Thanks for the idea, everything worked!

Since animator is using ffmpeg to render each shot... i wonder if it would be possible to just open up the rendering command so we can use our own custom .cmd or even just a our own ffmpeg strings?

With something like this we would be able to pretty much render using any external rending utility i think (not 100% sure). But even if i had to create a custom autohotkey script to save a snapshot in lumion as the animation progresses it would essentially be the same.

Seems the "camera around" tool is not included in the latest version of the extension.

I deleted all the cameras I added and started over. Not sure what I'd done wrong, but now the transitions from scene to scene are not erratic.

I think you can do that.........you can move clips around in the timeline so yes you should be able to get them all working at the same time.

Animator is a very good and powerful tool but it does take some practive to get it working the way you want to.

@stevelkk said:

Hi, When I make a copy of a model and modify some colours and place back to the same posiiton.
The animator video shows "Pivot reference invalida", how can I fix it? Rgds

Not sure I can answer this without getting the model.

Difficult to find out from the pictures.

I tried on a simple model (attached), and I cannot reproduce the problem

Animator bug easing.skp

Maybe the best would be that you send me the model.

Fredo

The best is to use Layer Visibility or Apparition Movement

http://youtu.be/pCHmHdmSEHY

https://youtu.be/H5_cxTxjG5w

Ok, found what I need to know for apparations.

So, I knew having a unique layer for each set of texts that should be displayed will work with animator. I just thought there might be a better way.

I do want to move objects, like an exploded view. Except I need to move objects along specified paths, not exploding from a central point.

I want to do an animation of how to assemble multiple pieces of an enclosure, with text at each step. So, I will have a separate layer that I unhide for each step, unless there's a better way.

Thanks!

@DotSketch

It seems that the problem is in the rotation at 4s. The pivot point is taken about the rail component, not about the model. This somehow links the small component to the big one further on.

Currently, it is a little bit cumbersome to specify the basis for the rotation pivot. You have to right-click and choose to which object (or model) it belongs.

In the attached modified model, I modified the rotation.

DotSketch - Test - modified.skp

Fredo

@imansafi90

For your problem of 'New Movement', could you open the Ruby console to check if it displays errors.

For animating hundred of characters, I am not sure Animator is ideal for that, because you would have to create hundreds of individual movements (say 'Along Path'). A dedicated script would be more adapted.

Thank you so much for the answer. I did have Positioner 1 defined, but it must have had teh bad positions for some items captured. I used the option to capture the positions outside of Animator to "recapture" Positioner 1 with everything in the correct locations and the animation now works perfectly.

If you delete objects (groups, components and their hierarchy) which are used by Animator, you will encounter problems. At best, Animator will detect it and reset parameters of the movement to their default.

I love your creativity Alvis. It is always a pleasure to see your work. So talented. Thank you for all that you contribute to this site

Well Fredo you can stamp Solved on this post.
You mentioned trying to slow the speed down, and so I was experimenting to see if that worked. I inadvertently pushed the speed down until it went into the negatives ie: -90.00°/s, and that solved the problem, it switched from counterclockwise to clockwise.
I didn't realize this, so chalk on up to inexperience.
Thanks so much for you help.
Dale

@berna117 said:

It fails too often my complete animation is 2400 frames and every 50-150 frames it crashes in 2 different ways...

Animator and even VRay4 are not designed to render such a big amount of frames, furthermore when using a rendering software like VRay. Too slow, and with VRay4, the API is not stable enough.

@berna117 said:

I am rendering different sections of the animation in different computers to speed up the process but I noticed that if sketchup UI is different animator makes the view different, even in the same computer if you close sketchup's side tray making the work area bigger animator changes the view.

That's inherent to Sketchup. Images are captured from views, and views are based on viewport, which is itself impacted by the real-estate left on the screen by toolbars and trays.

Hi - if the desired animation doesn't need to be too sophisticated, a simple gif animation, equipped with some door positions like shown in your picture, might be sufficient? I´ll link an example, done this way with only 10 frames, running back and forth...
https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=397&t=63826&p=659064&hilit=Bobby#p659064
(otherwise, Dave's animator suggestion above would be better)

Could you open the Ruby console while generating. This gives traces on the progression of the generation and possibly errors.

Also open the directory where the images are generated to see if they are actually.

@jhandgraaf said:

Is it possible to send the render work from fredo6 animator to a cloud renderer/renderfarm?

I don't think this is possible with Animator.

Thank you Fredo, the Layer Visibility worked perfectly. I can now work faster with some layers toggled OFF and just toggle them ON again right before compiling ! 👍

I will try to attach some pictures of the rendering I might have too many frames perhaps.
There are 795 frames and on my first try it generated 108 frames but it glitched and stopped working it took 40 mins for each frame I believe. The issue has been even worse on other tries you can see from the pictures. Is there any other rendering software that you can recommend as this project was not meant to take this long.

Thank you for your speedy reply and help.