Sorry to take so long to respond. I appreciate the responses from you guys. I went with DaveR's approach since it would be the easiest (IMHO) to use when a new version of SU is released.

@box said: Dave, he gave you the link directly to it in his post. Yes, that is what I used to get the plugin.

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.

@fredo6 said: New version 1.0x is coming.... Thanks - will be good practice. Also looking at upgrading my Twilight license so I can look at that as well. Keep up the GREAT work Fredo. Do I need to be looking at a budget for the public version as well?

@fredo6 said: That's why it's better to wait for the function to be implemented in Animator! Fredo YES (in french) Congratulations PILOU, great job (I like the name of your file) Dave will surely be very happy. Bravo PILOU , beau boulot ( j'aime bien le nom de ton fichier ) Dave va surement être très content ! Chri [image: Ge4c_GIF_hell.gif]

I believe you must wait the next version who will erase a general existing bug!

@ntxdave said: @solo said: So getting cameras to animate smoothly as well as basic animations will be a great start, IMO get the basics done and then add bells and whistles on future updates. Sorry everyone. I thought this was what I was suggesting. From posts I have seen in other threads, I thought that the multi-point translation (path), turning on the scale tool, and the camera to follow an object were some of the basics everyone does/would want in an animation tool. Kind of sorry I started this thread. Maybe it would be better if it were deleted. You did well Dave, you shouldn't feel bad. As I see it you are a Beta tester for some reason, I don't know how many of us there are but if we're 10 you're representing 10% of the future animator users. The way I see it it might be even more. I'm pretty sure what you wrote here will influence the way priorities are going to be set and I'm also sure if this post was useless, we wouldn't be discussing it.

Not working yet. Missing the whole UI. But same idea as the sliders, that is you can play normal time, fast or put at any state via the slider, depending on the options you choose. Fredo

Here is a render of a car wash building done with Animator beta v1.1b and Twilight Render Pro version2.6.2. http://youtu.be/celI7sVT9gE I used the new tool to smooth out orbiting of the model using the new circular camera path (curved) in the latest version of Animator. I also used the latest version of Twilight Render Pro. Yes, there are several things that are wrong with the model but this was a test of make sure I could get closer to where I want to go. I am will be working on a cleaner and better version of the model but wanted to let people see how you can use these two tools together. Just in cause you are interested, this particular render took 15:00:07.

I assume this what you are meaning and "it works for me". [image: B7Di_LayerControlv2.gif] I started the sequence with the spray layer off, then added a capture with it turned on and the finished with another capture where the layer is off again. This achieves what I was wanting. Still think it would be kind of cool if you could use the duration to turn it off and on but I can sure use it this way. I think this makes more sense and gives us a lot more flexibility than tying it to a view or camera because I can use the two independently. Here is still another version that shows how changing the views during the sequence adds some flexibility as opposed to tying the layer visibility to views (again MHO). [image: cD28_LayerControlv3.gif] I also saw that I can group the movement sequence along with the layer visibility captures and views as a group. Again, IMO, this could be very valuable for the future. Thanks for this feature and being patient enough to help me understand how to use this capability a little better. Now if you just come up with some miracle way to animate the spray texture I would be more excited than you want to imagine .

Sorry fluid, maybe I wasn't clear on that, but I don't own a copy of it though I think it's very cool! I will definetelly consider it when I need something of the sorts though...

Thanks Fredo....... Would it be possible to have a sequence that allowed you to show/hide a layer? In my example, the only thing that is different between the 2 scenes is that the "spray" layer shows in one scene but not the other. Could be an interesting tool to be able to toggle layers like in the SU scene. But, I can certainly work with it the way it is.

KT is not so user friendly and full of features as Thea is (haven't tried it), still it has a lot of power and control, and it's possible to pick up and get results pretty quickly. KT has a LOT more to offer than most "free" software.

Thanks Dave. Using a pic and turning it into a light source is a real quick way if you only have one or two windows in a scene. The orange was textured using a .png pic of a real orange. It was the biggest pain of everything in the picture. I had to use the SketchUV plugin to do a spherical mapping to get the texture to look o.k. Like you this stuff is a real departure from what I do at work. Having a lot of fun with it.

Paul, that looks great. One of the challenges I have had/have is in rendering metals. I agree that if you are rendering a product the context is indeed important. I still feel I have a lot to learn. One of the thinks I struggle with is the vocabulary and most of the tutorials I try to read assume you have full comprehension of it.

Why I am using a laptop exclusively is a kind of long story but the bottom line is that I am a retired guy who does some part time modeling (less than 10hrs/month) for a company that builds car washes. It is their laptop which is a gaming machine with plenty of memory and a 17" screen. I do most of the work sitting in the kitchen and do not have an external monitor sitting in here for me to work with. If I had a dedicated work environment I would definitely use an external monitor. They recruited me and got me started using SketchUp. I do not have an engineering background and although I like computer graphics, I do not consider myself an artist in any stretch of anyone's imagination. However, all of that said, I am enjoying learning how to use SketchUp and am trying to expand my knowledge base. I like the concept of the trays because they allow me to at least semi organize my work environment the way it is most convenient for me. I tried having the trays docked on the right but the constant flying in and out and having to try to catch the tray sometimes and having it disappear at the wrong time because of mouse movement kind of gets to me. I organized them as follows: Objects - this try combines Entity Info, Materials, and Soften Edges since these are the most used facilities when developing components or working on model layouts. I also use the Entity Info to assign items in the layout to a Layer for later controlling what is visible in a given scene. Components - I put this try by itself because I have build around 200 components (pieces of car wash equipment) that I then use in the layout for a car wash. Scenes/Layers- I combined these two because I use scenes in every layout to show different views of the car wash layout. A couple of those scenes show dimensions and text that tells what each piece of equipment is and is location in feet along the conveyor. By combining the Scenes/Layers into a single tray can easily manage which layers are visible in a scene without jumping back and forth to different trays. Outliner - The only thing in this tray is the outliner. This gives me quick access to the outliner and managing the organization of the layout. I do not use this tray very often but it does give me access to the facility. Styles - I have a pretty standard style that I use for all of my car wash layouts so I do not mess with them very often. I have also added things like shadows, fog, & match photo combined on this tray because I rarely these function. Help - Again, I rarely use this tray but it is there if I need it. Here is an image of my current tray configuration: [image: yxwM_SU-Trays.PNG] I do have this one docked on the right side of the screen and is always there. I have found this to be more convenient for me and the way I work.