Animation Plugin Recommendations

ntxdave

@unknownuser said:

but they do not allow me to animated the individual pieces of equipment.

Why not ? if each part is a separate object...

Else try Unity : it's free!

With Lumion and LumenRT I could not animated groups/subgroups or components/subcomponents. At least if you can, I did not see that anywhere. The primary orientation of these products is camera animation. They do allow you to add items from their libraries and animated them but the animation is limited to path (i.e. the path of a vehicle or the path of a person).

The Keyframe Animation plugin allows me to get complete control of the equipment in the car wash. I could make items (like brushes) spin/rotate, and the arms that brushes are attached to can also rotate (like up and down). I also wash able to scale groups/components and their subs. I could not do any of this with the other tools.

IMHO a tool that would give you this type of control over objects in conjunction with the camera animation would be a big success. I realize that my car wash scenario is not the main stream but I also see others who want these types of capabilities for presenting their products/models in a 3D animated environment.

I did take a quick look at Unity but I did not see any indication of how I would incorporate my SU model in it. Maybe I missed something.

otb designworks

Hi Dave, you are correct that LumenRT does not do object based animation and, in my opinion, there is no really provocative solutions for OBA in SU at this time. To me, the huge limitation with OBA in SU is that it is only accomplished with scenes and having thousands of scenes never sounded like a smart way to accomplish anything.

If you use a mac, I would highly suggest you check out Cheetah3D. It is very inexpensive for what it is capable of and has been my goto solution of OBA for years. Full key framing, excellent and fast renderer, a vibrant community forum, and development is ongoing. Oh, and it has a physics engine so you could do what you want with the water, though that might take more time and effort than you might be willing to invest.

You would export your model out in FBX, OBJ or 3DS formats (I use FBX). All your textures will export from SU and import in Cheetah and then you can take advantage of Cheetah's node-based material editor

ntxdave

Thanks for the reply. I use Windows - actually Windows 10.

pilou

@unknownuser said:

I did take a quick look at Unity but I did not see any indication of how I would incorporate my SU model in it. Maybe I missed something.

http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/HOWTO-ImportObjectSketchUp.html

ntxdave

Thanks @Pilou, I will take a better look at it.

driven

did you have at look at this one?

http://youtu.be/VVYs8utq9rU

@pilou, I thought you were a fan of this French plugin...

john

pilou

Yes i have made some little videos here : Divers / Simfonia/

ntxdave

@pilou said:

Yes i have made some little videos here : Divers / Simfonia/

Thanks for sharing. Now if only I spoke French

I think you convinced me to give it a try

pilou

It's not that can we call an easy intuitive plugin!
Ask a certain learning curve!

ntxdave

A concern I have is that the web site says Copyright 2012. When was the last time the software was updated? Also, the trial Functionality seems pretty limited and I cannot get a good feel for how much the software costs (I will need to let management know if we like it).

Going to try it this week though.

pilou

From the site last update seems for SU 2013 ! So try if that yet work with newer SU versions

Free version allows you to make 10 seconds animation!
Of course sufficient for test functions but not if you want more directly!

(you can also make some past of different animations if you are tricky!
Prices was 50 to 200 € following versions
All docs

Bob James

I would recommend you take a look at SimLab Soft

http://www.simlab-soft.com/index.aspx

ntxdave

@pilou said:

From the site last update seems for SU 2013 ! So try if that yet work with newer SU versions

Free version allows you to make 10 seconds animation!
Of course sufficient for test functions but not if you want more directly!

(you can also make some past of different animations if you are tricky!
Prices was 50 to 200 € following versions
All docs

Having problems with installation. I have sent them a note. Will see if I get any reply.
Might be a problem because I am running SU 2015 on Win10.

I have printed off and read some of the documentation. I agree that it looks like it could be kind of complicated but powerful if I can get it going. The 10 second limit for the trial version might make it difficult to properly evaluate.

@bob james said:

I would recommend you take a look at SimLab Soft

http://www.simlab-soft.com/index.aspx

I will give it a look............