[Tutorial] Animator Quick Start

Migmat

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsHz7sedwo4

And a funny/mini PostPro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHjCyM1yKRE

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.

http://youtu.be/YAMf91Lhg4U

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

optimaforever

Hello Fredo,

Is there a simple way to make a camera move along a spline path? and following a target moving itself along a path?

fredo6

@optimaforever said:

Hello Fredo,

Is there a simple way to make a camera move along a spline path? and following a target moving itself along a path?

Not natively yet. Thse functions will come in a next release (Camera long path)

For a camera following a path, as Rich indicated, you can create an object, and attach it a "target camera" pointing for instance toward front of the object. Then move the object along a path.
But then, you cannot point to a second moving object.

Fredo

optimaforever

Ok, thanks gor the reply.
So I still need to export my model to animate the cam in 3dsmax for now...

jgb

Fredo

I'm doing a step-by-step self tutorial based on the words and videos at the top of this thread.
I created a new SKP for this, and I will document my steps for potentially a detailed written tutorial.

I found a few things for you to look at........

1 - I suggest you combine Positioner Save and Positioner Load into a single icon function. They seem redundant to me at this point. Save takes you to Load, but can't come back. This makes name editing tedious.

2 - When first naming a position in SAVE if you hit the space bar, it all goes away. You then have to edit the position name in "manage". Space bar is OK when editing, just not initial naming.

More later.

fredo6

@jgb said:

1 - I suggest you combine Positioner Save and Positioner Load into a single icon function. They seem redundant to me at this point. Save takes you to Load, but can't come back. This makes name editing tedious.

Actually, I did not find a way to cover "Save, Load, Modify" with a single dialog box. If you have ideas, more than welcome.

@jgb said:

2 - When first naming a position in SAVE if you hit the space bar, it all goes away. You then have to edit the position name in "manage". Space bar is OK when editing, just not initial naming.

More later.

A bug. I just fixed it. Strange nobody signaled it.

jgb

@fredo6 said:

Actually, I did not find a way to cover "Save, Load, Modify" with a single dialog box. If you have ideas, more than welcome.

A bug. I just fixed it. Strange nobody signaled it.

I will look at a combo as I gain experience with Animator.

I like descriptive names, so spaces are needed between words. I dislike dashes.
Others are more simplistic.

Dik Harrison

Fredo, I like Animator far more than the other animation plug-ins I have for SU. I have made a number of animations in the past, but have not had the time of late, but the other day I was designing something for my workshop and decided I wanted to make another animation. I had installed Animator a while back, but had not had a project to try it out on. I am very impressed, It didn't take me neatly as long to create a video and the process was not only easy, but the control I have is marvelous.

I do have one issue that I cannot resolve. I have an object moving linearly in sync with an object moving in an arc. I assumed I could use easing to match the liner motion to the movement of the arc, but I cannot figure out how this can be done. As can be seen in the video, the white post does not stay within the slot in the rotating arm.

fredo6

Dick,

There is a problem with attachment in your post. I don't see it.

Also, synchronisation of linear and circular movement is always tricky.
In principle, Animator will try to help via the implementation of kinematics constraints in the future, for cases like crane and mechanical machines where you have hinges and anchors.

Fredo

Dik Harrison

Yeah, I had to right click, copy and paste into the address bar. This is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R8BlZueUNY

I guess until the next release, I'll just have to live with the lack of synchronicity.

Thank you for such a great plug-in and all the others that I use all the time...

Dik