Animator: Parametric Animation plugin - Discussion

solo · 3 Feb 2016, 17:01

I have had so many issues in the past with the available tools/plugins, that is why this is a huge thing.

See video below, a recent attempt to use SU and Thea, It failed and i needed to finally go into Thea studio to complete animation. I also needed to have layers animate, so I could show and hide panels, will it be possible with this plugin?

fredo6 · 3 Feb 2016, 21:16

@solo said:

I also needed to have layers animate, so I could show and hide panels, will it be possible with this plugin?

Animator should normally support layer visibility, either attached to views or independently of views.

Below a short example. Watch the green cylinder and red cube, and layers panel.

[attachment=0:1ubxfxj3]Animator%20Layer%20visibility%20simple.gif[/attachment:1ubxfxj3]

Fredo

JQL · 3 Feb 2016, 21:40

Fredo and what about animating stuff by cycling through scenes as usual, is it also possible?

I mean it's so advanced in it's own that I can't understand if that is a possibility as it's what a basic animation plugin for SU does...

If it is, can we do it without showing UI? In fullscreen mode, to present stuff live to an audience?

fredo6 · 3 Feb 2016, 22:07

@jql said:

Fredo and what about animating stuff by cycling through scenes as usual, is it also possible?

I mean it's so advanced in it's own that I can't understand if that is a possibility as it's what a basic animation plugin for SU does...

If it is, can we do it without showing UI? In fullscreen mode, to present stuff live to an audience?

Animator is not based on the native Scene animation mechanism of Sketchup. You can actually position the animation at any given time. Indeed, it is possible to develop a small GUI to make short cuts to specified time.

Also, there is a Player mode, with a much smaller palette. I plan to make the option to hide it when playing animation.

Fredo

pilou · 3 Feb 2016, 22:51

Seems very promising!

JQL · 3 Feb 2016, 23:07

We will find something you didn't think of!

fredo6 · 3 Feb 2016, 23:15

@jql said:

We will find something you didn't think of!

That's why the thread was started

Pixero · 3 Feb 2016, 23:20

What about how hierarchies are created?
Can that be made separate from how objects are grouped?
And what about inverse kinematic?

I'm also very interested in ways to fine tune camera animation paths and speed.

fredo6 · 3 Feb 2016, 23:21

@pixero said:

What about how hierarchies are created?
Can that be made separate from how objects are grouped?
And what about inverse kinematic?

I am not clear about what is "Reverse kinematic" and "hierarchies".

Could you illustrate ?

Fredo

Pixero · 4 Feb 2016, 00:10

Forward kinematics. You rotate a shoulder and the arm and hand follows.
Inverse kinematics. You move the hand and the arm and shoulder rotates to match the hands movement.

I think it would be great to have a way of creating the hierarchy independent of how objects are grouped.
Something like bones in other software where you create a structure that you bind geometry to.
How you model and group geometry doesn't always match how you want to animate them.

Rich O Brien · 4 Feb 2016, 07:33

How do you control the motion of an object over time? Is it linear interpolation?

If an object moves along X at 2m/s can you control the acceleration from 0 to 2m/s in some way?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

fredo6 · 4 Feb 2016, 08:03

@rich o brien said:

How do you control the motion of an object over time? Is it linear interpolation?

If an object moves along X at 2m/s can you control the acceleration from 0 to 2m/s in some way?

This should be addressed with Easing, which is supported in the Animator engine (in the initial video, you can see that the explosion of Homer is accelerated).

But I still need to build the GUI for custom easing.

By the way, I don't know if the appropriate term in English would be 'Easing' or 'Pacing'.

Fredo

thomthom · 4 Feb 2016, 08:38

@fredo6 said:

By the way, I don't know if the appropriate term in English would be 'Easing' or 'Pacing'.

Easing.

Rich O Brien · 4 Feb 2016, 09:25

Will the easing have types?

pilou · 4 Feb 2016, 09:42

Will be cool for animate gears! (a new gear plugin by Caermalo)

majid · 5 Feb 2016, 16:49

@rich o brien said:

Will the easing have types?

[attachment=0:1tzh4w5t]anim-fredo.png[/attachment:1tzh4w5t]

Mover plugin had some easing as I remember
Great plugin as always!

thomthom · 5 Feb 2016, 16:59

There is a nice lib on GitHub for easing in Ruby:
https://github.com/munshkr/easing-ruby

And nice visualisations here:
http://easings.net/

fredo6 · 5 Feb 2016, 22:01

@thomthom and Majid,

Animator should support predefined easing and custom easing. Simply, I need to build the GUI for custom easing.

Animator also supports oscillations (i.e. cyclic movement back and forth), either libnear or smooth as sinusoidal curves.

Fredo

thomthom · 6 Feb 2016, 07:25

Time to start another donation round for Fredo!

Anton_S · 6 Feb 2016, 19:26

Nice work fredo!