I spent some time last night fixing bugs and trying to get things up to speed for a release.
The MySQL configurator wasn't working properly, so I kicked the bugs out of it. Now, the first time you run BlenderPeople, it shows you connection info and lets you test different settings (IP address, username and password) until you get it right. Once you have the settings correct and it's able to connect to your MySQL installation, it saves the info in a Blender text object (password is displayed and saved in the clear, so be careful) and just uses that from then on. So, if you have two reasonably fast computers on 100 MB Ethernet (or Giga), you might even be better off running the MySQL db on a second machine and hitting it over the network!
I also spent some more time tweaking Don Kim's Actions so they work out a little better with the character mesh. Adjusted the rigging and skinning a bit, too, though there are still a few problems to work out (Foot pinching! Argh!).
I've decided that I'm only going to bug-fix the Information tab, and not enhance it at this point in time. The best way to change actor and actor base type stats is to use a 3rd party db browser, like MySQL Query Browser, or even... MS Access. It's just sooo much more efficient than using the single actor view get/set methodology in BP's gui.
Things remaining to do before release:
1. Finish tweaking skinning and Actions; make two more walk cycles for variety
2. Test test test for bugs, then kill kill kill.
3. Add SQL creation for default Action links (it's just been copy and paste up until now)
4. Update documentation
5. Finalize NLA creation code
6. Create collateral materials (graphic banner, promotional buttons, etc.)
7. Create a couple variations of the mesh
8. Make nice new rendered video fixing (mostly) the problem noted in a previous post.
9. Create final Blender binaries for OS X and Windows that incorporate my character animation patches, as well as confirming that the monolithic patch works for Linux and other platforms.
One of the other things I'm working on is a video demo of BlenderPeople, as well as the new character animation I've built. I'm recording from my computers video output straight to DVD via a standalone DVD video recorder and my semi-pro audio recording stuff. Tests show that the video is of great quality. The demo is almost a 1/2 hour long, and if I can find someone to host it (my host probably can't handle the size), I'll make the .iso of the DVD available for download. I'll also rip the created DVD and recompress it into a smaller format and offer that for download here.
If anyone wants the physical DVD, I can always dupe it and send it to you, but I'd to charge like $15 or something to make it worth my time, so you'll probably be better off dl'ing the .iso and burning for yourself. Or you all can make a chain, and I'll send one out to somebody, then you can pass it around.
So anyway, things are progressing to the point where you can actually, like USE this thing.
