I used the Proper Animation plug in to simulate light beams in a photometer array. The "light" is made by telescoping a bunch of cylinders over each other.
They are textured translucent, and I probably should have done something to hide their edges and ends, but it worked pretty well. A bit of a pain to make, because I was not very well-versed in using Proper Animation.
Can see the animation at http://web.nmsu.edu/~dkim/MTEC/PhotometerFlash.html
This is a cross-post from the general discussions forum:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=38705
For brevity, please look at the original post.
I wish to introduce a freeware application that can import SketchUp models. It is called "Miku Miku Dance", and it is a program for creating videos of dancing people using keyframe animation of articulated figures. The program was written to complement the Vocaloid singing character Hatsune Miku.
09/29/11 I created a Collection at 3D Warehouse. The collection name is "2D Floorplan Symbols".
Also, I modified some of the wall-penetrating things (doors, windows) so they will glue to horizontal faces and cut them. So, if your floorplan has a rectangular face that represents a wall, you can drop a 2D door onto this face and it will cut out a rectangular area for itself. For better effect, color your walls black and hide bounding edges.
I wanted to have 2D floorplan symbols to use when making a floorplan layer for a house model. I could not find any pre-existing ones, and so I made a set of my own.
Door symbols were created by slicing a piece from the 3D doors that come in the Components Bonus Pack (Architecture - Doors), and are named to correspond to their parent models.
Electrical symbols (lights, outlets, etc) were made based on drawings I viewed of floorplan electrical symbols. I don't know if there is a governing body that dictates the shape of these symbols, but the ones I made are at least close to what I saw on an image search.
I uploaded these to the 3D warehouse, and can be found using a search for the keywords "floorplan, 2D".
I hope these are of use to anyone creating a floorplan using SketchUp.
Would this one count?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14795756
Ruins of Roman gladiator school found in Austria.
Article at the BBC
I have used photo-match in this way to make a combination animation/photo scene to create a video opening for my department. Take a look at the first 30 seconds of the video on this page:
If you have any video editing software, you can get good results by setting up your fly-through and look-around animation sequences as separate video exports, then stitch them together in post-processing. You can also add scene transition effects, titles and voiceovers for a more interesting look. If you are careful about the way you set up the beginning and ending scenes in your different animation sequences, it is easy to find an ending frame and beginning frame from two video exports that exactly match each other, making the transitions less abrupt.
Sometimes this has given me better results than trying to lay out the entire animation sequence in one shot. For instance, some parts of a flythrough look better with smooth transitions between scenes, while others benefit from a pause between scenes, or the length of time in the transitions need to be different. Editing in post gives you flexibility.
Thanks for the reply. I am really hoping for some activity between SketchUp and Miku Dance, especially since I have heard that Miku Miku Dance is no longer being developed by its creator. I harbor a vain hope that Google might think of picking it up, kind of like it did for SketchUp. I remember when SketchUp was an amazing program that cost hundreds of dollars. I was amazed and excited when Google bought the license and made it free. Almost overnight, 3D modeling became accessible to everyone. Since then, SketchUp has become more versatile and powerful, not only because of improvements to the program, but because of the huge collection of free models in the 3D warehouse and the many amazing plugins.
Miku Miku Dance can generate some amazing animations with human-like characters who sing, dance and interact with third-party objects. The program itself is really small, and fairly easy to use. In some ways, it supplies a function that is not covered by SketchUp or Sketchyphysics: keyframe animation of human figures. It could use some work, but a search on YouTube will show how much has been done using this tool. Still, as my initial search of SketchUcation showed, it is not known outside the Vocaloid user community, even though it seems to be a perfect complement to SketchUp. I am hoping that, by starting a conversation on this forum, the potential of Miku Miku Dance might come to the attention of whomever at Google is responsible for acquiring software assets. Miku Miku Dance is already a major tool for creating original, beautiful and entertaining content on YouTube. Why not bring it into the fold as a direct asset?
If I may extend my pitch a bit more, there is a shareware (I think) program that works like Yamaha Vocaloid for creating voice libraries and sequencing vocal songs. It is also from Japan, and is called UTAU. It is reported to be a bit difficult to use, and could use some polish. If Google were to also adopt UTAU, it would have a complete set of applications for creating virtual music videos from start to finish.
I can dream . . .
I recently learned about an application of SketchUp that doesn't seem to have any discussion here. It's a long story, so bear with me. First, take a look at this video on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb7TThIdPmU.
This is the output of a program called "Miku Miku Dance", which is a dance animation freeware from Japan. "Miku" refers to the Vocaloid singing character Hatsune Miku: a vocal data library created by Crypton Future Media for use with Yamaha's Vocaloid program. Miku's data can be sequenced to music, matching phonemes to the lyrics, to create the sound of a girl singing. The output can be so good that there are literally thousands of original musical compositions using her voice. In July of this year, she gave a 'live' concert in Los Angeles, by way of a rear-projection glass screen and live band. The performance created a holographic-like effect for the sold-out audience.
Fan videos were created with Miku's character image singing different songs, but the Miku Miku Dance (MMD) program let users animate a 3D model of Miku in time with the music. If the Vocaloid sequence file (.vsq) is input, her mouth can move in lipsync with the music as well.
So, the connection to SketchUp is this: The linked video features two characters singing and dancing. The background "stage" was imported from a SketchUp model that is in the 3D Warehouse. A MMD plug-in exists for importing .skp objects into MMD to be used with the character models, letting them dance within the environment of the imported performance stage.
MMD is enhanced by a number of plugins for this video, including Miku Miku Effects for special visual effects and camera control. The character models are fan-made, and animated using keyframe sequences.
The results can be stunning. A search for "MMD SketchUp" will yield a lot of examples. MMD uses the Bullet Physics Engine, which lets hair and clothing move realistically.
I think there should be more connection between the Vocaloid/MMD community and the SketchUp community. This is certainly fertile ground for creative work.
I have IE8, OS is WinXP Pro SP3. Using Sandboxie to isolate disk activity from my browsers, if that's a problem. Didn't used to be in an earlier build of this machine. Dunno what else might be relevant. I may just rebuild the OS setup and try again, since I've been using this setup for a while, and it's about due for a thorough clean-out.
OK. The problem is specific to my computer,and not to SketchyPhysics 3. It occurs when I do a fresh install of SketchUp, and occurs when I install SketchUp 7 and SketchyPhysics2b, which used to work properly in a previous incarnation of this machine. SketchUp8 with SketchyPhysics3.1 works as expected on a different computer, so that's not the problem.
I am having the same problem. Using SketchUp 8 and SketchyPhysics 3.1
Dunno about RubyConsole and what it's supposed to tell me.
I also cannot make changes to the joint parameters, and I do not have control sliders when I run a simulation.
This is a second option for scene transitions during a SketchyPhysics simulation. Again, I wanted to produce a video clip to use as the title/branding of a video we produced. An example is found in the first 35 seconds of the embedded video on my website: http://pltw.nmsu.edu/cPage.aspx?pageid=event&queryid=110419
In this simulation, I used a Photo Match to guide me in modeling a clock tower that is an iconic feature of the College of Engineering. I particularly wanted to convey the transition of ideas from the familiar (clock face with moving hands) to the esoteric (Vertical Wind Turbine) and finally the concrete (Clock tower in the courtyard). After roughly modeling the tower, I added the clock face and hands, as well as the turbine. One clock hand and the turbine itself were attached to motors, making them spin.
Created one scene where the clock face is centered in the frame, and the face fills the frame. Created a second scene where the lower face and axis of the turbine is centered and fills the scene. These have some equivalency to convey the idea of relatedness. Finally, I used the Photo Match scene to superimpose the model and the photo.
After starting CamStudio video screen recorder, I centered on the clock face scene and started the simulation. I recorded the clock face simulation, then stopped and moved to the turbine scene. Restart the simulation to record the turbine scene, using X-ray surfaces. I then clicked on the Photo Match scene tab. Since the simulation is still running, the scene transition ran only one frame, then stopped, but the simulation is still running. I rapidly and repeatedly clicked the Photo Match scene tab to move the scene transition a frame at a time. When the transition was done, I recorded for some more seconds, then ended the simulation and recording.
Using Adobe Premier, I imported the captured video and edited it, using cross-fade transitions between the first two scenes. The final transition to the photo match scene seemed to slow down asymptotically as I was clicking the scene tab, so I needed to accelerate the framerate of the scene transition to make it appear more even.
This is a rather crude way to achieve simultaneous scene transition with physics simulation, but it worked for this clip.
I have an animation of a SketchUp/Sketchyphysics model with changing POV in camera on a website that I manage. I wanted to create an interesting short video clip derived from the Project Lead the Way logo that I could use for branding any videos that we make. The site is http://pltw.nmsu.edu
The 'physics' elements are moving on their own, but I also have a sphere that is hidden, which is attached to a servo, causing it to swing around the model in a wide arc. Before recording, I attach the camera to this sphere using the 'camera follow' context menu item. There is a second hidden sphere that is attached to a piston, which makes it travel from one end of the logo figure to the center. The two joints are controlled by the same control slider, so they go through their ranges simultaneously and proportionately. The camera is set to 'camera track' the sphere that is on the piston.
On run, I immediately pause the simulation. I set the camera placement and orientation, then set the camera track/follow. I then resume the simulation and also start CamStudio video screen capture software. I let the simulation run for a few seconds, then slowly move the control slider, which pulls the camera in its arc from below the logo figure to a point directly above it. At the same time, the camera's view is tracking the ball on the piston track, making it end looking straight down onto the logo figure when the tracked ball is in the center of the logo.
I recorded this simulation several times, using different line and surface settings. All of the recorded video is then remixed using Adobe Premier to give me the desired full effect.
This was done using SketchUp 7 (free) and SketchyPhysics 3
I use "W" to do "Zoom to Window". I use the key combinations Alt+Left and Alt+Right to go to Previous View and Next View, since these are the hotkeys for previous/next page in my web browser.
Using SP2, I constructed a moving windmill set, which is now at the 3D warehouse
I then used the windmills to illustrate one method for recording a panning camera view in a moving SP2 play.
I posted this with the title: "Moving Camera POV in SketchyPhysics 2.wmv" at
http://groups.google.com/group/sketchyphysics/browse_thread/thread/e5c1773fcd29e6ec#
An uploaded video of this camera recording is found at:
Daniel Kim
Here is a link to a YouTube video showing how we are trying to use SketchUp and sketchyphysics2 at New Mexico State University.
I wrote a Case Study and submitted it to Google, but it hasn't been loaded to their Engineering Case Study page for some reason.
The model itself is at the 3D Warehouse (search for chile cleaner).
SketchUp is not part of our regular 'business', but I am trying to find a niche for it bu modeling some of the mechanical projects that are active in our department.
Daniel Kim