Anyone hear anything about the progress of the "AML Script Editor" for iClone 4 that we have been waiting for?

Sherif.MyMail

Hi Sherif,

There still isn't any real news on an update but certainly one is planned. The development team are aware of the issues with the current version and will hopefully get an update ready once 3DXchange 4.0 is released.

                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the reply.

3DXchange 4.0, great. I see that you folks are making some great improvements in many areas. Much appreciated.

Sherif

Hi there

I too am now looking around for a way to create AML files for iClone 4.

The wiki unfortunately does a fairly poor job of describing the XML itself.

There is no XML schema, there is no complete example and the descriptions of the XML elements are definitely not enough for a skilled programmer (I am a skilled programmer) to create an AML file for iClone 4 from scratch. There are a number of constants used in the file for example that aren't documented anywhere.

Luckily there are AML files shipped with iClone 4 that can be used as examples, but it's a poor substiture for real comprehensive documentation. Half of the documentation on the Wiki refers to the now broken AML editor tool.

When can we expect an update to the tool? I can understand that there are lots of wonderful new things about iClone 4 that your engineering people want to include in an updated tool, but how about just letting one of your programmers spend two days on an update to what is already there so it just produces files that are not broken? I can wait for new features to be supported, but right now I can't even produce AML files for iClone 4 that just support what could be done in iClone 3.

So what's new since the last post in March?

Pete Patterson - Contract Programmer http://ideajuice.com

Ideajuice Consulting Services
Need code???
Decades of programming experience. Working with 3D since the 1980's. Fluent in C# and Javascript.

Yes, i really would like to use it. I think Reallusion should have taken care of that long time ago. First it AML script was promoted as a great tool, then a new iclone version was launched and there´s no fix to use it with this new version...for a long time already. Love iclone, love reallusion tools, but can´t understand the way they work.

Hi guys,

Agreed, absolutely.

An update that I would really like to see is one that would allow us to keyframe the scaling of the Actors and Props so that we can do stretch and squash animation and so on.

But I know that is not going to happen as they would probably need to change the entire structure of the Actors and Props or of the software.

So would the only way to create stretch and squash animations in iClone be to take it from 3ds Max first, and do the animation there, then bring it to iClone or to 3DXchange then to iClone? Probably.

So who has $4,000.00 they want to give me for 3ds Max so that I can create real animations in iClone 4?

Sherif.MyMail

Sadly I have no further information on a new version of AML Script Editor. I can tell you its on the "to do" list but sadly other projects are taking priority at the moment. :unsure:

Hopefully I will have more news soon.

                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

Any word on whether or not we will ever be able to use this tool for iClone 4 and forward? It seems quite useful.

could i be added to the list, about aml i have asked in 2 previous postings about aml, i have found adobe dreamweaver could open the file. i was able to change the number associated with a parent xml and it showed new number in director mode and worked. tried to add file did not work

Yes it creates usable files, but they need a little cleanup in a text editor. Open your AML file in Text Edit or similar (I just associated "AML" with Text Editor to make it easy), and look down towards the end of the document. You will see lines that look something like this:

ClipLocation>$\iClone Template\Motion\iMotion_Violet\Move\Walk\Walk_Forward.iMotion

(if its wrapped in this display, it is really one line, and there should be an "<" at the beginning, and an ">" at the end. They got knocked out when I posted.)

There should be only one "$" sign. I think the "$" sign is simply a way for the program to know to start looking at the directory path at the "\iClone Template" instead of the "C:\" The problem will be extra "$" signs at the beginning of the line like this:


ClipLocation>$$$$$$$$$$\iClone Template\Motion\iMotion_Violet\Move\Walk\Walk_Forward.iMotion

Sometimes you will get extra directory info between the "$" sign and the "\iClone Template" part of the directory path if you are using template motions that came with the program. If your motion files are in a different directory, then your path will be different, and (my guess) you will not need a "$" sign at the beginning.

Fix any of these file paths that have added "$" signs and resave. Make sure its still a ".AML" suffix, and not ".TXT".

Everything about the program seems to be fine, but it will not open the latest AML's, so I am guessing that newer AML's are supporting options that this program does not know what to do with. iClone can read AML's from older generations just fine.