[Plugin Beta] Animator - v4.4a - 01 Jun 25

Viveca · 20 Apr 2021, 15:57

@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

fredo6 · 21 Apr 2021, 12:06

This seems to be a problem of security for the FFmpeg executable.

Could you go to your Mac Preference panel, Tab Security and see if you have the possibility to accept FFMpeg as a valid program.

Viveca · 21 Apr 2021, 20:29

@fredo6 said:

This seems to be a problem of security for the FFmpeg executable.

Could you go to your Mac Preference panel, Tab Security and see if you have the possibility to accept FFMpeg as a valid program.

I couldn't find any option to do that. I deleted the FFmpeg folder that I had, and reinstalled from the link on https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=401&t=71975. During this process, I got the pop-up security alert, and I told it to download anyway. This time it only installed one file called ffmpeg (last time there was a whole folder). I put the one file into Applications and tried again. The same thing happened: I got all the png files and an error message saying: "sh: /Applications/ffmpeg: Permission denied." Only this time all the png files disappeared. This has happened before. I see them pop into the finder while the program is running, but then they all disappear and only the error message remains.

I called Mac support. I'm still on hold with them. I've been on the phone for an hour with tech support. She has not found anything in my computer blocking the program. They're transferring me to a senior specialist, but I'm not optimistic, so I'm responding here now with this update. I also see that other people are reporting the same thing, but I'm new to these forums and having a hard time finding relevant threads and their responses. I will keep looking but also appreciate any ideas you may have.

Thanks.

Viveca · 21 Apr 2021, 20:50

Me again. The senior person showed me how to command click to open a file that is by an unidentified developer. But the ffmpeg that I downloaded this time is just one document file with no extension. It doesn't seem to be executable. Before I had a whole folder. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to be downloading a whole folder or one file and if so with what extension.

I tried https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=401&t=71975 under

@unknownuser said:

Step 1 - Downloading FFmpeg

The first step is to download the FFmpeg executable. The links below point to a zip file containing the executable file of FFmpeg (stored on the Sketchucation web site).
Windows 64: zip file
Mac OSX: zip file

And then I tried https://ffmpeg.org/download.html#build-mac but there were too many choices, and I (obviously) don't know what I'm doing, so I didn't feel comfortable testing random downloads.

Please advise.

azizxpx · 22 Apr 2021, 00:11

Hi

Is it possible to export to MDL in the future to be used by moving cars in flight simulator or p3d ?

thanks

Viveca · 24 Apr 2021, 01:47

Hi again! Just wanted to thank you for trying to help me. Once it registered that you're not responsible for ffmpeg, I went online and figured out how to install it properly. Well, okay, I don't know if it's proper, but I know Animator works like a dream now. So I'm all set. Thanks for the great app!

fredo6 · 25 Apr 2021, 08:32

@viveca said:

Hi again! Just wanted to thank you for trying to help me. Once it registered that you're not responsible for ffmpeg, I went online and figured out how to install it properly. Well, okay, I don't know if it's proper, but I know Animator works like a dream now. So I'm all set. Thanks for the great app!

Thanks for the feedback. It's normal that the Mac system sometimes reacts with security prevention since FFmpeg is an executable.

fredo6 · 28 Apr 2021, 17:11

@pierrearchi26 said:

I am currently working on Animator v3.4 and I cannot save the project when I exit the plugin and stay in the Sketchup model. The "save" button in Animator seems not work for me under version 2018 windows version.

Could you open the Ruby console and check if there are errors when saving.

pierrearchi26 · 28 Apr 2021, 17:19

Hello Fredo,

I am currently working on Animator v3.4 and I cannot save the project when I exit the plugin and stay in the Sketchup model. The "save" button in Animator seems not work for me under version 2018 windows version.: cry:: cry: back inside Animator plugin and everything (mouvements) have deseappeared as in the maintenance window . impossible to save the curent project.
Thank you for your feedback.
pierre.

pierrearchi26 · 28 Apr 2021, 17:26

@fredo6 said:

@pierrearchi26 said:

I am currently working on Animator v3.4 and I cannot save the project when I exit the plugin and stay in the Sketchup model. The "save" button in Animator seems not work for me under version 2018 windows version.

Could you open the Ruby console and check if there are errors when saving.

Non je n'ai pas d'erreur dans la console (aucun affichage). Le fichier Animator est pourtant bien créé. ?

Je profite de ce message pour vous remercier pour vos plugins que j'utilise au quotidien depuis 10 ans au moins !.

pierrearchi26 · 29 Apr 2021, 06:40

i have re-installed the plugin and disable other plugins and it works fine now. Thank you. Pierre.

fredo6 · 28 May 2021, 19:23

New Release: Animator - v3.5a - 28 May 21

Requirement: LibFredo6 v11.5

Maintenance release

Bug fixing
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.

solo · 28 May 2021, 19:46

Fredo,
does Animator work with the new Vray Vision?

fredo6 · 28 May 2021, 21:26

@solo said:

does Animator work with the new Vray Vision?

I don't know. What is VRay Vision?

solo · 28 May 2021, 22:05

@fredo6 said:

@solo said:

does Animator work with the new Vray Vision?

I don't know. What is VRay Vision?

V-Ray Vision is a real-time viewer that can be used in any project set up for V-Ray rendering. It is a lightweight “game engine” (rasterizer) that does not currently use any type of ray-tracing.

duanekemp · 17 Jun 2021, 10:41

I'm having serious issues with completing a simple animation. The SketchUp output was fine, though it took over three hours to render 10 seconds at HD720.

SketchUp 2021
Doors Animation SU test
First time using this plugin in quite some time - 25 frames per second for ten seconds, camera position and interior sliding glass doors animation.
Not rendered, I can't believe it took 3h10:48 seconds!!! Dang.

But, while using Thea Render, every render export keeps crashing around the three second mark.

At 25 fps, Windows posts a message that there's no more space around the 74th to 79th image in the sequence, which crashes the process and SU With the Render window stuck.

Doors Animation SU Thea test 01 Crash 03
1280x720 Presto Bucket at 128 samples per pixel (basically nothing). 25 frames per second for ten seconds, yet each render test of the animation has crashed. First image rendered at 9h58 and basically took two minutes for each until the last image at 13H16... crashing on the 75th image.
A total of 74 images were produced before the new crash, which equals only 3 seconds of the 10 and STILL a total of 3 hours and 14 minutes of rendering.

Yesterday, I cleared out 60GB of programs from the C Drive in case that's where the memory was being "stored" or created, but, that wasn't the solution as it crashed again. It's a simple camera move and sliding door animation. What could be possibly going on?

Could it be the Thea Render Temp file location not having enough space? Could it be the drive data folder (where the SU file and image are being compiled) having not enough space?

Is there an explanation as to why the animation export is creating such a huge memory block somewhere?

At over three hours per test/crash, this is two days trying to get to the end of a 10 second test and I'm being terribly surprised as to how others are able to get 2 minutes of video. So, what am I doing wrong?

fredo6 · 17 Jun 2021, 11:16

Did you try the rendering with Thea from Thea itself (instead of launching the generation from Animator)?

Normally, the requirements for disk is to have enough space to store the image files, one per frame. Do you have the size of a single image?

For memory, I think this is more related to Thea. Animator and Sketchup do nothing special during the generation in term of memory usage.

duanekemp · 17 Jun 2021, 11:21

Because Animator exports .png files... the image size is larger than a .jpg (which would be preferable) and so, each image is around 1.46 MB.

But, now you have me curious... How does Thea know the path and animation created in Animator in order to render the same animation from Thea?

Ah... hadn't tried the Thea animation tool (Animator plugin).

Giving this a go in Thea V3: http://kb.thearender.com/thea-for-sketchup-v15/export-animation-studio/

fredo6 · 17 Jun 2021, 13:56

@duanekemp said:

But, now you have me curious... How does Thea know the path and animation created in Animator in order to render the same animation from Thea?

The Thea team was kind enough to integrate Animator in their list of animation programs, based on an API I provided to them.

@duanekemp said:

Ah... hadn't tried the Thea animation tool (Animator plugin).

Tell me if it works better...

duanekemp · 17 Jun 2021, 18:17

@duanekemp said:

Ah... hadn't tried the Thea animation tool (Animator plugin).

Tell me if it works better...[/quote]

So far, it's rendering but not exporting the renders to the folder. For a moment, I thought this was going to be the solution.