[Plugin] CameraKeyMaker 1.0 (Update 2011-04-09)

Enzay

Hey,

I noticed you updated something for "large models". Mine might be excessively large but I'm trying to get a "flightpath" along a road and acrross a bridge. This looks like it would work great for that because it is able to set the camera point andthe point of focus. I however, found that starting the script made the model disappear. It seems to have zoomed way out and I can't zoom in to set the camera position. Wondering if this has to do with the model being so large. My road chainage is around 2.6km. I tried using flightpath.rb but it still has the lag between scenes with 0 scene delay so it's not doing me much good.

Has anyone thought about making a script that places points or cameras (like advanced camera tools) and connects those points afterwards to make a smooth path? That would allow the user to set points without "being" the camera. Just some thoughts...

Enzay.

DesignChest

Hi

Just tried to install your plug in but i'm getting the error box - no file to load. Any ideas?

TIG

@designchest said:

Hi
Just tried to install your plug in but I'm getting the error box - no file to load. Any ideas?
Celina
Please get a screen-capture of the error-message and post it that way we can then try to help solve the issue. I suspect from what you say here and other of your posts that you are not installing these plugins properly...
Please reread the installation instructions that accompany almost all Plugins
This thread covers many issues http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=35746
Also as a MAC user please double check you are using the right Plugins folder and that any files that are supplied in a subfolder within a zip file are left inside an equivalent subfolder inside the Plugins folder - some poor [or badly optioned] unzip tools ignore the subfolders and don't extract properly. Also if you have inadvertently put any such files into Plugins that shouldn't be there please remove them before restarting Sketchup as these could we cause unexpected problems as all scripts directly within Plugins will auto-load...

DesignChest

Thanks Tig

I knew it must be something i was not doing. Will follow your instructs and fingers crossed I'll be on my way. I have had a bit of headway with some of the installs now.

Trying to get my animations up to scratch for a client whom I am hoping to design a great film set for. So used to hand drafting that the world of sketchup is just opening up to me, so bear with me - a little green still.

]

Viztecture

Great plugin! Couple of questions tho,

How do you control the speed of the animation after turning it into scenes. I say this because on the model I have, I get only one very slow speed regardless of how many transition frames I use, i have used numbers from 1 to 999 and I see no difference.

Also does this actually work with Vray? If so does anyone know how?

Cheers

Viztecture

Ok I used scene transitions.rb and it works a treat now. New problem now lol. The animation is not smooth, im still getting jumps as the camera slows towards the next scene. Its fine on the preview however... any suggestions?

Viztecture

Ok think I got it, in preferences, SU scene transitions need to be longer than the actual keymaker transitions, i.e max 100 secs. This seems to smooth over the animation and stops SU taking over. Im still confused why i have to workaround this, guess im doing something wrong

*EDIT . actually that hasn't worked

jcohen71

I tried to use CameraKeyMaker on a Mac running Sketchup 8, but ran in to the same problem others have mentioned: I cannot seem to find an equivilant key combination to Alt-Q used on Windows, and so I can't place any camera keys. (neither Opt-Q or Ctrl-Q work for me)

If there's a simple fix for this I'd love to hear about it, otherwise I'll eagerly wait for the next version. This seems like a great tool that we could use on many projects.

Best Regards,

Joshua Cohen
Fat Pencil Studio
+1.503.465.4533
info@fatpencilstudio.com

driven

@jcohen71 said:

If there's a simple fix for this I'd love to hear about it,

in camera_key_maker.rb
I changed line 387 to read

if key == 81 and $preview == false

I then did a search and replace for the word Alt and replaced it with Shift,

so Shift+ Q works on my mac...

TIG

I do not know this tool in any detail... but in passing... I see that there are $ global variables like '$preview' these are dangerous - especially if they have simplistic names [like 'preview'] as other authors might have used them [ill-advisedly] too, as globals works across all scripts in that session - better to use '@preview' as an instance variable, or '@@preview' as a class variable, to hold your data specifically for your own tool so such potential clashes are avoided...

macgile

@tig said:

I do not know this tool in any detail... but in passing... I see that there are $ global variables like '$preview' these are dangerous - especially if they have simplistic names [like 'preview'] as other authors might have used them [ill-advisedly] too, as globals works across all scripts in that session - better to use '@preview' as an instance variable, or '@@preview' as a class variable, to hold your data specifically for your own tool so such potential clashes are avoided...

Yes TIG

when I developed this plugin I had only one months experience the ruby language and API sketchup.
certainly you will find other errors of this type in the source, but I perfecting every day.
in the next release several beginner mistakes are corrected but it will remain.

best regard

vtrdo

hi guys

i have here a bit strange behavior of the plug ..

I have set up simple fly-around with 10 camera Keys - previews look perfect , smooth and going exactly as we want... ... camera follows busier curve ...till this moment everything is nice and easy

problems are:
1/after i press the ENTER even if i change the number for Frames between each key I always get 19 scenes .. is this correct?
2/ bigger one scenes which were produced change the Field of View and positions now it is in position is same as the key ...

What can i do to get result same as Preview ... or do i have to set up properly the Keys and forget what the preview is showing??

many thanks!!!!

majid

I can't run it at all!!!! any conflict with other plugs?
where I must seek it? plugin menu? tools menu?
how can I activate it's toolbar (ui) please?

edit: thanks ... wow this is wonderful, thank you, I was seeking it in false place.
I just wondering how can I edit the path?

theVonZipper

Trying out CameraKeyMaker on a winXP. Doesn't behave like the video tutorial. (BTW, is there supposed to be audio with that video?)
Although Alt-Q does add a key frame, I cannot use the orbit tool to reposition the camera. The CameraKeyMaker feedback onscreen disappears & as far as I can tell the script ends.
What is available is a dotted sphere to mark position. I clicked on that & circled a cube. Hitting enter did send the key frames to scenes. But the scenes created this way do not orbit the cube.
Is there a new version available yet? (The version I am trying out does not iclude the 1.0 designation anywhere in its name or files).

If I could get it to work it would be a great feature.
Thanks,
-=Zip

simon le bon

Hi macgile,

I'm using/learning your tool since few days. After a hard start, I now begin to tame it pretty well. I understand now how I can manage the bezier camera path. It is a cool tool and the exported animations are nicely fluid
I begin to see some requests to ask for.
But the main thing I'm confronted in is a problem of angle of camera.

I just have finished a complex camera path with a complex model and have launched CameraMaker scenes maker. I realize something I hadn't noticed in my trainings: is that animation uses a fixed camera angle of 30° !! This is too short!
Standard angle in sketchup is 35° , I for my part have made the all camera path with a wider angle of 50°. Now my animation is to much cropped.

I have tried to update the scenes one by one (the firsts of my 69 scenes!) with this 50° angle but it seems that some geometry don't display satisfactorily.

Do you think it is possible to do something ? or it is a big update of the code!

Cheers,
Simon.

TIG

Perhaps the line
@camera = @view.camera
could be followed by
@camera.fov = 50.0
or whatever fov-angle you'd like ?

simon le bon

Hi Tig,

Thanks for the advice. I shall try this tomorrow.

- - simon

simon le bon

Hi TIG,

I've just tried what you were recommending

@tig said:

Perhaps the line
@camera = @view.camera
could be followed by
@camera.fov = 50.0
or whatever fov-angle you'd like ?

Resulting to this change, the camera is set to 50° as soon as I activate CameraKeyMaker tool . But when my Alt+Q camera shots are done and I clic "Enter" to call the SET UP SCENES and "OK" , created scenes are still cropped back to camera 30°.
I have made a search on "30°" into the ruby txt, but the specified string was not found.

Do you have any other idea?

simon

TIG

The screen size [width/height etc] is set in code later on - perhaps this is cropping the image ?
I don't use this tool so I am winging it here

view.camera.set(eye, target, up)
if @save_image
        keys = {
         ;filename => @fileName,
         ;width => 320,
         ;height => 240,
         ;antialias => true,
         ;compression => 0.9,
        ;transparent => true }
        view.write_image keys
       end

have you tried changing those ?
Trying changing the width/height proportions...

Also perhaps add view.camera.fov=50.0 before 'keys' ???
Also ' newCamera' is set perhaps you need to set newCamera.fov=50.0 too ?

simon le bon

Hi TIG,

"crop" is probably a wrong word I have used. I tell this way to express that the 30° telephoto produces like a zooming into the field. (oups my english )

@tig said:

try changing those
Also perhaps add view.camera.fov=50.0 before 'keys' ???
Also ' newCamera' is set perhaps you need to set newCamera.fov=50.0 too ?

They both don't change the 30° scenes output

first try:

second try:

I believe in the second one because:

     generate_scene = true

      if generate_scene

is the place where I'm searching to change the camera opening field. Is the way I have add the line is good?

s