Animator and Rendering Software (for developers)

fredo6 · 17 May 2016, 11:57

This thread is reserved to Developers of Rendering Software for Integration with Animator

Animator supports the generation of Videos wherever you can play an animation interactively. By default, there is NO rendering (Natural mode).

Animator is designed to support the integration with Rendering software designed for Sketchup with 2 methods:

1) DIRECT INTEGRATION: Animator calls the Rendering software, which should expose a few APIs. This method has the benefit that most video generation parameters are specified in Animator (frame rate, dimensions, video formats, portion of the animation, etc...). Users will simply select the Rendering method if it is installed and compatible with Animator

This requires however some validation work with me, as I left flexibility to the APIs to be supported by the rendering software.
The technical specifications are described in the following document

Animator - Integration with Render Software - v1.0 - 31 Mar 16.pdf

2) REVERSE INTEGRATION: The Rendering Software calls Animator, it is already done for some Animation or Physics plugins (like SketchyPhysics). All parameters are thus defined in the Rendering software. Animator exposes an API allowing an external program to:

Select the animation unit to be rendered
instantiate the animation at any specified time
This method does NOT require interaction with me.
The technical specifications of the Animator API are described in the following document:

Animator - API for Render Software - v1.1 - 31 Mar 16.pdf

tkeepers · 10 Jan 2017, 18:55

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE THIS COMPARABLE WITH vRAY?

tHANKS!

Rich O Brien · 10 Jan 2017, 20:39

@tkeepers said:

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE THIS COMPARABLE WITH vRAY?

tHANKS!

I'm sure they'll hear you

Spartipilo · 30 Apr 2017, 12:15

The Vray compatibility can be 'worked around' if you have a lot of patience. You can make all the animation in Animator, then move frame by frame adding a new SketchUp Scene, and adjust fix the SketchUp scene transition duration to match the frame duration. You'll get 20-30 scenes per animation second, but at least it will work.

Fredo, is there a way to add a Frame-To-Scene action to transform (in an one-way direction) the frames with the elements positions into SketchUp Scenes in order to use them as Frames for vRay?

Danbru · 9 Jun 2017, 18:50

I use Maxwell Render Plugin, is there a way I can render my animations using it?
Thanks for everything

fredo6 · 9 Jun 2017, 20:48

@danbru said:

I use Maxwell Render Plugin, is there a way I can render my animations using it?
Thanks for everything

Unfortunately, Maxwell is not supported. I don't even know who to contact there and I am not sure they would be interested in the integration as I don't see Animation to be a popular demand in Sketchup actually.

Fredo

Danbru · 10 Jun 2017, 05:32

Hey, Fredo!
Thanks for the quickly reply.
I see, so I decided to install Thea Render for my animations,
I installed the studio and the plugin but the "render tab" in the "generation of video" window wont appear.
What could be going wrong?
Thanks, your plugins are awesome btw!

applemango85 · 5 Jul 2018, 17:18

So I have a question (probably asked before)

Which rendering programs (plugins for sketchup or standalone rendered) are compatible with animator as of now?

Also out of this list of renderers which works best (in terms of looks, ease of use and glitches)

I own vray for sketchup but at the moment it doesn’t sound like it has the best compatibility with animator. I don’t know if sketchup users have one renderer for stills and another for animation as every rendering software has their individual strengths

fredo6 · 5 Jul 2018, 19:21

@applemango85 said:

So I have a question (probably asked before)

Which rendering programs (plugins for sketchup or standalone rendered) are compatible with animator as of now?

Also out of this list of renderers which works best (in terms of looks, ease of use and glitches)

I own vray for sketchup but at the moment it doesn’t sound like it has the best compatibility with animator. I don’t know if sketchup users have one renderer for stills and another for animation as every rendering software has their individual strengths

The best compatibility is with Thea (bi-direction) and AmbientOcclusion Ex and SketchFX Ex (but they are specialized).
Vray is supported but not stable with version 3.6. And I don't really have support.

In general, Animator is so confidential in terms of usage that I don't think Renderer Software companies care too much. Most likely, this is also true for other animation plugins for Sketchup.

Now, whether for Animation or for still rendering, it's up to you to judge what is the best render program. Rendering an animation is just rendering each individual image of the animated sequence.

Fredo

applemango85 · 6 Jul 2018, 15:08

Thanks fredo

Though with the release of Thea version 2 it may be all change

I think it was listed somewhere that twilight render pro was compactable as well - what’s your opinion on the results from that renderer?

I thought AmbientOcclusion was a straight so so renderer - what’s specialised about it.

Once again it’s a great plugin

fredo6 · 6 Jul 2018, 20:26

@applemango85 said:

Though with the release of Thea version 2 it may be all change

I think it was listed somewhere that twilight render pro was compactable as well - what’s your opinion on the results from that renderer?

I thought AmbientOcclusion was a straight so so renderer - what’s specialised about it.

Once again it’s a great plugin

I am not comparing rendering software, which I don't really know in detail, but just their stability with Animator. Twilight works as well, but may sometimes hang. AmbientOcclusion is very stable, but it seems to me that it does not have all the bells and whistles that others have (but maybe that's because I am not an expert in rendering).

I'll try to check with Thea 2.x when I have time.

Fredo

rong1937 · 12 Dec 2018, 01:13

Hope to support Enscape render

PallaviDhuri · 7 Jan 2020, 05:53

Great Information was very useful for me.

paddyclown · 5 May 2020, 18:24

Hello, I've downloaded the trial version of SketchFX & it looks great plus from it's own interface I can export a video using the classic sketchup scenes..
The glitch for me is that when I set up an animation using your fabulous Animator, from there I cannot get it to export a video correctly rendered by SkFX... & yet an unrendered video is possible from Animator ?
BTW I have checked, I have the latest versions of Animator & the ffmpeg.exe
Is this because I have the demo version of SkFX, or what might be going on here please ?
Very frustrating as both Animator & SkFX are great, but I really would like for them to work together as I thought that i was possible...

Thanks in advance,
PT

juju · 6 May 2020, 21:42

@paddyclown said:

Hello, I've downloaded the trial version of SketchFX & it looks great plus from it's own interface I can export a video using the classic sketchup scenes..
The glitch for me is that when I set up an animation using your fabulous Animator, from there I cannot get it to export a video correctly rendered by SkFX... & yet an unrendered video is possible from Animator ?
BTW I have checked, I have the latest versions of Animator & the ffmpeg.exe
Is this because I have the demo version of SkFX, or what might be going on here please ?
Very frustrating as both Animator & SkFX are great, but I really would like for them to work together as I thought that i was possible...

Thanks in advance,
PT

to use SketchFX for animations you will need SketchFX Ex

paddyclown · 11 May 2020, 09:39

PT[/quote]
to use SketchFX for animations you will need SketchFX Ex[/quote]

yes, that's what I downloaded, the demo version of SketchFX EX & it's that the doesn't seem to be compatible with animator... the real bummer is I can't seem to send a message to the people that do that software... some kind of javascript error on their "contact" page

juju · 11 May 2020, 18:22

@paddyclown said:

yes, that's what I downloaded, the demo version of SketchFX EX & it's that the doesn't seem to be compatible with animator... the real bummer is I can't seem to send a message to the people that do that software... some kind of javascript error on their "contact" page

apologies for not being clearer, that's what I was getting at; if you use SketchFX, if you want some kind of animation with their rendering, you'll need to use their ecosystem of tools for rendering animations

having said that, they do not have a tool comparable to Animator

take a look a their forums, maybe try getting some answers there?

ccsvr · 9 Oct 2021, 02:47

We use enscape to render interior design projects, as well as product rendering,
Hope to support the enscape renderer

solo · 9 Oct 2021, 13:13

@ccsvr said:

We use enscape to render interior design projects, as well as product rendering,
Hope to support the enscape renderer

Enscape does not yet have an option for object animation, once they do Animator is top of the list for integration. This has been on the list for at least 3 years and so far Enscape have dragged their feet, so don't hold your breath.

pawelludwa · 5 Aug 2022, 15:53

Can I save each frame as a scene in Sketchup ?
How to take each frame seperately to actually create scenes from them ?