[Tutorial] Animator Quick Start

Archiblog

Hi jgb,

Thanks for your reply to my previous post.

On 16 August 2017 you said that you were doing a step-by-step self tutorial based on the words and videos at the top of this thread and that you would document your steps for potentially a detailed written tutorial.

I'm considering doing something similar myself - to help me learn more about how to use Animator - and wonder if you are still intending to publish a written tutorial?

Before getting started I downloaded and installed the Animator plugin from https://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=Animator and the LibFredo6 shared plugin library from https://sketchucation.com/plugin/903-libfredo6.

Starting with 'Animator Beta - Tutorial 1 - Preparing a Model' and fredo6's advice, here are the steps I've followed so far:

(1) download Burkhard Heimlich's original model from https://sketchucation.com/forums/download/file.php?id=139360

(2) download fredo6's model with animation from https://sketchucation.com/forums/download/file.php?id=139359

(3) copy and rebuild Burkhard's model - i.e. grouping objects (components and groups); naming objects; and assigning objects to layers

(4) reduce the scale of my rebuilt model by a factor of 0.4 and upload it to 3D Warehouse at https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/329bb204-84c8-421e-a77c-fe863782d9e1/Forklift-Truck

(5) save the original position of the model.

The next thing I'm going to do is copy and rescale the pallet, boxes and "tarmac" from fredo6's model and then I shall move on to 'Animator Beta - Tutorial 2 - Creating a First Animation'.

I should appreciate any comments and advice on this procedure.

NF

fredo6

@Archiblog

First, thank you for your interest in Animator. Definitely, the script lacks from proper tutorial, and most of the videos are now a little bit outdated, as Animator has evolved in the meantime.

I don't have the time to make new tutorial videos or user manual, so I am glad if you help on that while going through our learning curve.

In the current state, Animator's framework should remain stable, but what can still change in the future are:

new category of animation of elements (like travelling camera, ove to target movements, etc...)
some elements of the decorations (pseudo-icons, timeline, ...)
some dialog boxes related to Positioner, video generation and possibly other areas.

Fredo

jgb

Archiblog & Fredo

I haven't forgotten my promise to create a tutorial. But soon after I started playing with Animator I got seriously sidetracked on some other (non SU oriented) project and just recently got back to using SU again. I have to clear much of that and then restart the Animator Tutorial, which I will need to learn to complete that SU project, in order to demonstrate how a very complex piece of machinery works.

Animating SU models is something that has eluded me for many years. Since SketchyPhysics (which I found to have a too steep a learning curve) I have tried most so-called SU Animators, but found them either too complex or just unworkable for my needs.

What I need is akin to SketchyPhysics but without the gravitational aspects and with better controls. I need to simply animate articulated models of aerospace components more than anything else. I'm hoping Fredo's Animator will do the trick, but haven't got into it far enough to say it will.

If you want me to collaborate on a tutorial, I'm game on for that. Please PM me as we can best communicate by Email. This is not a convenient forum to do that, although we should update progress here for the "masses".

applemango85

Could I ask a question?

Love the plugin fredo - looks harder to use than it actually was so that was good news

I'm making a few 60sec videos to show my boss a new way of presenting work. My settings was set at 20fps and speed of 0.75.

However when playing the mov/MP4 file created I get a stutter every second or 2 - making it a bit unwatchable.

Anyone come by the same problem?

I can't post the video on the forum but I can private message it to anyone who think they can help.

I'm trying one now at 45fps - seeing if that makes a difference

There is a option to use QuickTime screen record to record a window once I've made the animater plugin film which will take a lot much less time to process but will take up much more mb- so perhaps not a solution

fredo6

@applemango85 said:

I'm making a few 60sec videos to show my boss a new way of presenting work. My settings was set at 20fps and speed of 0.75.

However when playing the mov/MP4 file created I get a stutter every second or 2 - making it a bit unwatchable.

Anyone come by the same problem?

I can't post the video on the forum but I can private message it to anyone who think they can help.

Difficult to say without seeing the model and animation.
You can PM it to me and I'll have a look.

Fredo

applemango85

I redone 2 of my 3 animations in 45fps which seems to have solved the smoothness issue touch wood.

The 3rd animation is being redone now so I should know for sure soon

Is it normal for a 2min 45fps animation to take 3-5 hrs to process into video format?

Fortunately I have both a laptop and desktop mac- and both pretty powerful so the time it’s taking seems excessive

fredo6

@applemango85 said:

Is it normal for a 2min 45fps animation to take 3-5 hrs to process into video format?

Good remark.

The only way to capture the viewport in Ruby is a method (view.write_image), which may take from 0.1s to 3-4 second to get the viewport and put it in a PNG file, depending on:

the size of your viewport resolution
the complexity of the model

I would propose that you execute the following one-line command in your Ruby console

t0 = Time.now ; Sketchup.active_model.active_view.write_image("C:/toto.png") ; puts "Time = #{Time.now-t0}s"

This will give you the minimum time to generate a single frame.

You can also get the resolution of the viewport by typing the two commands

Sketchup.active_model.active_view.vpwidth
and
Sketchup.active_model.active_view.vpheight

NOTE: From the parameters you give, 2 minute video at 45 fps, so 5,400 frames, if it takes 4 hours, then each frame takes 2.6 second in average to be generated.

Fredo

mgfranz

Great Animator Fredo! Once I got my system issues fixed I was able to create my animation in less than 10 min after watching the tutorials. So now I want to try something, is it possible for a object or group to "fly-in" from off scene? Like if I want to have screws installed in a component at a certain time point? For example, in the first 4 seconds of my animation, a group is moved into another component, at this point, I want a group of screws to come flying in from off scene and then place themselves in the clip at 5 seconds, do their thing, then finish the clip as normal. Possible?

Archiblog

Hi mgfranz!

You might like to take a look at a tutorial by Justin Geis which shows you how to create an exploded view animation using Animator. Around about the 5:30 mark, Justin shows you how to reverse the explosion so that might give you some idea of how to achieve the effect you want.

The tutorial can be found at:

Let us know how you get on.

NF

mgfranz

@archiblog said:

Hi mgfranz!

You might like to take a look at a tutorial by Justin Geis which shows you how to create an exploded view animation using Animator. Around about the 5:30 mark, Justin shows you how to reverse the explosion so that might give you some idea of how to achieve the effect you want.

The tutorial can be found at:

Let us know how you get on.

NF

Thanks NF, but I don't think using the explosion will work in this instance since I have the need to place a total of 12 screws in 3 different locations. I suppose I could do some Easing on the fly-in group, let me do some research. I have attached my SU and animation file for a visual reference, just remove the .txt extension.

13x3 Exploded_Anim.skp

13x3 Exploded_Anim.animator.txt

mgfranz

Ok, it took a while, but I got it figured out. I had to create a variety of transitions, once I placed the objects in the correct location I backed out the object to a location off-scene, then just reversed the movements.

Fixed the screws in place
Backed them off
Moved them off scene
Created transition to move them back
Created transition to move them again
And again.

Not real pretty, but it works. Still may play with some linear motions, but I got it solved. Not sure why the graphics are pixilated, .avi sucks, .mp4 is fine. I'll play with FPS.

Film 1.avi

jgb

Looked OK to me. You did what I was going to suggest, but didn't as I got sidetracked out (wife!) as I was going to reply.

fredo6

It's in my plan to address these types of movement, with a Move-to tool (also to be used to align objects in bulk).

Fredo

snapkin

Hey, thanks for this excellent plugin.

I got a problem with that ffmpeg I download it and it works.
but when I get in to do Extension i push the find the ffmpeg nothing happens.
maybe you know how to fix it?

fredo6

@snapkin said:

I got a problem with that ffmpeg I download it and it works.
but when I get in to do Extension i push the find the ffmpeg nothing happens.
maybe you know how to fix it?

This is a bug which I fixed in LibFredo6 8.4g, just released.

Fredo

solo

I need some help, I cannot seem to be able to get multiple objects to follow a path properly, anyone know how to achieve this?

ntxdave

@solo said:

I need some help, I cannot seem to be able to get multiple objects to follow a path properly, anyone know how to achieve this?

[attachment=0:14vt9cpa]rotation.JPG[/attachment:14vt9cpa]

If they do not need to move indepently, how would it be to group them?

fredo6

@solo said:

I need some help, I cannot seem to be able to get multiple objects to follow a path properly, anyone know how to achieve this?

The Follow Path tool (like other tools) allows to select several objects (keep CTRL depressed).

Fredo

cgalaon

I've got the same problem in Sketchup 2018
I copied the ffmpeg.exe and executed it in the directory C:\Users(User Name)\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp\SketchUp 2018\SketchUp\Plugins and in the directory: C:\Users(User Name)\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp\SketchUp 2018\SketchUp\Plugins\Fredo6_!LibFredo6
WITH NO AVAIL!!!
Any help, please?!

This is the error from Ruby console:

Error: #<Errno::ENOENT: No such file or directory @ dir_s_mkdir - C:/Users/Chip/Desktop/TPOS/Animator Videos/Pressure gauge - 21-Sep-2018 09-57-10 - Gauge 3/4>
c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/body_lib6videomanager.rbe:921:in mkdir' c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/body_lib6videomanager.rbe:921:in movie_create_folder'
c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/body_lib6videomanager.rbe:831:in movie_top_generate' c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_animator/animatortool.rbe:2204:in movie_dialog_call_back'
c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_animator/animatordialogvideogeneration.rbe:381:in call' c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_animator/animatordialogvideogeneration.rbe:381:in notify_result'
c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_animator/animatordialogvideogeneration.rbe:449:in on_close' c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_animator/animatordialogvideogeneration.rbe:412:in block in dialog_create'
c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/body_lib6webwdlg.rbe:583:in call' c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/body_lib6webwdlg.rbe:583:in j_onclose'
c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/body_lib6webwdlg.rbe:293:in block in create_dialog' c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/body_lib6webwdlg.rbe:322:in call'
c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/body_lib6webwdlg.rbe:322:in close' c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/body_lib6webwdlg.rbe:322:in close'
c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_animator/animatordialogvideogeneration.rbe:460:in close_validate' c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_animator/animatordialogvideogeneration.rbe:1251:in param_dialog_callback'
c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/body_lib6webwdlg.rbe:752:in call' c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/body_lib6webwdlg.rbe:752:in j_action'
c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/body_lib6webwdlg.rbe:634:in j_callback' c:/users/chip/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/body_lib6webwdlg.rbe:622:in block in j_dispatch'

fredo6

Is "Pressure gauge - 21-Sep-2018 09-57-10 - Gauge 3/4" the name of your file? If so, then 3/4 is probably creating an issue, as '/' is used as a folder separator.

Fredo