[Plugin] Proper Animation V1.08 Beta(Updated 14/11/10)

SouzaRM

Hello Bradley,

As noted in the documentation and previous posts on this thread, Sketchup can not export the animations in the "standard" way.
You have two options:

quick and dirty - hide the axes and use a screen capture utility while playing the animations

slow and pretty - use a renderer to save each animation frame and chain those together into a movie - read previous posts - Kerkythea, Twilight ...

Remember:

01. The PlugIn SmoothStepAnim.rb is very good (not render) for save picture in picture of the [Proper Animation] and group the images for video (http://groups.google.it/group/Sketchup-Pro/browse_thread/thread/ea575d1bce3d1c97)

02. Post SketchUCation: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=10946&hilit=Re%3A+Plugin]+proper+animation+for+SketchUp+6+free%2Fpro&start=75#p142979

Re: [Plugin] proper animation - for SketchUp 6 free/pro
PostBy Ecuadorian on Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:55 am

03. Post SketchUCation: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=10946&hilit=Re%3A+[Plugin]+proper+animation+for+SketchUp+6+free%2Fpro&start=90#p181444

Re: [Plugin] proper animation - for SketchUp 6 free/pro
PostBy mariocha on Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:53 am

bnem

Hello,

On advice from the forums I've animated a scene usng "PROPER ANIMATION" and as expected can't export it. I'm using a "SMOOTHSTEP ANIMATION" plug-in to break the scene up into jpgs but how then can I re-assemble the step-by-step images into a movie file? Is there no ruby that lets me export a proper animation?

any help would be appreciated

tks

/ben

Gaieus

Hi Ben,

Rendering applications very often only export the frames as still images. Later you can assemble these images into an animation using several (free or cheap or expensive) 3rd party programs like VirtualDub for instance. This will also allow you better control over your video quality than if you exported them from SU.

pilou

Seems Twilight can render the animations of plugin like Proper Animation

darkhelmet

Okay I gave this a shot but must be missing a whole lot. Spent several hours creating several scenes, all of which contain multiple objects animated with Proper - office equipment coming up through the floor. I installed the Smooth Animation plugin and Virtualdub. All ready to go! Nope. Exported the frames as PNG using Smooth...all static images of each scene - no Proper animation in any of the frames.

What did I do wrong?

CLARIFICATION: The camera is animated but nothing else, basically nothing animated with Proper.

zitoun

Using Pixero and Fredo's work, I was able to create a sequence where my camera flies all around a room. Now I'd like the plane to be in the camera's field, first as a fixed item, and later moving (while staying in the viewfield).
(Note: I talk about this aspect in a dedicated post)

Most efficient way to do so is to attach the plane to the camera, as you can do in most animation tools. But I understood this would not be easily feasable.

Another way is to get for each frame (from a script maybe) the camera position and orientation, add offline my plane wanted relative position and orientation, and then update my plane's coordinates for each frame, maybe using ProperAnimation plugin...

But as I've just discovered SU, I still don't really know how to get these position + orientation infos... Plus I don't know if it is possible to set offline Proper Animation coordinates for an object !

Is it ? How do I do this ?

jeff hammond

can someone please hold my hand and walk me through this?

i'm trying to do something a bit more complicated than this but if i can get help moving these three blocks in sequence then i'll be able to figure out the rest (hopefully )

unfortunately, i think i really need a step-by-step (as in, don't assume i know when to make the different scenes or when to assign which position to which piece or when to start/stop the scene observer etc.. those types of instructions are already out there and they aren't clicking with me ). i've tried many combinations but i can't get them moving one at a time.. i'm basically trying a sort of assembly animation where the pieces fly into place in the order they need to go..

thanks

jeff hammond

just in case anyone is wondering...

DaveR is the Man
thanks so much

Dave R

Thanks Jeff. Glad we got it sorted.

So for those who might be wondering. the trick is to select all of the groups/components whether they move or not between scenes and set the position for the animation.

X E Ryder

OMG! YAY! Thank you! Did I say Thank You?

Thank you very much!

My current project will not be convincing without real animation, can't wait to try it!

XE

BZhu

OMG I have been working on this for days and have not figured it out. Can anybody PLEASE explain how to do this:

I have an animation in Sketchup with the use of proper animation as well as the normal sketchup animation (ie. change of camera position). I have exported the xml file using Kerkythea exporter and imported it into Kerkythea. I tried redering it but only the camera movements were shown, and no proper animation movements were there. All I want is to have the animation be turned into an avi video. How do I do it? I don't want anything too complicated , just to have the animaton turn into a video.

marioc

@bzhu said:

OMG I have been working on this for days and have not figured it out. ... I don't want anything too complicated , just to have the animaton turn into a video.

To make it simple, if all you want is the animation in Sketchup display, low res, no rendering, use a screen capture utility. (Like SnapZpro). There are a few for both platforms.

mariocha

@bzhu said:

OMG I have been working on this for days and have not figured it out. ... I don't want anything too complicated , just to have the animaton turn into a video.

The most simple way is to use a screen capture app. There are a few. It just makes a video of whatever plays on screen for the time period you set by start & stop. Low res, no rendering.

chri

bonjour

je viens d'installer le plugin proper animation 1.07

Est-ce que quelqu'un pourrai m'indiquer comment augmenter le nombre de position dans le menu contextuel .
(il existe 8 positions en standard utilisables avec la fonction Set Position - xxx)

merci

pilou

Il faut plutôt poser ta question dans le forum Français quand c'est formulé en français
User Control Panel (en haut à gauche)
Users Groups
et choisir le forum idoine et envoyer

Sinon pour Proper Animation, il suffit de cliquer sur la dernière ligne de la liste
marquée "Add Position" cela rajoute automatiquement une position utilisable de plus!

Funerall

Isn't there any easy way to export a video from SU (while running Proper Animation)? Kerkythea is not the solution. I have to export nearly 940 frames just for a simple design and while rendering in kerkythea (with Ray Tracing - I need to choose this) it really kills me.

Isn't there a simple way to do it?

Dave R

The simple way is to make a screen shot video which is how I did this:

Fletch

Dear Morisdov,
I have downloaded the latest version of this plugin. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING!!! It's so powerful.

It's really great - works great in SU8, and I can animate no problem.
I can render the animation using Twilight no problem.
I can open the image sequence created in Virtual Dub and save the image sequence as an .avi no problem.

So what's my problem?
The adjusting of the animation transition times.

When I animate an object, and specify 1 second in SketchUp transition time (I always specify zero time for scene delay) it takes 0.5 seconds for the animation of the object, then the remaining .5 seconds is just the object sitting there in place.

Is it impossible to get the animation of the object to take up the entire transition time so that I can render a video where the animation is not taking up only half of each frame, and then just sitting there?

read more explanation only if interested:
If I set the Scene Delay to 2 seconds, Proper Animation animates the motion of the object for 1 second, and then the remaining second the object is sitting there in place.

The default for each transition is "-1.0" There's no info about this in the "How To" pdf tutorial you created - which is very helpful, in every other way! I will presume that "-1.0" value = "use SketchUp Model Info specified Animation Transition Time"

So if I experiment I find that setting transition for each scene to "0.0" makes the image sequences just fly by - with no animation happening, presumably because they have zero time to be animated. Makes sense.

But no matter if I set the transition time in the Proper Animation Transition Time Dialog to "1.0 or 2.0" or "10.0" it appears that the animation always takes place in half the time specified. This results in a "start quick and stop" animation, when I want a smoothly animated sequence... I want the animation to happen during the whole frame.

Fletch

Test animation before easing support (Full HD DivX 2Mb).

Will test the easing support version now. Thanks so much for your help!

Edit- tested.
1 - WORKS GREAT! Appears that by default the transition fills the entire Scene Transition Time now.
2 - Am I Missing the Easing Parameter choice?

morisdov

@unknownuser said:

2 - Am I Missing the Easing Parameter choice?

Verify you have only a single"proper animation 1.xx.rbs" file in plugins folder.
The "About" dialog window should report 1.08 beta.