[Plugin] Animator - v4.5a - 22 Jul 25

mitch7780

Hi,

I'm new to animating in Sketchup but I've seen so many good reviews for Animator that I thought I would give it a go.
Really easy to learn, simple but detailed and gives a great result.
However, I'm experiencing a few issues, they are as follows:

On occasion some of the buttons disappear or are missing segments.
Groups or components aren't highlighting when you need to make a selection when creating a new movement.
Sometimes when a new movement is selected none of the action tabs appear to select to enable you to make your desired movement.
A number of times I've created an entire film, which takes time, I press the save button and exit the extension. If I go to open the extension back up the entire film has gone.
Also, once a film has been created, I've saved it, opened it back up and all of my groups and components have moved, either reversed their original positions or are totally somewhere else in the model.

Really sorry to highlight these issues, especially if it's something I am doing wrong. I would very much like to keep using this extension but I need some help with the above.

Many thanks

fredo6

@mitch7780 said:

However, I'm experiencing a few issues, they are as follows:

I would need some examples or screenshots in order to troubleshoot or at least understand the kind of issues you are facing.

Fredo

ntxdave

Fredo6, we would like your feedback/input on a thread we have started about animating 3D characters in SketchUp.

mitch7780

Hi Fredo6,
Thank you for replying.

I have one example that I have taken a couple of sreenshot's of, please see attached.

You'll notice that some of the icons are missing or only partially there.
When this happens the highlight of objects also doesn't function, i.e no coloured bounding boxes.

Let me know what you think, I'll try my best to give you further examples.

Screenshot 1.JPG

Screenshot 2.JPG

fredo6

@mitch7780 said:

You'll notice that some of the icons are missing or only partially there.
When this happens the highlight of objects also doesn't function, i.e no coloured bounding boxes.

Could you leave the Ruby console opened when you work with Animator. I suspect the partial display is due to some errors that will show up in the Ruby console when they happen.

Thanks

Fredo

mitch7780

Hey Fredo,

I'll give it a try.
Thank you.

Ben

fredo6

New Release: Animator - v2.8a - 17 Sep 20

Requirement: LibFredo6 v11.1

Minor release

Bug fixing
Extension of validity

See plugin home page of Animator for Download of RBZ from the PluginStore.

See Main Post of the Animator thread for more information.

CMC007

Hi Fredo,

Thanks very much for the ongoing development of this excellent tool!

One feature request I have that I think would go a long way towards ease of integration with other renderers would be the ability for Animator to save individual animation frames to SketchUp scenes - each scene could then be batch rendered (for example by Enscape) without requiring any direct integration.

Is this functionality in your development plans at all? I have also been requesting Enscape to work on integrating their rendering functionality with Animator so hopefully this can happen some day!

Thanks again,
Christian

fredo6

@cmc007 said:

One feature request I have that I think would go a long way towards ease of integration with other renderers would be the ability for Animator to save individual animation frames to SketchUp scenes - each scene could then be batch rendered (for example by Enscape) without requiring any direct integration.

There are two problems with this

Scenes do not record the position of objects. So this would only be working for camera movements
I am not sure SketchUp would be happy with a huge number of scenes. At 25fps, you generate 250 scenes for a clip of 10 seconds....

I can possibly contact Enscape to see if they have an API. I have never done it as I don't have their contact.

Fredo

mitch7780

Good afternoon,

I've had an issue with v2.8a today, I generated a video of around 68s and has taken just oven 3.5hrs. When it finished it came up with the message box asking me to save and exit. I did this and when I opened the folder where it had saved to there was only one video at 9s long.

Not too sure what to do now, is there a way to get back to that message window to try and salvage the file?
If I have to generate another I will but would prefer not to have to start the process again if I can.

Any thoughts?

Many thanks

fredo6

@mitch7780

Did you generate the video with a renderer?

If so, do you get the same problem when you generate in Natural mode (i.e. no renderer)?

Otherwise, it's difficult to say anything without more information, possibly getting the model.

SAJD2000

hello can you help me ?
I install 2.8 version and animator panel disappered
How can i bring it back ?

fredo6

@sajd2000 said:

I install 2.8 version and animator panel disappered
How can i bring it back ?

Could you check that

You have Animator in the menu Tools > Fredo6 Collection
You should also have it in the dialog box View Toolbars... The Animator toolbar may just be set to non visible.

SAJD2000

@fredo6 said:

@sajd2000 said:

I install 2.8 version and animator panel disappered
How can i bring it back ?

Could you check that

You have Animator in the menu Tools > Fredo6 Collection

You should also have it in the dialog box View Toolbars... The Animator toolbar may just be set to non visible.

no i don't have in anywhere, but in extension manager it is install and updated

SAJD2000

Fredo please help i need animator

HuiJax

Hey Fredo,

is there a shortcut or a other way to skip the animation frame by frame? I want to render each single frame with enscape and put the single frames togehter in Adobe Premiere... but clicking all single frames with the mouse is a little bit stressy would be great if you can help

best regards

fredo6

@huijax said:

is there a shortcut or a other way to skip the animation frame by frame? I want to render each single frame with enscape and put the single frames togehter in Adobe Premiere... but clicking all single frames with the mouse is a little bit stressy would be great if you can help

Not clear to me. What do you need exactly?

For info, Animator does not support Enscape in the list of renderers.

HuiJax

Hey Fredo,

thx for the Answer. I would like to make Animation like in this Video...

Short Summary. He Move each object step by step and capture this movement of the Enscape "Frame Buffer" on a Second Screen. In Adobe Premiere he cut it together and it looks smooth.

I want to the same with the support of Animator. When i play the Animation it goes to fast an the live Render have a bad quality. So i must rest for a second and then move on with the next frame. Like this i can manage the movement of different object simultaneously and coordinate it much better the manuell with hand... i hope i could explain this a bit better and sorry for the bad english...

best regards

fredo6

@huijax said:

Hey Fredo,

thx for the Answer. I would like to make Animation like in this Video...

Short Summary. He Move each object step by step and capture this movement of the Enscape "Frame Buffer" on a Second Screen. In Adobe Premiere he cut it together and it looks smooth.

I want to the same with the support of Animator. When i play the Animation it goes to fast an the live Render have a bad quality. So i must rest for a second and then move on with the next frame. Like this i can manage the movement of different object simultaneously and coordinate it much better the manuell with hand... i hope i could explain this a bit better and sorry for the bad english...

best regards

You can indeed construct this kind of animation with Animator, as it implies just moving objects.

However, Enscape is not supported by Animator. So, you would have to render it with another rendering software.

Otherwise, the method described in the video is quite astute and you can mimic it.

HuiJax

Again, thank you very much for your Answer! Iam a big Fan of your Work an love to use your PlugIn´s!

So the concept of the Animation is clear. I made an animation with Animator. A simple movement of an Object. In the next Step i skip Frame by Frame the Animation and record the live renderig with Enscape and put them together in Premiere. So my question is (and sry for the big explanation) is there an shortkey to skip frame by frame in the Timeline (in Premiere it is a arrow key). If not, it would be Great if there coulde be one in the future Version...

Thank you for your Time and your patience!