Simple animation - rotation about an axis?

CFisch · 11 Aug 2013, 04:45

This may be silly...but I can't figure out how to create a simple animation with (for example) only 3 basic scenes.

The objective is to have a group (comprising 5 objects) rotate about a central axis for one complete revolution.

Scenario:
5 circles or disks (as a group) oriented with one in the center, and 4 others placed equidistant around the central disk at 90,180,270,360 degrees. -- Rotation of the group needs to pivot about the center-point of the central disk (all objects in one plane).

I've watched several tutorials, read several stepped instructionals, and have created several scenes (incrementally - after selecting the group and rotating the entire group to a new position each time prior to creating a new scene). I've added scenes, tinkered with several scene properties, played with transition & delay settings, scene updates etc...all to no avail.

The only effect I've managed to achieve is for the different scenes to zoom in/zoom out or view-orbit shift (if I've zoomed the group or used the orbit tool between scenes). -- It seems the simple rotation-about-a-point aspect (position of group around the center) does not register, or seemingly doesn't get captured when either play-sequencing the scenes..or even with manually stepping through them individually.

I'm guessing this is something very simple and basic that's being overlooked here. But no matter how many times I've gone back and made another diligent attempt ~ the whole group just won't 'rotate' about the central circle/disk.

Any suggestions or tips are appreciated.

SU-8Pro-Eval / SU Pro-Eval(2013) both installed & tried.

Box · 11 Aug 2013, 08:55

The built in animation function of SU pretty much only moves the camera, so moving things around in 3d space makes no difference. therefore if you have a scene looking at something from the front, then rotate the object so you are looking at the side and create another scene, nothing will happen. But if you have the same front scene, then move the camera around to the side and create another scene then it will animate that movement.

There are animation plugins that allow you to move things around within SU.

Simplest way to do this, place your central object centred on the origin point. Then place the four other objects around it, use the Camera/standard views option to move the camera to, front then side back etc etc, creating a scene for each view. Then view the animation of those scenes and the four objects should rotate around the central one.

Dave R · 11 Aug 2013, 11:32

I did this a long time ago showing how to animate something moving objects within SketchUp. It doesn't require any plugins.

I used the same process to do this animation for Threads Magazine.

SimFonIA_team · 12 Aug 2013, 12:28

Hello CFish,

I suggest you took a look at our plugin

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=46540&hilit=simfonia

renderiza · 12 Aug 2013, 20:43

Hi, I also recommend SimFonIA Animation Tools for animating inside SketchUp. Here is one of my animations done with it...

Cheers!

TK0001 · 13 Aug 2013, 18:32

I am in the same predicament. I have a large material handling/parcel sortation system which a client is requesting be displayed upon a large monitor in his lobby, where people can interact with it. All I want to do is spin the entire facility about a central axis, and control the speed of the rotation as well as the size of the exported video.

Investigating different animation plugins is overwhelming. I want something very simple, but it seems that I need to invest a day immersing myself in a plugin just to learn the basics, and at the end of the day I don't know if it will do what I want without having to buy the entire package.

I have tried Podium and SimFonIA, and both seem buggy (the documentation for the latter doesn't seem to be originally written in English, which compounds the issue). I also just tried to simply use Sketchup's animation using scenes, but the animation zooms in and out between scenes, and I want it smoother.

I am willing to dive into a plugin, as long as I know it will do what I want at the end of the day, and I'm not spinning my wheels. That's why I need suggestions. I'd rather not spend a ton of money on it, since all I need is a simple rotation loop and all the other bells and whistles are unnecessary.

Any assistance or input would be greatly appreciated.

TK0001 · 13 Aug 2013, 18:37

@dave r said:

I did this a long time ago showing how to animate something moving objects within SketchUp. It doesn't require any plugins.

Also, this video doesn't seem to be active any more. I would love to view it, if you still have it.

Dave R · 13 Aug 2013, 18:43

@tk0001 said:

I also just tried to simply use Sketchup's animation using scenes, but the animation zooms in and out between scenes, and I want it smoother.

It shouldn't do that unless you change camera positions and zoom when setting up the scenes. You can also set up Updating of scenes to not change or record camera setting parameters. The example I posted doesn't show any camera changes at all.

That video is still available although I don't know why it won't run in the blog post. Try this link . Sorry about the ads. they are supposed to be disabled but they still show.

I'd do some of that animation stuff differently but the idea is there.

Box · 13 Aug 2013, 18:53

Sounds like you need to use something like Sketchfab.
You can upload the whole model and interact with it.

Sketchfab - The best 3D viewer on the web

With a community of over one million creators, we are the world’s largest platform to publish, share, and discover 3D content on web, mobile, AR, and VR.

Sketchfab (sketchfab.com)

TK0001 · 13 Aug 2013, 19:24

@box said:

Sounds like you need to use something like Sketchfab.
You can upload the whole model and interact with it.

Sketchfab - The best 3D viewer on the web

With a community of over one million creators, we are the world’s largest platform to publish, share, and discover 3D content on web, mobile, AR, and VR.

Sketchfab (sketchfab.com)

Woah, this may be a game changer. Thanks for sharing it. I will play around with this and see if it can do what I'm envisioning.

I want to be able to highlight certain subsystems within the entire facility by graying out the rest of the model, and then be able to interact with those as well. I hope this is something that can be handled by sketchfab, because my alternative is to pay an animator big $ to do it!

TK0001 · 13 Aug 2013, 19:26

@dave r said:

@tk0001 said:

I also just tried to simply use Sketchup's animation using scenes, but the animation zooms in and out between scenes, and I want it smoother.

It shouldn't do that unless you change camera positions and zoom when setting up the scenes. You can also set up Updating of scenes to not change or record camera setting parameters. The example I posted doesn't show any camera changes at all.

That video is still available although I don't know why it won't run in the blog post. Try this link . Sorry about the ads. they are supposed to be disabled but they still show.

I'd do some of that animation stuff differently but the idea is there.

Ah, thanks for the new link. Now that I see the example, I understand the theory. My issue is the model may be too big for this technique to effectively work (maybe I'm wrong).

Box · 13 Aug 2013, 19:31

Grabcad is another option you may want to explore if you are thinking along those lines.
http://grabcad.com/workbench

TK0001 · 14 Aug 2013, 16:41

@box said:

Grabcad is another option you may want to explore if you are thinking along those lines.
http://grabcad.com/workbench

I'll look into this as well, but for now I'm looking for something simple that will give me the ability to spin the model on an axis and export the video. Do you know of a solid plugin that can accomplish this?

Box · 14 Aug 2013, 16:48

As I said in my first post to this thread, the normal SU tools will do that.

Place your model centered on the origin and use the camera standard views (front, left, right.......) to set up four scenes to create a simple rotation and export the animation.
You can export it as a vid or as images to create a gif

TK0001 · 14 Aug 2013, 17:10

@box said:

As I said in my first post to this thread, the normal SU tools will do that.

Place your model centered on the origin and use the camera standard views (front, left, right.......) to set up four scenes to create a simple rotation and export the animation.
You can export it as a vid or as images to create a gif

Forgive me for being obtuse, but I need an elevated view, not just front, sides, and back. So I created my 4 ISO views and played it back, and the view "bounced" between each view. It was not a smooth, seamless orbit of the model.

TK0001 · 14 Aug 2013, 17:13

@dave r said:

@tk0001 said:

I also just tried to simply use Sketchup's animation using scenes, but the animation zooms in and out between scenes, and I want it smoother.

It shouldn't do that unless you change camera positions and zoom when setting up the scenes. You can also set up Updating of scenes to not change or record camera setting parameters. The example I posted doesn't show any camera changes at all.

I believe Dave addressed my issue here, but I'm afraid I need a little more of an in-depth explanation in order to grasp it.

Dave R · 14 Aug 2013, 17:15

@box said:

As I said in my first post to this thread, the normal SU tools will do that.

Place your model centered on the origin and use the camera standard views (front, left, right.......) to set up four scenes to create a simple rotation and export the animation.
You can export it as a vid or as images to create a gif

That's how I made this animation .

Dave R · 14 Aug 2013, 17:19

@tk0001 said:

I believe Dave addressed my issue here, but I'm afraid I need a little more of an in-depth explanation in order to grasp it.

What do you need? If the camera remains stationary as it does in my lock stitch and sideboard animations, there won't be any zooming or anything. If you need to move the camera between scenes, you could establish specific points for the camera along a path. You could do that with the native Position Camera tool or use something like Bezier Flightpath. For simply making it appear as if an object is moving maybe you don't need to move the camera at all.

Box · 14 Aug 2013, 17:25

If you just want to move around and look at different parts of your site from different angles, you just need to set the scenes as you want them and in a sensible order.
I made this vid since your last post, with a little time you can make something very nice and neat with the built in tools.

[screenr:2mui69hz]6ImH[/screenr:2mui69hz]

Dave R · 14 Aug 2013, 17:29

@tk0001 said:

@box said:

As I said in my first post to this thread, the normal SU tools will do that.

Place your model centered on the origin and use the camera standard views (front, left, right.......) to set up four scenes to create a simple rotation and export the animation.
You can export it as a vid or as images to create a gif

Forgive me for being obtuse, but I need an elevated view, not just front, sides, and back. So I created my 4 ISO views and played it back, and the view "bounced" between each view. It was not a smooth, seamless orbit of the model.

Would this be close enough? Cycle through the scenes.

round and round.skp