Animator: Parametric Animation plugin - Discussion

fredo6

Maybe an idea. The possibility to add sounds to the animation ...

I assume that in normal cases, users will do a post-production with an appropriate video editing software, where you can cut and rearrange sequences, add legends and sounds. So no plan for that in Animator.

Fredo

Leonard96

Wow! This animation plugin rules. Is the best plugin ever released by someone for SketchUP Make. Also, if you don't mind I would like to see by myself how this baby works so... I can be the Rat Lab
I would be grateful if I could test it too. If not, I really understand you. It's sad but still I respect your decision.

-Leo

fredo6

I publish here video tutorials showing some features from Animator, based on public videos posted on YouTube.

For the tutorial below, I have used a model with a simple forklift and pallet.
Credit to Burckhard Heimlich for the Forklift model

Here is the original model (SU2015)
Burkhard Heimlich - SU15 - Gabelstapler - 0.skp

The final animation is shown below in Natural mode (i.e. without rendering) and Rendered mode with some rendering software supporting integration with Animator. It is advised to watch the video in Full Screen mode, to see the details.

In Natural mode (No rendering)

Rendered with AmbientOcclusionEx
Many thanks to the Fluid Interactive team, in particular Nicola and Alberto

Rendered with Thea (no model preparation)
Many thanks to the Thea team, in particular tomasz

Rendered with SketchFX (no model preparation)
Many thanks to the Fluid Interactive team, in particular Nicola and Alberto

Rendered with Twilight Render Pro
Many thanks to the Twilight team team, in particular Chris

1) Preparing the Model

Animation should come at the end of the design process, so that most of the objects are in place. Note that Animator allows to add new objects, but modifying the hierarchy of objects already referenced by Animator may cause undesired issues.

Note: I use the term Object to designate both Groups and Components. Animator supports both. Note that the main difference is that when you animate objects which are inside a component, this affects the other instances of the component. When you select a Component Instance, Animator always shows the other instances that would be affected.

Here are a few advices to prepare the model for Animation, essentially around

Verifying the Grouping of objects. Grouping is a nice way to transform objects as a whole (even if multi-selection is supported). For instance, a car should be an object, embedding sub-objects such as the car body and the wheels, so that you can move the car while spinning the wheels.Deciding about Groups versus Components, making unique component instances, etc... are the kind of decisions you need to think about.
Naming the Objects: It will make it easier when selecting objects in the Movement Editor. Animator selection displays a popup showing the hierarchy objects under the mouse, so that you can pick the right one. If no name is given, then you will see "Group" or "Component", as in the example below:
[attachment=3:1mluf46k]Animator - Group Selection.png[/attachment:1mluf46k]
Creating Layers. Animator records the layer visibility when recording cameras. So it is better to create them before starting the design of an animation.
Saving the original object positions. Animator includes a Positioner utility, allowing to save the position of all Objects in the model and later restore it. You can save several positions. As there may be bug or mis-manipulation, it is always good to keep a reference positioner so that you can restablish conistent object positions. This is useful, because Undo will not work (objects moves are transparent)

2) Creating a First Animation

The following tutorial shows how to create a basic animation.

3) Finishing the Object Animation

We can now finish the object animation. The tutorial shows how to re-use existing movements and modify / adjust the animation after it is built.

4) Adding Cameras

You will see how to create travelling views with simple cameras and how they are interpolated (fade-out)

5) Installing FFmpeg (MS Windows)

FFmpeg is an open source tool, free, which is used by Animator to generate video files. The tutorial shows how to do the installation once.

6) Generating a video

The tutorial shows how to generate a video at specified dimensions and frame rate, with several options available.

7) Launching / Stopping the Animation

This video tutorial explains the different ways to start, pause, stop and navigate through the Animation in Editor and Player mode.

%(#008040)[ Tracking Cameras]

A tracking camera is a camera attached to an object with a certain viewpoint. This allows to follow the object when it moves.

Tracking cameras supports the Fade-out option, so that you can smoothly switch between two tracking cameras following the same object. Fade out also works to make a smooth transition with other cameras.

9) Layer Visibility

Animator supports two methods to control Layer Visibility

STATE: capture of the visibility state of ALL layers. This can be done via the Visual Effect Layer State, or via a View or Scene Camera
ON-OFF: Specify the visibility state for given layers
Layer on-off is more adapted to super-impose layer visibility changes since you can control layer by layer.

Note that when these visual effects have a duration > 0, they are ignored when the animation time is after.

duanekemp

"I publish here video tutorials showing some features from Animator"
Excellent tutorial help videos. Thank you so very much for taking the time to do these.

faust07

This is so great and pushes SketchUp to an high level similar to Sketchy- and MSPhysics. The videos and tutorials show that impressive. Is there somewhere a link to download and to test the plugin?

pilou

It's in beta test Period! Ask Fredo or Rich O Brien...

ntxdave

@faust07 said:

This is so great and pushes SketchUp to an high level similar to Sketchy- and MSPhysics. The videos and tutorials show that impressive. Is there somewhere a link to download and to test the plugin?

If you are meaning the Animator plugin, see this thread If you are meaning the Twilight Render software, they have stated that they will be posting a link to their software sometime today. You will have to have the Pro version though (at least that is my understanding).

elfred

@thomthom said:

New round of donations for Fredo - anyone?

Could You send me info how to do that?
This many is treasure who earned our support.

wagoneer

I'm eagerly awaiting your newest plug-in Fredo. Having been tasked with creating some animations, SketchUp is where I wish to do it so your excellent tools help enormously.

One question, will Animate have a path tool so I could make my shapes/groups follow paths other than straight lines?

Kelly

cotty

@elfred said:

@thomthom said:

New round of donations for Fredo - anyone?

Could You send me info how to do that?
This many is treasure who earned our support.

One fast way...

Bob James

@ntxdave said:

If you are meaning the Animator plugin, see this thread

I get:
"You are not authorised to read this forum."

JohnDurnan

@thomthom said:

@fredo6 said:

But I don't know how to reach the others

PM me who you are looking for - I'll see what I can do. I have the ChaosGroup contacts for sure - but I should be able to obtain other as well.

Oh, that would be ideal. If this could work with Shaderlight renderer, my world would be complete. I'm currently using "Keyframe Animation", however, it will not work with Shaderlight. Therefore, I cannot complete my animations by rendering them. The still only look like cartoons. Thank you for all of your efforts with this!

fredo6

@johndurnan said:

Oh, that would be ideal. If this could work with Shaderlight renderer, my world would be complete.

I need to find a contact there (which I don't have at the moment), in case they would be interested.

Fredo

whiterabbit

is there a newer version of the animator plugin, I was trying it out (great) but since upgrading to 2017 it says it has expired. I tried it back in 2016, same message. How might it be possible to get the latest version. Is it available for purchase?
Thanks

fredo6

@whiterabbit said:

is there a newer version of the animator plugin, I was trying it out (great) but since upgrading to 2017 it says it has expired. I tried it back in 2016, same message. How might it be possible to get the latest version. Is it available for purchase?
Thanks

The latest version is now on the PluginStore

The discussion forum on Animator is also public.

Latest version is Animator v1.2h, which requires LibFredo6 7.2h.

Fredo

MALAISE

Hello Fredo

Small enhancement (if possible): could you replace red crosses against green slash
inside Maintenance of Animator Objects ?

The Help comment is confusing ( you delete a red cross !)

Pierre

Image 2.png

fredo6

These are ACTION buttons, not STATUS buttons.

So the red cross is to delete, the green check mark is to undelete, and the red color for the whole row indicates the status.

If you are better icons however, I am interested.

Fredo

MALAISE

Could such a picture fit the function ?

fredo6

@malaise said:

Could such a picture fit the function ?

Very nice icons, but I would (and maybe will when appropriate) use them for MERGE and SPLIT.
However, if the single rectangle is replaced by a red bin, that would be perfect

Fredo

MALAISE

Like that ?

Cheers

Pierre