Can I animate an object in SU?

remus

If your going to do this a lot id recommend learning another program. Sketchup is just plain crap when it comes to animating stuff.

In terms of which program to use, id recommend having a look at blender 2.5. Its surprisingly simple to get the hang of animating things and i imagine it plays fairly well with .obj exported from sketchup.

Ecuadorian

Another SketchUp plugin for animation:
http://www.forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=22553&hilit=+mover

pilou

@unknownuser said:

id recommend having a look at blender 2.5. Its surprisingly simple to get the hang of animating things and i imagine it plays fairly well with .obj exported from sketchup.

Not sure that the word "Simple" can be adapted to Blender
For manage a such prog learning curve is maybe 3 years for total 3D beginner

KarinaGM

Oh well 3 years is many time for making a wheel spin around and axis...
I'll give it a try anyway. I've been wanting to learn blender for years and never find the time.
But if I can work there with a SU model then it would be perfect.

I downloaded the plugin proper animation, but I haven't tested it yet.
And the mover, I'll give it a look too.

Thanks

remus

@unknownuser said:

Not sure that the word "Simple" can be adapted to Blender
For manage a such prog learning curve is maybe 3 years for total 3D beginner

Relativley simple, then

And that would be 3 years to mastery id assume, doing a fairly basic animation such as whats being contemplated here shouldnt take more than a week or two if you get down to it and ask lots of questions.

KarinaGM

Oh no!
I managed to make a wheel spin in its own axe
BTW, is there a simple method to place the axe of a component where you want it?
What I did was to move the elements inside the component to make the wanted axe match with the component axe...
As it was a simple model there was no problem, but if there is a simpler way I'd like to know it

Well. Now I have the movement. But I can't export it!
I downloaded a program to capture what I see on the screen, but again, there must be a better approach...

Blender will have to wait, at least untill next year (it is not that far)

Thanks again

Gaieus

@karinagm said:

BTW, is there a simple method to place the axe of a component where you want it?

Right click on the component > Change axes...

mitcorb

Currently, Blender's stable version is 2.49
Blender 2.5 is in Alpha., not considered stable enough for regular work, by their own admission.
If you do take on Blender, Remus is right about the learning curve. But I was able to model a hand fairly quickly, and a bullfrog, and a wolf--none of these in a day.
However, the user manual is in wiki form and takes you step by step.
But, this forum is supposed to be for Sketchup

tfdesign

Hi Karina.

If you can get hold of a Mac (or hackintosh), there is Sketchers Studio, which has been specifically designed with SU in mind. There is also SU Animate too- which works with Windows.

I too tried Blender, but I found it even more complex than Pro/Engineer!!!

KXI System

Your using proper animation too!
proper animation is the MOST EASIEST animation tool I have ever used. Just move click new scene.
Even though V7 has a few bugs its ok.
And sketchy physics is WAY to complicated for me.

KarinaGM

Thanks everyone for the tips, comments and recomendations.
I made those animations with the plugin and worked fine and then I captured the screen.

Thanks Gaieus, sometimes I forget the right click has much more options than the 3 or 4 I am used to...
Anyways, it wont move the axe accurately... am I wrong?
unless I draw guides or lines so the axe can stick to it (that was what I did)

And about the mac tfdesign, I don't have access to one, so I can't use that studio.
I'll g00gle the SU animate you mentioned, although the plugin I used worked perfectly for what I needed

Gaieus

Yes, obviously, changing the axes of a component accurately needs some geometry to easily snap to. But generally one would snap it to some obvious parts of the component itself so mostly that is not a problem.

KXI System

@karinagm said:

I'll g00gle the SU animate you mentioned, although the plugin I used worked perfectly for what I needed

Just to tell you before hand, you have to pay. NOT FREE