[Plugin]$ Keyframe Animation

Regular Polygon · 15 Dec 2010, 21:53

Hi Everyone,

The Keyframe Animation plugin is at: regularpolygon.org/keyframe-animation .

Basically, this plug-in will animate the movement of objects between scenes, and it can export the animation to an AVI movie (QuickTime on the Mac), directly from SketchUp.

Since most of you are probably familiar with the other animation plugins that have been posted here, I will try to describe this plugin by comparing it with them. The main animation plugins are Proper Animation by morisdov, and Mover.rb by cmd. This plugin has a similar workflow — you save the positions of the animated objects on each scene and it moves them when the scene changes. Here are the main things that are different:

Features

-The key frames (scenes) can be easily added, deleted, renamed, or reordered. For instance, you can reverse the order of the animation by putting the scenes in reverse order.

-Precisely control the length of the animation between key frames.

-Animate any group or component. Sub-groups (and sub-components) can also be animated. They can be nested to any depth.

-Rotations are interpolated correctly every time. Proper Animation and Mover.rb run into problems with rotations, unless the point of rotation is the component's origin. This is due to a bug in the Transformation.interpolate method, which both plugins rely on.

-Generate ordinary SketchUp scenes, which capture the animation in between the key frames. Let’s call them tweens. Each tween has a copy of the animated objects, and the camera, at a different point in the interpolation between key frames.

-Export the tween animation to an AVI movie (QuickTime on the Mac), right from SketchUp.

Demos

Here are a couple demos. They were exported directly from SketchUp, and uploaded to YouTube. The first one is the obligatory rotating gears. (25 fps, 480p)

[flash=480,385:3hatn1cl]http://www.youtube.com/v/Vv1jTZfMAds?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0[/flash:3hatn1cl]

This demo uses 16 keyframes, and 12 animated components, to show the steps in the construction of a slat platform bed frame made entirely from interlocking wooden parts. (15 fps, 360p)

[flash=640,385:3hatn1cl]http://www.youtube.com/v/2ou8_SRnLjo?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0[/flash:3hatn1cl]

Tutorial

This video shows the basic steps to make a simple animation, and how to export the animation as a movie. It is a bit outdated now, it shows the workflow for version 1.3, before there was a toolbar.

[flash=640,390:3hatn1cl]http://www.youtube.com/v/TokvZKmWLlQ?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0[/flash:3hatn1cl]

Rich O Brien · 15 Dec 2010, 21:57

That is an amazing, much sought after, addition to SketchUp

Regular Polygon · 15 Dec 2010, 22:11

@unknownuser said:

That is an amazing, much sought after, addition to SketchUp

Thanks! It has a few new features for keyframe based animation. The updates, hopefully, will have some more.

solo · 15 Dec 2010, 22:16

Very nice, great to have additional animation options.

Now, note to render app developers, get working on this as we'd like to render these animations also.

thomthom · 15 Dec 2010, 22:19

Looking very interesting. Will have to have a look at this.

tfdesign · 15 Dec 2010, 22:26

A great plugin, but I think your price is a little on the steep side.

Regular Polygon · 15 Dec 2010, 22:28

@thomthom said:

Looking very interesting. Will have to have a look at this.

Great! If you, or anyone else, has suggestions for the design, or for new features, I am interested in the feedback.

solo · 15 Dec 2010, 22:32

I'd like to see some sort of dialogue, or maybe a toolbar if possible.

Regular Polygon · 15 Dec 2010, 22:43

@tfdesign said:

A great plugin, but I think your price is a little on the steep side.

Well, I guess the market will ultimately decide this issue. But, compared to other commercial animation plugins, I thought the price was a bargain.

dtrarch · 16 Dec 2010, 01:38

RP

It is

dtr

Regular Polygon · 16 Dec 2010, 03:47

@solo said:

I'd like to see some sort of dialogue, or maybe a toolbar if possible.

I agree. Web dialogs will likely be in the updates.

A toolbar is quicker than a menu. But if you make shortcuts for the menu items, then you can access them just as fast.

tfdesign · 16 Dec 2010, 11:21

@regular polygon said:

@tfdesign said:

A great plugin, but I think your price is a little on the steep side.

Well, I guess the market will ultimately decide this issue. But, compared to other commercial animation plugins, I thought the price was a bargain.

SketchUp was offered by Google to be a non-elitist app for everyone- why I imagine, it was offered for free, but for someone living in a 3rd-world country, or someone on unemployment benefit (and there is a lot of it about these days) $20 is a lot of money. Compared to say the SDS plugin, which IMO does something a lot more complex, and costs $2 more. Or how about even FredoScale, which is a dynamite plugin, but donationware. Please, don't get me wrong, and I'm sure your plugin will do very well, but again it will be richer countries like America who will be able to afford the more basic, yet essential payware plugins, leaving many in poorer nations, out (again).

Tom

thomthom · 16 Dec 2010, 11:31

Living in one of the most expensive countries in the world (a cinema ticket here is about 15$) I can't charge a price that fits the poorest - then there'd be no return value at all. Plugins take a lot of time to develop and the market for profit isn't that big. A price of 10-20$ (even 30$) isn't unreasonable.

The complexity of a plugin can not be determined unless you've seen the code for it. A plugin may appear very simple to the user, but be doing very complex things under the hood.

If this plugin had ben trivial - there'd be a free one out there already. As he mention in his post, there are some that does part of what his do, but not everything and has some issues. Providing a plugin that completes the package is worth $20. Just because SU comes in a free version doesn't mean every plugin has to be free. It's a matter of time spent and value gained. And he has contributed free plugins - so it's not as if he's all about profit.

Gaieus · 16 Dec 2010, 11:40

@thomthom said:

Living in one of the most expensive countries in the world (a cinema ticket here is about 15$) I can't charge a price that fits the poorest - then there'd be no return value at all.

OK, how about this then; you make the plugin and I collect the money?

thomthom · 16 Dec 2010, 11:43

You getting into Hungarian mafia business now?
You'll be asking me for "protection"?

Gaieus · 16 Dec 2010, 12:12

It was just a gentle "offer".
(Now let's stay on topic...)

Rich O Brien · 16 Dec 2010, 13:08

I think $19 is fair considering it has a trial period and it's open licence on private use. Also any future upgrades are bundled in. Compared to tgi3d it's peanuts. I know there's more in tgi3d but so far RP has offered his plugins free. Time to reward his efforts.

@ Csaba

On topic enough?

Gaieus · 16 Dec 2010, 13:25

@unknownuser said:

On topic enough?

Yes, finally, somebody.

tfdesign · 16 Dec 2010, 16:09

@thomthom said:

The complexity of a plugin can not be determined unless you've seen the code for it. A plugin may appear very simple to the user, but be doing very complex things under the hood.

Sure, but your missing the point.

Just for the record, I think the UK is now catching up on Norway

Open licence on private use? Sorry I didn't see that. Fair enough then!

jason_maranto · 16 Dec 2010, 16:21

This looks really great -- I can do almost all of that with Dynamic components (except export) in Sketchup Pro but for Free version users who want that functionality this plugin is truly a bargain at roughly $480 less.

Best,
Jason.