[Tutorial] Animator Quick Start

Migmat

PROBLEM GENERATING VIDEO with ffmpg.exe INSKETCHUP 2013 (Works Animator for this versión?)

1- Animator Beta Works OK
2- Install ffmpeg.exe in LibFredo6 (disapear the red text to Find the ffmpeg.exe)
3- Make a simple animation that Works fine in preview
4- Try to generate a video with defaut parameters. Push the button "Test Image" and also work
5- Push the button "Generate Video" and NOTHING HAPPENDS. Sketchup continues inside the animator plugin. I can exit and star again the plugin,but nothing happends.

I instal the two versión of ffmpeg.exe, the last and the 3.2 (more stable).

Thanks in advance

fredo6

@Migmat
Your problem may be independent of FFmpeg.

When you generate the video, do you get the progress dialog box ?

Can you open the Ruby console to see if there is an error displayed.

Fredo

Migmat

Thanks Fredo for your extraordinary plugin.

I answer first and send more data next.

a- When generate Video animation (sketchup2013)I dont get any progress dialog box

b - Te rubi console says this error:

SkETCHUP 2013 RUBI CONSOLE OUTPUT DURING ANIMATOR VIDEO CREATION

ambient init nil nil
ambient init nil nil
Twilight declare nil
:dimY => 806
:beg_time => 0
:date_modified => 1478294026.547
:reverse => nil
:movie_formats => {
:mov => false
:avi => true
:mp4 => true
} (:movie_formats)
:speed_factor => 1.0
:root_dir => "D:/DISEÑO_DIBUJOS_IMAGENES/SKETCHUP_2013/@_ Animaciones/ANIMATOR FREDO/Animator Videos"
:rendering_method => :natural
:movie_name => "Despegue avion"
:filter => {
} (:filter)
:dimX => 1710
:end_time => 2.0
:movie_dir => "AnimatorPRU_1 - 09-Nov-2016 18-22-13"
:dim_mode => "viewport"
:frame_rate => 25
Error: #<Errno::ENOENT: No such file or directory - D:/DISEÑO_DIBUJOS_IMAGENES/SKETCHUP_2013/@_ Animaciones/ANIMATOR FREDO/Animator Videos>
(eval):944:in mkdir' (eval):944:in movie_create_folder'
(eval):863:in movie_top_generate' (eval):1820:in movie_dialog_call_back'
(eval):379:in call' (eval):379:in notify_result'
(eval):442:in on_close' (eval):405:in dialog_create'
(eval):454:in call' (eval):454:in j_onclose'
(eval):197:in create_dialog' (eval):223:in call'
(eval):223:in close' (eval):223:in close'
(eval):453:in close_validate' (eval):1247:in param_dialog_callback'
(eval):574:in call' (eval):574:in j_action'
(eval):501:in j_callback' (eval):491:in j_dispatch'

END OF OUTPUT

Such directory efectively exist.

MORE EXPERIMETS

1- I installa Animator on Sketchup 2014 on the same PC

2- Works perfectly. meke the animation and the final video without problems.

Posible problem: we know that Sketchup 2013 and 2014 have quite differnt folder structure, firsly in the plugin placement.

Could be related with this?

thanks again.

Migmat

This is a sample of my animation job with a very poor elaborated animation plugin.

With your plugin I hope to get better results

(Is the recreation of a traffic accident seen from two viewpoint)

Youtube Video

View From the car

Youtube Video

fredo6

@Migmat,

In Sketchup 2013, there is no satisfactory support for non-ascii diretory or filename. So this may be the explanation. In Sketchup 2014, based on Ruby 2.0, non-ascii is fully supported.
Your video is quite impressive. I don't know which plugin you used, but I would not qualify it of "very poor elaborated animation plugin".

Fredo

pilou

Dead or alive ?

pilou

Dead or alive ? (the motor bike guy)

PS Animator has not a French version ?

Migmat

Thanks Fredo for your acclaration. Now I am using Sketchup 2014.

Fortunately alive!. Thanks again for your care.

You hare good coders but better persons.

Compared with your Animator plugin the used in my video is really poor(frame Animation). The animation that I did is only plenty of tricks, artisan job and posproduction in some videos.

Postproduction i a really important key in most films.

I advice HitFilm. A very unknown and ppwerful software for PostPro.

Migmat

First test of your amazing Animator plugin.

Is only a ten minutes of work animation that shows a minimun part of the power behind Animator.

Youtube Video

Migmat

A Little example of mixing Sketchup with some PostPro of HitFilm.

Youtube Video

And a funny/mini PostPro.
Youtube Video

Fredo Animator plus HitFilm could be very good.

M3one

Hi Fredo,

I've been working on an animation lately and it's almost finished. The last thing I want to do is to generate a video rendered with Twilight Render (free version) but I don't know how to do it. Please could you tell me how?

Thanks!

ntxdave

@m3one said:

Hi Fredo,

I've been working on an animation lately and it's almost finished. The last thing I want to do is to generate a video rendered with Twilight Render (free version) but I don't know how to do it. Please could you tell me how?

Thanks!

I am not Fredo but I can tell you that you must have the Pro version to create a rendered animation with Twilight.

M3one

@ntxdave said:

@m3one said:

Hi Fredo,

I've been working on an animation lately and it's almost finished. The last thing I want to do is to generate a video rendered with Twilight Render (free version) but I don't know how to do it. Please could you tell me how?

Thanks!

I am not Fredo but I can tell you that you must have the Pro version to create a rendered animation with Twilight.

That's a pity

Is there anyway to generate a video clip with a decent render for free?

Thanks for your answer!

fredo6

Trajectory

Trajectory is a visual effect allowing to visualize the trajectory of selected points along the animation.

The resulting Trajectory curves are drawn in the viewport. You can then

generate them as one or several groups in the Sketchup model
export the coordinates in a CSV file

Since Trajectory is a visual effect, you can insert instances along the timeline and switch them on and off, so that you can visualize trajectory curves when desired.

Note: because the resolution of trajectory is dependent on the progression of the animation, it is a good idea to reduce the animation speed to generate smoother trajectory curves.

Youtube Video

pilou

How is drawn the first curve without the object (s) ?
Seems curves are resulting and not something to follow ?

fredo6

@pilou said:

How is drawn the first curve without the object (s) ?
Seems curves are resulting and not something to follow ?

Trajectory curves reflect the movement of a given point on the solid. So they are always attached to an object.

This feature has nothing to do with Movement along Path. This will come in the next release, when I finish the GUI for it.

Actually, I initially designed the Trajectory visual effect for debugging purpose, in order to follow the movement of objects (since MovementAlongPath has to deal with offsetting).

Fredo

pilou

Thanks for the precision!

John SB

First, thank you for all you excellent plugins!

I'm getting to know Animator and all was well until I started with cameras. Following your video, I tried to zoom out from the model. But when I capture the current camera view, the view jumps (either out or in) to a fixed distance from the model, so I can’t do the close-up view. The point of view of the camera(s) is preserved but not the distance. Panning and movement interpolation is also correct, but from the same fixed distance. Is there a setting in either Animator or SU that I'm missing?

Animator_Before View Capture.JPG

Animator_After View Capture.JPG

fredo6

Do you have already other views or visual effects in your timeline?

The best is to post the model with your current animation, so that I have a look.

There is a small issue with view capture, but related to object movement, not to zoom.

Thanks

Fredo

John SB

JSB_Animator Test_BH-Gabelstapler.skpThanks for the reply. My version of the animation is attached. But, I've figured it out what dumb thing I did wrong. I had the model in parallel not perspective projection. Once in perspective, the cameras worked as expected.
Thanks again for the help and for making SketchUp even more fun!
JSB