Messing around with animation....

Whaat

I've been trying to come up with an alternate way to get smooth animation from SketchUp without using bezier curve camera paths. The animation video below was created just using standard SketchUp scenes with a 2 second transition time and no delay. I have also posted the standard SketchUp animation for comparison.

My plan is to incorporate this technique into SkIndigo animation export. However, I will likely release this as a stand-alone plugin as well. It should be ready for release within a few weeks.

With Plugin:
[flash=320,240:anj6ajze]http://www.youtube.com/v/XrEo51RaoDw&hl=en&fs=1[/flash:anj6ajze]

Without Plugin:
[flash=320,240:anj6ajze]http://www.youtube.com/v/CyNjMv5ENz8&hl=en&fs=1[/flash:anj6ajze]

remus

Good stuff whaat, up to your usual high standards

juju

Nice! Good development there!

MALAISE

Hi Whaat

Not bad the effect. Quite close to reality movements. Effectively, smoothed tour
avoids the "robot feeling" when the path is'nt straight.

Good job

Question: did you improve the UVTool plugin?
I rode only few replies. Doing a shorttutorial, I've notice the use of the same picture to texture 2 different cylinders may crash SU. Only re- importing it solved the problem.

MALAISE

Mike Lucey

Dale, This is a badly needed improvement. Glad to learn that you
are thinking about a 'Stand Alone' PI

kwistenbiebel

Way to go Whaat.
I am really glad you're on to this.
The difference in cam motion between the 2 videos is very noticeable.

It seems that you incorporated some kind of speed curve, slowing down towards a key frame ('scene') and speeding up towards the middle section between keyframes. Its really refreshing to see we will be able to get rid of the too linear default SU animation paths.

Could this be the start of a 'reality cam' animation plugin? Including a speed graph editor etc..
It is cool that you try to avoid to have a bezier curve as animation path, but on the other hand it would be very nice if a plugin would exist that converts a classic scene tab animation into an editable curve with moveable control points and a graph editor to make speed variations in between keyframes (='scenes').
That would be the ultimate animation workflow: setup a classic scene tab animation, auto-convert it to a bezier and finally change its path and speed using the control points and graph editor.
For object animation, this editable bezier + graph editor could be used as well.

I feel not worthy to make a request like this as you already provided so much nice plugins to this community....but maybe a full plugin like that could be a commercial one?

Anyway, the smooth animator you just showed is awesome and I can't wait to try it out .
So thumbs up for WhaatsUp

Whaat

@kwistenbiebel said:

Could this be the start of a 'reality cam' animation plugin? Including a speed graph editor etc..
It is cool that you try to avoid to have a bezier curve as animation path, but on the other hand it would be very nice if a plugin would exist that converts a classic scene tab animation into an editable curve with moveable control points and a graph editor to make speed variations in between keyframes (='scenes').
That would be the ultimate animation workflow: setup a classic scene tab animation, auto-convert it to a bezier and finally change its path and speed using the control points and graph editor.
For object animation, this editable bezier + graph editor could be used as well.

I feel not worthy to make a request like this as you already provided so much nice plugins to this community....but maybe a full plugin like that could be a commercial one?

There is definitely potential to expand this plugin into a full featured animation package. However, there is no chance I will be taking it to that level any time soon. Maybe someday...

That's an interesting idea to create an editable camera path using classic scene tabs as a starting point. I am sure it can be done.

Phil Rader AIA

Thanks I'll look forward to the release.

spence

Dale,

Nice work. The animation in sketchup needs something new and I really like what you have going here. look forward to being able to use it.

tomasz

Hi Whaat, nice idea and it looks good.
Will it be an 'open source' script?
If answer == no, would you make internal methods known and public?
Thanks
Tomasz

princedragoncok

Wow, amazing! Looking forward to the day this plugin is released!

Whaat

@unknownuser said:

Hi Whaat, nice idea and it looks good.
Will it be an 'open source' script?
If answer == no, would you make internal methods known and public?
Thanks
Tomasz

This is the core of what I have so far. The smoothstep function is a well known function that I found using an internet search. I am using the Animation class in the Sketchup API. I thought this was a completely useless class until now... I just never understood how to use it before.


def nextFrame(view)

@frame+=1
@t+=@time_step

return false if @current_page_index==@pages.count


if @t.to_f>=@current_page_end   		#move to the next page if we are at the end of the transition time
	@current_page_index+=1
	@current_page=@pages[@current_page_index]
	@current_page_start=@current_page_end
	@current_page_trans=@current_page.transition_time
	@current_page_trans=@def_trans_time if @current_page_trans==-1.0
	@current_page_end=@current_page_start+@current_page_trans
end

smoothed_time=smooth(@current_page_start,@current_page_end,@t)*(@current_page_end-@current_page_start)+@current_page_start
@pages.show_frame_at(smoothed_time)
@filename=File.join(File.dirname(@filename),"test#{@frame}.jpg")
view.write_image(@filename,320,240,true) unless @t>@pages.slideshow_time
view.show_frame()


end

######################
def smooth(min,max,input) 

r=(input.to_f-min.to_f)/(max.to_f-min.to_f)
return r*r*(3.0-2.0*r)

end

redot

This looks great whaat. I'm a big fan of skindigo and look forward to rendering animations.

kwistenbiebel

Hi Whaat.
Any progress on this plugin?
Just asking as this feature is useful to a lot of people (including me ) .

Whaat

@kwistenbiebel said:

Hi Whaat.
Any progress on this plugin?
Just asking as this feature is useful to a lot of people (including me ) .

hi,

the plugin has been 'almost done' for a couple of weeks now. I haven't been working on it much. It just needs a bit of 'clean-up' and testing before I can release it. This is what the plugin can do (just so there are no false expectations):

View a SketchUp slideshow using smooth transitions between scenes
Export a SketchUp slideshow (as a sequence of still images) using smooth transitions between scenes

The plugin cannot be used to export a smoothed animation to a render engine. Sorry!

kwistenbiebel

@whaat said:

This is what the plugin can do (just so there are no false expectations):

View a SketchUp slideshow using smooth transitions between scenes

Export a SketchUp slideshow (as a sequence of still images) using smooth transitions between scenes

The plugin cannot be used to export a smoothed animation to a render engine. Sorry!

Bummer for the render engine support but promising anyway.

Fletch

I would use it for SU alone if it were avail.! please be encouraged to finish a beta for us.
I show many animations to clients these days inside good 'ole SU6. Clients love it. Would be great if it were smoothed out just like you showed.

chango70

How would it affect long transitions? like 16 sec?

tomasz

@whaat said:

This is the core of what I have so far. The smoothstep function is a well known function that I found using an internet search. I am using the Animation class in the Sketchup API. I thought this was a completely useless class until now... I just never understood how to use it before.

I have been using Animation Class for exporting Face Me components. Thanks for the code. This plug-in will be vary handy. I add intermediate cameras to smooth a path but it is very time consuming and not precise method.
Thanks for sharing and sorry for such a delayed response

Tomasz

kwistenbiebel

Hi Whaat,

I saw your youtube video where you rendered a Sketchyphyics scene as an animation using a render engine (Skindigo).
Is there a chance you make it into a ruby? (sketchyphysics-to-scene-tab-animation)