Hello Fredo,
Thank you again for the plugin. Regarding the output of images / render: I am currently working on a very heavy project with complex elements. I found a way to work around the restrictions on exporting directly with Vray, although very time consuming: I group all the moving parts, then copy paste each position (through the positioner) into a new file. I end up with a lot of scenes, one for each frame and the non moving parts are on a different layer. I litteraly can see the animation as going through each scene. Obviously, at this point, the animation is ''locked''.
The major advantage with that is that I can use GPU render, can use render elements on V-Ray etc...
My question is: would it be possible to automate that process, create an option to export all the moving parts in different scene. I understand it can create hundreds if not thousands of scenes but it would be so helpful.
I can imagine there would be a technical limit (like, exporting 200 scenes max). Then it would require to create multiple files (one for scenes 001 to 200, then 201 to 400 etc), but in theory, such an option would be fantastic.
Thank you!

Hello Fredo,
Thank you for your quick response. I was afraid it would be your answer. That been said I may find a convoluted way to work around the animator and SU limitations.

I have a last question: if I would like to improve my hardware to use animator (just for opening animator and use it), should I focus more on CPU or GPU?

Thanks!

Hello Fredo,

I have few questions and observations regarding rendering an animation with VRay through animator.
I am currently working on a quite large scale project so I did some VRay rendering tests with simplified files for now and noticed few things:

• it appears that rendering doesn’t work when Safe Frame is enabled in VRay.
• when I export a single frame directly in SU with VRay (not using animator), it takes on my computer about 2 minutes to export an image with the GPU, 6 minutes with the CPU. Hence I always enable the GPU option. However, when I exported my animation, each frame took about 6 to 8 minutes to render. Does Animator/VRay only use the CPU and overrides the VRay Set ups? Note that it rendered all the render elements perfectly and separately.
• The animation is 5 seconds long (at 24 fps) and after 24 or 25 frames, the animation kept freezing. The rendering time counter still goes up. I left it one night running and it was still on the same frame in the morning. It worked well when I rendered each second individually (so in 5 batches). Is there a limitation with memory or something? If so, is there a way to know before exporting?
• Which leads me to wondering if it would be possible to have options in how time is displayed. Right now it’s only in second with one decimal. Could it be displayed in frames? (When chosing which part of the animation I want to render)
• For my final project, full resolution, a frame takes with my current computer 30 to 40 minutes to render with GPU so I guess it would take about 2 hours with CPU. I am far from being at the stage when I render a final animation but I am concerned I’ll never be able to render without using a render farm (I suspect IaaS would be the only option to use animator). I don’t know much about rendering farms but they seem to be either CPU or GPU. If my assumption that animator only uses CPU, I should go for that?
• based on my research, it doesn’t seem possible to use VRay cloud to render with animator. Did I miss something?
• last but not least, I was wondering if there could be an option to export each frame as a unique SU file? Not that I would want that as it would require a big hard disk drive and export hundreds or thousands of SU files, but I thought it could be an alternative and make the use of VRay cloud possible.

I hope my message isn’t too long. Thank you in advance.

@guest said:

Hi everyone. One question. Do you know what happens if you don't click that 'Save and exit' button once the render is finished?
I'm on a black screen with all peripherals dead and the render is running in the background. I'll have to hard-restart PC once render is done and I'm not sure if files will be saved if the button is not clicked. Has anyone did it before or could do a quick try to let me know?

Hi. I did a quick test. When the render is completed, you have to click save and exit to save your files. The other button though asks you if you really want to erase the exported files.
I also started an export and interrupt SU in the middle of the process. You get all the individual images as PNG files until the time the export was interrupted.
I actually noticed in the past you can complete your export and already copy all individual images before clicking save and exit. once you do, if you haven't selected exporting as individual images, those images disappear and merge to become one video file.
Personnaly, I always export as individual frames on top of everything else. If I have a problem when exporting with VRay (and it happens a lot), I can at least save some time and resume.
Hope it helps. Good luck

Thank you Fredo.
You're the man!

Hello Fredo,
Just wanted to mention that I have the same issue. I am also getting the message I have to update the plugin.

Windows 10, SU 2021

Thanks!

The best example is when adding a new movement. Clicking on the icon is instant but accessing the panel (translation, spin, rotate etc...) takes about 30 seconds. Then, it's fine, I can select the object almost instantly. Entering the value takes about 10 seconds to process the information. Then closing the new movement takes a bit of time as well. Also, If I want to edit a clip, it takes about 15 seconds to open it to adjust.
My model is quite complex - I believe - so any change can take some time. Hence i was wondering if I could boost my computer in some way.

You got me curious about the hierarchy: does it mean that it would take more time to animate an object that is deep into the hierarchy over one that is at the top? I have to say I didn't notice any performance difference depending on which object I work on.

@fredo6 said:

If you could send me the model, I could have a look.

Note that spinning symmetrical objects (like gears), may also give the impression of static movement when it spins too fast or at a multiple of the frame rate. I would suggest you put a color mark on the gears to verify whether they spin or not.

Hello Fredo and thanks for your response.
It turns out indeed those specific gears are moving. I did slow them down and put a color mark. It works. Thanks again.

I take the opportunity to ask a more genereal question about Animator: when a model is more complex, animator takes a while to respond (it can take up to 30 seconds to have a menu open - like, when I create a new movement). Granted I now have a lot of objects and moving parts in the file. In the past tried to lighten the model buy using proxies (for the static parts) but it remains the same. Outside of animator I can navigate very smoothly.
I know my hardware is getting a bit old: which part of the hardware should be updated to increase animator performances? I think i have a decent cpu but my gpu is now very old.
Thanks again for your fantastic plugin.

Hello Fredo,

I am having an issue I never had before with animator:
I animated some spinning gears. It works fine when I scroll through animator. But when I export, some gears don't spin. I go back to the project and they spin properly. Here are few odd things: some spin, some don't. The ones that don't, I tried to change the axis (from x to z) and it works. But when I move it again, it doesn't work anymore. I tried several things: changing the group/object axis. I also tried to rotate the gear within the group. It doesn't work. I tried to use the model axis and the object axis, same results. I also exploded the gears, regrouped them, gave them a different name and re animated: still doesn't work. The odd thing is when I create another object (cube, cylinder, I even tried another complex shape), it works.
I have been using Animator for years now and it's the first time I get this specific issue.
Thank you in advance

Hi Fredo,
It works for me perfectly now. Thank you very much

Hello Fredo,
I have been using animator extensively for the past year and a half and I have a bunch of questions / comments I wanted to send you. Sorry if I am throwing everything at once.
Over time I ended up with very complex models and complex animations. Which is a lot of fun but also leads to some challenges in terms of organization.

First, now animator works perfectly with VRay. Thank you for the fix.

I sometime have a clip far into the timeline, let’s say, at 45s. When I want to edit it, I click on it. However, when I exit the clip, animator always brings me back to timecode 0.0, which can be very difficult to navigate, especially when trying to adjust several clips around the same timecode (here, 45s) and if I were zoomed in on the timeline.
Would it be possible to return to where I come from and not to 0.0?

I like how movements and clips are separated by colors and I know it’s possible to assign a color element. However, it displays only a small square of color. Would it be possible to assign a color specifically for the full clip? I sometimes think it would make the whole timeline clearer.

In one of my projects, I am currently using 15 tracks in the timeline. When the project is complicated, with a lot of overlapping clips (some with pursue or repeats), if I change the length of one, it jumps to a different track and it becomes very complicated to locate on which track it went. And it seems that it’s moving the other clips. Would it be possible to ‘’lock’’ a clip on a specific track? I think this is why I was hoping to change the whole clip into a different color. To be able to locate it easily once I come back to the main timeline.

As someone mentioned in a previous post, it would be fantastic to be able to import an already animated object from a different file. Or be able to import specific clips and/or movements and re apply them to the new model.

The easing feature is what makes your plugin so great, among other things. However, for now, the in and out value of the easing have to be the same. Would it be possible to enter different values for in and out?

Would it be possible to have grey (semi transparent) bars that show a defined aspect ratio? For example, if I make a video of 2:1 ratio, grey bars would allow to see what will end up in the final frame. It would be really helpful when exporting with V-Ray.

I was wondering if there is still a time limit for each frame rendered on VRay? I remember you mentioned there was a 10 minutes limit for each frame rendering time. Is it still the case?

Finally, because my models are now very heavy and complex, animator becomes quite slow. It takes some time to get inside a clip and get back out. Or just disable it. I tried converting my non moving objects into proxies but it doesn’t seem to make any difference. I also now have to export the file (in natural mode) to judge if my animation is correct. Is there anything I could do differently to make animator run smoother?

I am sure there are very good reasons why everything is the way it is, and I apologize if these features exists and I am just unaware of them. I just thought I should send my questions. I wonder if anyone else thought about the same things. Thanks again so much for your fantastic plugin. It really changed my way of using SketchUp.

Hello Fredo,

First, thank you very much for your fantastic plugin. I have been using it extensively for the past 18 months.
I also have the same problem described in previous posts when using V-Ray with Animator. It only renders the first frame. I thought my project was too complex so I tried with a very simple one: a moving cube. Still did not work. I use SU 2020 and V-Ray 4.20.01

However, I tried on my laptop with SU 2017 and V-Ray 4.10.01 and it surprisingly works wonderfully. I don't know anything about technical stuff but I thought it was worth mentionning that.

Thank you very much again!