. My system is able to play audio as well but the goal is to play music and/or dialogue to accompany the figure. If you use a musical keyboard (with white and blacks keys) that is able to send MIDI messages, then the microcontroller does not actually need to deal with "sounds". MIDI is a digital only protocol that sends messages like "NOTE x ON" and "NOTE x OFF". If you plan yo use that to control your animatronic, I think this would be fairly easy. Each "note" would turn a valve on or off. You would only have to find a microcontroller that has a MIDI port or a library to interpret MIDI messages.
@@cliffcoastcafe I found some useful MIDI specifications here. Your device would have to implement a MIDI IN port which, from what I see, i basically a 31250 bauds UART. Most microcontrollers include such UART including Arduino if I am not mistaken. Personally, I use Microchip PIC microcontrollers.
@@AnimaMaestro yeah, thads probably a good idea. And i have a micro controller my self. But i dont have eny experience and dont now how to start. Eny ideas were i can start the best? Maby comtact using a program would be easier than TH-cam comments because it removes the delay between the sending of the message and the posting on yputube and the encompassing of the message. My suggestion would be discord. Then you can also make a server for your fans of youtube to easely talk to each other and to you, and i can help the server set up!
I cant wait for your response!!!
Greetings Aron Bakker
Why wouldn’t you integrate this project into blender so you will get help in the open source community
I actually started to integrate with Unity to provide 3D animation to the app when offline from actual hardware.