Posts made by davethomaspilot

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.

I want to to an animation to show assembly of an electronics enclosure. I'm struggling with how to best use layers and components to do the assembly animation, while preserving the ability to export parts to be 3d printed by hiding layers.

I want to start with what is basically an exploded diagram, but everything is not exploded from a central point. Rather, things are moved out along one of three major axes. The animation will consist with moving things back to the original, assembled position in several steps. The steps will be like moving threaded inserts into position in the part to be 3d printed, moving a regulator into position, moving screws to attach regulator. Screws, inserts, regulator--everything in the higher level component will finally get moved into its place.

Currently, the hierarchy is like this:

Left
geometry for a 3d printed part
left threaded inserts
regulator
regulator screws
battery dock
battery dock screws
regulator screw inserts
insert 1
insert 2
...

battery dock screw inserts

Right
geometry for a 3d printed part
right screws
right screw inserts
screw 1
screw 2
..

Top
geometry for a 3d printed part
screws

The problem I'm running into is that I keep having to rearrange things inside components for different steps of the animation.

Is it necessary to keep everything that needs to move independently at the same level of the hierarchy?

Ok, found what I need to know for apparations.

So, I knew having a unique layer for each set of texts that should be displayed will work with animator. I just thought there might be a better way.

I do want to move objects, like an exploded view. Except I need to move objects along specified paths, not exploding from a central point.

I want to do an animation of how to assemble multiple pieces of an enclosure, with text at each step. So, I will have a separate layer that I unhide for each step, unless there's a better way.

Thanks!

When I said "DEMANDS A DONATION!", I meant that it is so good that I'd feel too guilty to not make a donation. Sorry, I see how that could be misinterpreted that the plugin could not be used unless a donation was made.

Where can I learn more about apparations?

Wow, I gotta say Animator looks awesome!

Just starting with it and have a quick question.

When I've done animations without the plug-in, I usually want a different set of text labels displayed for each scene. Maybe "brain dead", but I do this by having a unique layer for each scene. Then I make the layer visible that has the text I want to show for that scene.

Is there a better way to do this with the Animator plug-in? I see where the layer visibility can be turned on and off, but I think I'll still need lots of layers just for the different sets of labels I want to become visible.

Can object visibility (hidden or not) be captured somehow like layer visibility?

Also, can you provide a URL for a donation? I see it when I download the plug-in, but I always want to install and try it out before donating. Animator DEMANDS a donation!