Animation, rotation

remus

(blatant self promotion)

have you seen this tutorial? http://www.sketchucation.com/animating-an-object-in-google-sketchup/

If youve got any specific questions feel free to ask...

Gaieus

Hi Mary,

Actually, when first saw your water mill, I thought I'd surprise you with a little animation, it "desires" for it so much. But then I was either busy or lazy (you decide).

Anyway, (one) way to go with this is to

copy rotate the wheel (see "Radial arrays" when scrolling down here) as many times as frames you want in your animation - say divide 360 by 36 (this will make 36 frames) so make 35 copies (36 with the original) and rotate each copy by 10 degrees.
put the copies on separate layers one by one
make as many scenes as layers you have in your animation and in each scene only turn on the visibility of one layer while keep the rest hidden.
go onlike this; next scene > next layer visible (with a slightly rotated copy) and so on...
in Window > Model info > Animation, set the transition to something very short and uncheck scene delay below completely.
start/export your animation...
Edit: Remus beat me. He's using "linear arrays" in that tutorial but the main idea and technique practically speaking is the same.

Gaieus

Pilou, we are in the newbie forum (again)! One has to learn to walk before running.

pilou

Use the plug mover by cmd
The more easy for animate something in SU

And if you want more subtle take a look at SketchyPhysics3 by CPhillips
But maybe not for a beginner

pilou

He wants an
@unknownuser said:

EASY way
mover is the more easy even against the system of layer

Gaieus

@unknownuser said:

Hewants an

SHEyou mean...

mogogirl

LOL, thanks everyone. I will work on trying to animate my little wheel. And by EASY, I guess I meant something a newbie could understand and follow. I do understand that easy is a very relative term!

pilou

Oh Sorry I am so confused
I did'nt seen the text only the problem

Gaieus

@unknownuser said:

Oh Sorry I am so confused
I did'nt seen the text only the problem

Hehe... No, me sorry, Pilou; it was a "cheap" revenge from me.
And the flowers are very gentle from you, I hope Mary can make that animation after all this.

mogogirl

Arrrgh! this is all making me feel like such an idiot!!!!! I have made the array but can not for the life of me figure out how to put the copies onto layers. I'm just not getting this. I've watched the video on youtube about layers and I don't seem to understand. I understand the concept of what to do, just not HOW. Am I making this too hard?

I'm such a visual person, I need someone to show me how to do this and then I can figure it out. Trying to do this from written instructions is just driving me crazy! Oh well, I'll keep trying and maybe I'll eventually figure this out.

pilou

Of course you have remarked when you have increased the time of the scene transition (Model Info/animation)
the object makes some foolish rotations
Why? It's because Group has a bad axes!
So for rotate an object you must use "Component" and give it his own axis of rotation !
(not possible for a group)

All will works fine with that!

For just translation groups are sufficient

And don't forget

Select scene
Select group (or component for rotation)
Move it (or rotate it)
Remember position of selection(all the time this is not made of forgotten)
If you want you can make anything else zoom move rotate the scene
Update scene
Select scene...etc

Ps As said in the text help you can't save the animation, so you must record the animation screen by prog like Camstudio (free) or similar!
Have fun animating

pilou

Hello Mogo girl
The layer method is some painful mover.rb is the one (but see next post after reading this one!)
Some thing like this?
With only 3 scenes you will have perfect rotation
(I don't know who is the author : lines follow are from cmd)

@unknownuser said:

How To Use:

Place the mover.rb and the mover_extensions folder into the Plugins directory

The position of the components (position and orientation of the component axis) are tied to the scene.

Create your scenes

Engage the 1st SketchUp Scene where you want the animation to start

Select your component/s you want to animate and place them in the needed position and orientation. While they are selected go to Plugins > "Remember Position of Selection"
The position of the selected components will now be tied to that specific scene.

Repeat Step 2 for the following scene.

When you are finished, when you click on each scene, the models will automatically transition.

Note:

If you scale the component, you may see some strange animation transitions. Be sure to "scale definition" to correct the problem.

You will not be able to export this animation through SketchUp. If you try, the components will remain stationary.

rotate.skp

Gaieus

@mogogirl said:

...I have made the array but can not for the life of me figure out how to put the copies onto layers...

Right click > Entity info > and change the layer there. Of course, you need to have the layer already created.

mogogirl

By George, I think I've done it!!!!! I need a few adjustments before I publish it here for you but I will try to have that done later today. It's not brain surgery...but I sure am proud of myself...lol. I'll let you know as soon as I have a decent animation to show.

pilou

What a suspense!
What method was used: that is a terrible wait

Gaieus

Cool,Mary. You only need to grasp the concept once and from then on, it will seem to be easy. Such "layered and scened" animations are always a bit of a hasle however so once you understand the logic, you may really wish to look into plugins that automate and make this process easier.