Whats Your Best Method Of Animation With SU?

thomthom

I think the main reason there are so few replies is that in general, people don't do animation in SU.

We could try to move the topic to the SketchUp section, maybe there are more viewers there... ?

tallbridgeguy

I made a couple of quick animations with proper animation. The videos were concept ideas to explain how a county bridge could be built. They were not intended as "final" projects.

I just learned proper animation for the videos and it seems like a useful, if slightly unstable, plugin.

So what I did was setup things in sketchup/proper animation and then export all the images based on how many fps I wanted. THe output was okay but I decided to send them through a batch action in photoshop that made them brighter. (too bright, but I didn't want to wait) Then I just put them in windows movie make.

I have used keyframe animation and I like how it makes "tweens" between scenes. Proper animation has a lot of stuff in the background.

So to sum up, I think you could batch render images from proper animation in something like Kerkythea. (I did it for a test clip but it takes a long time on my old machine) Or you can add things to the output images by using photoshop and batch actions.

I would like to learn how to do better animation myself, so keep asking questions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6XR1cCzFu4&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekcIXOuNN_s&feature=player_embedded

iichiversii

I use Sketchup for animataion, iv both keyframe animation and SU animation, i find keyframe is very easy to use and fast to set up a scene, heres a clip i created last week just using keyframe animation, its simple and fast, just so you know i rendered this in shaderlight

@unknownuser said:

http://youtu.be/QP1ILu_IWII

wyatt

SU Animate and SketchyPhysics are also possible options for object animation. I do mostly drive-through animations, and SP works okay for that...cumbersome to set up, but the results are pretty cool. I've seen similar drive-throughs done with SUA. I don't know what kind of machinery you're trying to animate but I'd bet both of these would work, depending on what you're trying to do and how physically accurate you need to be.

baz

Here's one I did a while ago. My first serious attempt.
I didn't use any plugins, simply played with scenes until it looked right, sort of
I used Adobe Premier Elements to put it together, using advice from a Paul Russam tut.(Attached).
Not that good, I think, a bit jerky, but I ran out of time. The client was impressed tho .
Baz
Ps: The music is awful too.

http://youtu.be/sxoo-xkI8ds

Paul Russams Tutorial

iichiversii

Baz thats a simple fly thru animation, su animate or keyframe are not needed to do this, ifyou wanted to animate the jeep to move in your scene you could use keyframe or su animate to do so, but nice fly thru, and music sets the mood, i like it

ashscott

Awesome! Feedback - I love it, thanks folks.
Thomthom - I would be keen to move the topic to the sketchup section, I think animation is an important thing for a 3D modelling program to do - sketchup does all most all other 3D modelling/CAD processes and worthwhile animation would be another benefit on the long list that sketchup has. I have personally found 3D animation to be staggeringly powerful in 'selling' a project to someone. They say a picture is worth a thousand words - in that case a good animation must be worth about a billion words.
Tallbridgeguy - Those are nice animations and convey your clever methodology for executing the process - without animation that would be hard to do. My previous animations with proper animation have been similar but more complicated. I think proper animation is neat, and I truly praise Morisdov for his work there, but not its not the commercial level tool I need for lengthy and complex animations. In terms of instability, proper animation takes some real patience to get used to, with more polishing and usability I would pay well for proper animation....but not in its present state.

My proper animation workflow was similar to yours except I used fraps and just screen recorded the animation - fraps gets it in hi-res so saved me a lot of post production time. I would recommend this workflow for simple animations. On my last project with proper animation I created five SU files of the model whose animations linked together. After screen recording with fraps I stitched the five .avi files together in Windows Movie Maker.
iichiversii - That is a clever animation. I have now purchased keyframe animation and will soon give feedback on my experiences with it. Could you describe your workflow to get the animation to that level?
In case the link isn't working for anyone, iichiversii is referring to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP1ILu_IWII&feature=youtu.be
**Wyatt -**Thanks for the input - I have done a bit of work with Sketchy Physics and it is some darn cool software. I saw this animation done with it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY5iP0BzNew
I think that animation is really cool. However, for the work I am doing sketchy physics was (as you say) very cumbersome to set up (think saws, logs, chains etc resulting in dozens of SP hinges and other paraphernalia) and often the physical motion I was trying to simulate ultimately didn't work or required so many joints, hinges and boosters to work that my computer simply freaked out when I tried to run the animation....its cool but it won't work in this instance.

I had a go with SU Animate a long time ago and I didn't get very far - would you recommend it for the kind of object animation I am describing?
Baz - Thats a nice animation. Here we're talking about object animation so groups and components are moving around in the animation.
iichiversii - I checked out your blog: http://dawnofheroes.blogspot.com/
The game project sounds cool - can you share much else with us about it?
You must have learned to avoid some serious pitfalls in SU based animation(of which there are many) having played with SU and object animation for that long - what else can you share with us?

Thanks for the feedback everyone - keep it coming.

I am looking to get permission to share the complex (five SU files) animation, that I did with proper animation, on the web - if possible I will share it here.

Looking forward to hearing more

Ash

iichiversii

Well where should i start, it took me forever to figure out how to animate in sketchup, to be honest i didnt think it could be done, but thru su animate, keyframe animation and keyframe by layers all jumbled together it made happen, im currently working on a bigger and better clip at the moment, its the rendering thats taking forever due to a bug in shaderlight, now for the game idea.

like i said in my blog my models were originaly designed for a game project i set out to do, A war game with a bit of humour added, as you can see from the blog but i lack the pargramming knowledge to do this, im looking into a social network game for facebook etc but also a 3rd person shooter for smart phones and tabs, and these games will work together side by side, not sure if it has being done before but the idea is there, finding programmers to work on it aint easy thu due to already working on a project, so i set up my blog and animations to market my idea and hopefully recruit the right people for the job, but the blog is new, but like i said im working on a bgger and better animation, its a trailer to market the idea and will show the size and amount of models that have being made for this project, iv being working on this concept for 3 yrs now and its only now im putting it out there, it will be updated very soon to give you a bigger picture.

Yon mentioned pitfalls in animating in su and believe me i came across many, for example facial animation is not something you can do in sketchup, but i found a way around this, i use a program called crazytalk6, i baught the lience and have come up with fantastic results, i havent posted any example as of yet but i assureyou it works and very well, heres a link to the trial version, be sure to try it out http://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/crazytalk_trial.asp try it out with my pic of Kyle Bugsy on my blog, its fantastic, its almost as good as pixar if ya ask me, you can use any 2d image with a face in it and animate in in literly minutes, very powerful stuff, but when i get my clip finished this feature will also be in the trailer, and it looks great so far, some great examples of this on youtube also, very easy to use believe me

My view on Keyframe animation is brilliant and without it i wouldnt be able to do the animations im doing, i also have su animate and with the current release of the new version last month i believe it has its own version of keyframe animation, havent played around with it as of yet but i suggest try it out in su animate before buying keyframe animation, im sure they both do the same from the tutorials iv seen

Just 1 more thing, iv mentioned animation in su many times before and many prompt me that i wouldnt succed in doing so, but as far as im concerned i have and once this trailer is finished im sure it will make others retink, ill also post some simple tutorials on how i did it, and the cocktails of other softwares im using to get it to where it is, but unfortunately su isnt designed for animations i do which is a pity, rigging characters would be a great feature but i have rigged my characters using a rig on a layer, theres an image of the rig at the bottom of the post

http://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/crazytalk_trial.asp

Also heres 3 still image from my trailer, onboard an aircraft carrier

cart animate0008.jpg

cart animate20003.jpg

Start up 20009.jpg

rigged character.png

ashscott

The trailer looks cool - looking forward to seeing it.

When you rig up a character on another layer, as shown, is that so you have easy to grab rotation points with the axis in the right place?

I assume that kind of rigging is character specific - in my machinery animations I have metal pins in all the drawings that all the machinery rotates around.

I just did a test run on a project with keyframe and rendered with twilight - I left it overnight but it didn't capture animation and I can't figure out why - will talk to the folks over at the twilight forum.

iichiversii

I had the same proplem using shaderlight, to get it working correctly after you create tweets, set animation settings trasition to on, and deley to 1, also set render to 1 frame per sec, it worked for me, yeah my rig is only for my characters, but iv rigged tanks, cars with rigs also using the same method, if you like i could render your animation in shaderlight, for you, just send me a link to your skp file, if you like

ashscott

@iichiversii said:

I had the same proplem using shaderlight, to get it working correctly after you create tweets, set animation settings trasition to on, and deley to 1, also set render to 1 frame per sec, it worked for me, yeah my rig is only for my characters, but iv rigged tanks, cars with rigs also using the same method, if you like i could render your animation in shaderlight, for you, just send me a link to your skp file, if you like

SKP file isn't ready for rendering at the moment but how much rendering power do you have at your disposal? My dual core laptop is struggling and it would be handy to have someone with a grunty machine that I could send pre-set skp files to who could then render them overnight.....negotiate payment of course

thomthom

The thread seem to be warming up, maybe it's best to leave it in place then, eh?

wyatt

@ashscott said:

I had a go with SU Animate a long time ago and I didn't get very far - would you recommend it for the kind of object animation I am describing?

I believe SUA has a free trial so it can't hurt to give it a try. I've not used it a lot, but found it easier to set up than Proper Animation. SUA recently released a pretty major update that now includes key frames. I've toyed with Keyframe, but haven't used it for anything so I don't know how it compares.

tallbridgeguy

I while back I made a video tut on keyframe with kerkythea. Maybe it helps?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxUMMdSJTgs

iichiversii

I purchased Su_Animate bout 3 months ago, and updated to new version not so long ago, it is tricky to work with at first, but dont give in so easy, take time with it, do a few tests and it becomes second nature, i havent looked back and use it nearly everyday, i recommend it

baz

@iichiversii said:

Baz thats a simple fly thru animation, su animate or keyframe are not needed to do this, ifyou wanted to animate the jeep to move in your scene you could use keyframe or su animate to do so, but nice fly thru, and music sets the mood, i like it

Sorry guys, I missed the point of the thread, Ie: animation, but thanks for the patience and kind comments. Do you think I should I remove the post? (Mods could decide?)

Damien, just looked at your 'knife kick' animation, amazing, I had no idea this was doable in Su. It also gives me a clue as to why you approve of the entirely inappropriate music on my flythru

I will continue to follow this thread, but I will pull my head in, promise.
baz

iichiversii

wouldnt remove it Baz, its a good example of a fly thru, i would like to see a rendered version of it, my knife kick animation wasnt easy to do in SU, but i have a better exampe which i wll be posting up soon, SU isnt designed to do animations i have done but with plenty of practice i came up with a way to animate, the knife clp was doing using keyframe animation plugin, and rendered in shaderlight