Seems the "camera around" tool is not included in the latest version of the extension.

I deleted all the cameras I added and started over. Not sure what I'd done wrong, but now the transitions from scene to scene are not erratic.

Just found a video on "camera around". Looks like what I need, but I don't see that on my version of the plug-in.

Maybe it's the same as "visual effect".

Still learning...

I'm a newbie with Animator, but I'm having this problem too.

I have all the views using "circular camera paths", but still the transition between views is extremely erratic. So bad as to be unusable.

The view will zoom so far that nothing is visible, rotate and finally end up at the next view.

Is there something else I can do to mitigate the issue? Does fade-out just control the acceleration of the camera movement? If so, I guess that won't help. It's the camera path that's problematic.

Just discovered "group as clip".

Maybe using instead of adding groups to the model (as suggested in the SketchUcation) will let me do what I need without having to destroy the existing hierarchy in the model.

I'm hoping that I can set up parallel in time physical movements on objects nested in different groups, but have them movable on the time line (and editable for time duration, etc) as a complete entity--clip, I guess.

Playing with that now.

I was trying to create a groups or components of things that would move together at some point in the animation. I see that I can have several movements in parallel, but when editing the time line, I'd have to take care to move them all together.

So, the group or component was going to keep the movements together like a group or component does (among other things) in Sketchup.

But, you can't group items that are contained in other groups. So, for maximum flexibility in moving objects, it seems best to create groups ONLY for objects that ALWAYS move together.

In my case, that meant destroying the existing component and group hierarchy, just for the purpose of creating the animation. I got the animation I needed, but it meant having a separate model just for the animation.

I guess what I'd like to have is a way to create a "movement group" where that group could contain groups/subgroups/components/subcomponents that were not constrained by the existing sketchup hierarchy. That way, the model hierarchy need not be driven by the animation.

I see the "Dim Factor" that can be used to change the amount of offset of a translation movement, but I can't find a way to enter a specific translation amount (after the initial creation and save of the clip).

Not a big deal, since I can always calculate the required Dim Factor for the offset, but maybe I'm missing a way to just enter it directly?

I shouldn't have posted yet--I need to get some more time using the Animator.

I'll try to explain what is confusing me with an update to the post, after I'm a little farther down the learning curve.

@ntxdave said:

Check out this animation showing an exploded view. I think it is very close to what you are describing.

Unfortunately, exploded view doesn't do what I need. Everything is exploded around a central point. As I posted, I need components to move along the major axes.

Actually, my problem might only occur when I try to use positioner to move things around then update a position.

I need to play around some more and I'll then update the post.

@ntxdave said:

Suggest you have a look at Animator and some of its videos. I think you should be able to accomplish what you describe. Check I out.

I've watched the videos several times. I don't see anything which addresses this issues--maybe I'm just not seeing it. Let me try to restate my problem.

Currently I have things organized in Sketchup components, with each component containing other components (and some of these "subcomponents" contain other components).

At one step of the animation, the positions of sub-components in a higher level component need to be in "position A". At another step, they need to be in "position B". At still another step, the containing component needs to move while the subcomponents stay in "position B", relative to the containing components origin.

I think I can get what I want if components that need to move independently of each other are at the same level of the hierarchy, but I have to "flatten" everything. If this isn't clear, I'll try making a gif to show my problem.