Which rubies for better camera movement in animations?

kwistenbiebel

Ok that is nice to control speed.
But can it also do smoother camera motion and control the path?

Pixero

But can it also do smoother camera motion and control the path?

Rick W's flightpath can do that in a limited way IMHO. Its not easily editable.
It would be better with editable spline curves that you can move around in the scene to change the path.
Maybe with a editor similar to my idea you could even add new spline knots (points) when new keys were created at the location specified in the position input boxes.

Just thinking loud here...

Pixero

Here is a quick mock up (basicly from Maya) of how a spline animation editor might look like for those who dont know.

And here is a link to a java web example:
http://www.cs.brown.edu/exploratories/freeSoftware/repository/edu/brown/cs/exploratories/applets/bezierSplines/bezier_splines_java_browser.html

Drag P1, P2, P3 and P4 to see that a editable splinecurve can be done in a web window/web dialog.

Pixero

Like I said, SketchUp's camera would need several curves, three for the camera position (x,y,z)and three for the focus points position.
For flythroughs it would be much easier with a "one node" camera which only has one position and rotation. A 2 node and a 1 node camera is what all the big 3d apps like Maya and 3ds Max have.

plot-paris

splines are a good idea, for they give a huge ammount of control.

however, we have to bear in mind, that we are talking about SketchUp - the one 3D app with the easiest user-interface!

I would very much prefer controls that are simple to use and seemlesly blend into the workflow of SU (like the wonderful SkIndigo plugin does - double clicking a material to get advanced settings for rendering...)

so even if we used splines for camera movement/speed control, we have to think carefully about the way to implement them. SketchUp is a one window application (has only one stage, in which all the work is done). we should not go too far in another direction...

kwistenbiebel

I agree Plot-Paris.
An animation enhancement plugin should breath the simplicity of Sketchup.
Also, an editable bezier curve as camera path seems an easy but effective method.

JClements

I think interface shown above and the bezier curve for path are great ideas for controlling the sequencing and speed of the camera.

I would like to suggest the other side of the coin, if you will, and that is the how the geometry could be animated/displayed in addtion to the camera. If it is possble I would like to see someway of animating geometry on the screen similar to what SKETCHY PHYSICS does, so the we wouldn't have to depend upon multiple copies of geometry at separate scenes; this would keep the file size down and I'd think it would make animation updating efficient. Make a path (it could be the same as the camera path or not), associate geometry and other transitioning atttributes to the path, assign the initiation of the animation to a scene tab (the scene tab could be assigned more than one object-path animation). Show/trigger the object animation by Shift-Clicking on a scene tab or use SU's View > Animation for the entire animation (with the addition of a pause button).

RickW

John,

Object animation is an ongoing request and dream for users and scripters alike. You could start a new thread about this.

RickW

I understand the need for greater control over settings, but I don't think we've hit on the solution yet. Part of the challenge is simplifying the complex while allowing for adequate control. The other main issue is working within the confines of SU's internal objects/methods/properties. If you don't mind having 200+ scenes in a model, everything mentioned is possible (assuming one wants to export to a video). More can be done with strictly internal animations, but the animation quality for most folks is rarely sufficient for presentations (too jumpy).

FlightPath is an ongoing project for me, and I have some ideas for improving the capabilities. Just a matter of time...

kwistenbiebel

I wouldn't mind if it would all fit in 1 animation plugin. Improved camera motion and object animation included.
But that would be dreaming