[Plugin Beta] Animator - v4.3d - 17 Mar 25

fredo6 · 17 Jan 2021, 11:06

New Release: Animator - v3.1a - 17 Jan 21

Requirement: LibFredo6 v11.5

Major release

Introduction of Camera Around, allowing the creation a camera travelling around a set of objects
Bug fixing
Cosmetic and technical adjustments

Here is a short presentation on Camera Around:

See plugin home page of Animator for Download of RBZ from the PluginStore.

See Main Post of the Animator thread for more information.

JClements · 17 Jan 2021, 18:09

A great way to begin the new year**!** THANK YOU.

Really nice features and interface/easy-to-understand controls.

Should satisfy long awaited needs. The demo is well explained.

Could Scenes be generated? Export to movie formats or images (jpg, gif, etc.)?

fredo6 · 17 Jan 2021, 21:47

@jclements said:

Could Scenes be generated? Export to movie formats or images (jpg, gif, etc.)?

What do you mean 'generated'?

JClements · 18 Jan 2021, 00:50

Have scenes created at specified intervals along the camera path (eg., at 10% intervals or intervals at a specified distance).

fredo6 · 28 Jan 2021, 07:39

New Release: Animator - v3.2a - 28 Jan 21

Requirement: LibFredo6 v11.5

Maintenance release

Extension of validity

See plugin home page of Animator for Download of RBZ from the PluginStore.

See Main Post of the Animator thread for more information.

tomasz · 4 Feb 2021, 10:51

Great to see the beta. It is good timing since we prepare a new release too.
I always appreciate how detailed and well thought your feature implementations are!

fredo6 · 22 Feb 2021, 10:56

New Release: Animator - v3.3a - 22 Feb 21

Requirement: LibFredo6 v11.5

Maintenance release

Fixed a major bug for Camera Tracker introduced in v3.3a. Unfortunately, you will have to remove camera tracker sequences created with v3.3a and recreate new ones.

See plugin home page of Animator for Download of RBZ from the PluginStore.

See Main Post of the Animator thread for more information.

axetect · 23 Feb 2021, 06:21

Hello, first of all I would like to thank you for creating such ingenius tool, now I would like to ask if there is any way to make it render at cloud, it would be a game changer for me as a low spec pc user. Thanks

fredo6 · 23 Feb 2021, 17:03

@axetect said:

I would like to ask if there is any way to make it render at cloud, it would be a game changer for me as a low spec pc user. Thanks

Unfortunately, this is not under control from Animator. It could be done by the rendering software if it interfaces to Animator (via a dedicated API). In a next release, I will try to improve the rendering time for VRay 5, because there are new features.

Fredo

TonyAU · 23 Feb 2021, 23:29

Thanks Fredo, amazing work.

Just one thing, will you be re-implementing the aspect ratio buttons.
I miss just hitting 16:9 and changing one value..
Bit lazy I know..

Cheers.

Tony
9Design

sectionaa · 25 Feb 2021, 11:38

I am still experimenting with this excellent plugin - many thanks.
For animating camera I can only see two real options - Tracking object or rotating around object.
Is it possible, or will be possible, to have camera follow a path? Two options would be useful, either looking ahead, or turning left/right up/down.

In a post from Treadshot A1, Dec 29 2016 earlier version, he mentions camera path option of bezier.
Has that option now gone.
Best wishes

fredo6 · 25 Feb 2021, 15:41

@sectionaa said:

For animating camera I can only see two real options - Tracking object or rotating around object. Is it possible, or will be possible, to have camera follow a path? Two options would be useful, either looking ahead, or turning left/right up/down.

Camera Path is on my plan. It's a little bit longer than planned actually.

@sectionaa said:

In a post from Treadshot A1, Dec 29 2016 earlier version, he mentions camera path option of bezier.
Has that option now gone.

Not sure what it is... and probably not related to Animator.

chrisn · 19 Mar 2021, 20:47

Hi, thanks for the plugin! Is it compatible with Vray 5.10.01 (latest as of 03/09/2021)? All I'm getting is a black screen for each frame.

fredo6 · 19 Mar 2021, 20:55

@chrisn said:

Hi, thanks for the plugin! Is it compatible with Vray 5.10.01 (latest as of 03/09/2021)? All I'm getting is a black screen for each frame.

Normally, it is compatible with VRay 5. I did not test V5.1 however.

Could you try to press the button Test Image before you launch the video generation. And also open the Ruby the console.

fredo6 · 30 Mar 2021, 10:07

New Release: Animator - v3.4a - 30 Mar 21

Requirement: LibFredo6 v11.5

Maintenance release

Extension of validity

See plugin home page of Animator for Download of RBZ from the PluginStore.

See Main Post of the Animator thread for more information.

Kelvinos · 19 Apr 2021, 17:00

I'M finding that Vray 5 will render, or at least show CPU/GPU usage thats consistent with a render but doesn't actually show any render progress in the VFB or the progress Window. I'm not sure what Chaos changed since my last version 4.2. I hope that you can fix it, I love Vray and Animator but now that I updated Vray I can't easily downgrade without completely resetting my scenes and remapping all the textures

olegbo · 19 Apr 2021, 18:15

Just a question, it is very complicated to implement the ability to clone / copy clips in Animator and make them unique in the sense of "deep copy". I mean, basicaly, recursively coping / cloning sequences inside the clip and grouping them under the new name. From my point of view, it will make the workflow even more efficient and will help to structure rather long and repertive animations or serve as a template.

Viveca · 20 Apr 2021, 02:46

Hello,

Thank you for this wonderful extension. Since I upgraded to Sketchup Pro 2021, I have not been able to export videos. I believe I have the latest version of Animator and of FFmpeg.

When I click to generate a video, it lets me select options, and it generates the png files, but I get an error message and can't generate any video. I made a screen recording of one attempt, but it is too big to attach to this notes.

My specs:
Mac OS Big Sur 11.2.3
Sketchup Pro 2021 Version 21.0.392
Animator version 3.4a - 30 Mar 21 (but was already having this problem with the last version. I just installed that today to try to fix it)
ffmpeg-4.3.2-2021-02-27-full_build

Any help appreciated.

Thank you!

fredo6 · 20 Apr 2021, 07:09

@viveca said:

When I click to generate a video, it lets me select options, and it generates the png files, but I get an error message and can't generate any video.

Could you at least tell me (or post a capture) of the error message.

Viveca · 20 Apr 2021, 15:57

@fredo6 said:

@viveca said:

When I click to generate a video, it lets me select options, and it generates the png files, but I get an error message and can't generate any video.

Could you at least tell me (or post a capture) of the error message.

Thank you for quick reply. Error txt file is attached. It says:

sh: /Applications/ffmpeg-4.3.2-2021-02-27-full_build/bin/ffmpeg.exe: Permission denied

Also, I just ran it again and have more detail to report. After the png files are created, it stalls on the process screen at 100%. It just stays there and never continues on its own. If I click "Preview Video" nothing happens. If I click "Interrupt," Sketchup pops up a window asking if I want to generate the videos. If I say yes, I get another Animator window with video format options, but when I mouse over any of the options, I get an error message, and when I click "Save and close" nothing happens and no files are generated. I'm attaching screenshots of all of this.

Thanks!

FFmpeg_log_mp4.txt