@Fletch: Thanks for sharing your results. That rendering is amazing -- now I know how this looks without building it.

I can verify that Keyframe Animation is compatible with Kerkythea. I used the plugin, su2kt.rb, by Tomasz, to export the all the tween frames. Kerkythea rendered the images in about 20 minutes. Then I used VirtualDub to stitch them together into an AVI movie.

[flash=480,385:3esvpvna]http://www.youtube.com/v/tZm4CwkHQ4k?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0[/flash:3esvpvna]

@mariocha: Interesting idea, animating the light source. It doesn't quite work when exporting to Kerkythea, so I had to settle for stationary lights. I may revise the script to add this functionality in the next update.

@diego castro said:

download the plugin and it works great, is a big job.

Glad to to hear it.

@unknownuser said:

Only lacks one important thing to buy it without hesitation, and this is compatible with the VRay renderer,

I am nearly certain that the animation is compatible with the VRay renderer. But, I don't own VRay, so I haven't tested it. Maybe someone who owns VRay could verify this, and post their results here.

The steps to export the animation are pretty simple. First you create the animation using key frames. Then you convert the key frames to ordinary SketchUp scenes, which I call "Tweens" because they contain the animation between the key frames. This is complicated for the script, but easy for you; just select the menu item, Plugins » Keyframe Animation » Create Tweens. The scenes created should be compatible with the VRay renderer, since they are ordinary SketchUp scenes. You can control how many scenes/tweens are created between key frames by adjusting the Frame Rate first.

@unknownuser said:

Although I could not use "Restore original Keyframes" yet. It stayed greyed out.

That is normal, if you're in the Keyframe model. That menu item is only enabled in the Tweens model.

Thanks for your persistence, mariocha. That is a good point. The group can't be open for editing when you record all the positions. When a group is open, all the positions are measured relative to the group's origin, not the model's origin, which screws everything up.

I updated the script so it warns the user, if a group or component is in edit mode, and prevents this mistake from happening. The update is version 1.0.3.

@mariocha said:

Very interesting.
That's an improvement. A toolbar would make me buy it.

Thanks for your feedback.

@unknownuser said:

The trouble with those "scene governed animation" is that nothing can be linked. So one has to move every bits and pieces every time.
I wish sub-groups will work in a future version. So a hand would follow the arm movement, added to it's own, for instance.

I am not sure I follow you. This plugin supports nested animated groups. So, if the hand is a subgroup of the arm, it will move with the arm. You can add additional movement to the hand also. Just open the arm group for editing, position the hand group, close the arm group, and save the component positions.

You don't have to stop there. The hand group could have finger subgroups. The nesting can be arbitrarily deep.

I installed Work Plane v2.3 to see what would happen. The menu isn't grayed out for me.

As I recall, the cause for grayed out menus was due to plugins that create UI::Command objects inside of context-menu handlers. If that is happening, it is not due to Keyframe Animation, because it does not create any UI::Command objects, and it doesn't even have any context-menus.

Is this bug reproducible? If you remove KFA does it go away? If you reinstall KFA, does it come back?

@solo said:

I'd like to see some sort of dialogue, or maybe a toolbar if possible.

I agree. Web dialogs will likely be in the updates.

A toolbar is quicker than a menu. But if you make shortcuts for the menu items, then you can access them just as fast.

@tfdesign said:

A great plugin, but I think your price is a little on the steep side.

Well, I guess the market will ultimately decide this issue. But, compared to other commercial animation plugins, I thought the price was a bargain.

@thomthom said:

Looking very interesting. Will have to have a look at this.

Great! If you, or anyone else, has suggestions for the design, or for new features, I am interested in the feedback.

@unknownuser said:

That is an amazing, much sought after, addition to SketchUp

Thanks! It has a few new features for keyframe based animation. The updates, hopefully, will have some more.

Hi Everyone,

The Keyframe Animation plugin is at: regularpolygon.org/keyframe-animation.

Basically, this plug-in will animate the movement of objects between scenes, and it can export the animation to an AVI movie (QuickTime on the Mac), directly from SketchUp.

Since most of you are probably familiar with the other animation plugins that have been posted here, I will try to describe this plugin by comparing it with them. The main animation plugins are Proper Animation by morisdov, and Mover.rb by cmd. This plugin has a similar workflow — you save the positions of the animated objects on each scene and it moves them when the scene changes. Here are the main things that are different:

Features

-The key frames (scenes) can be easily added, deleted, renamed, or reordered. For instance, you can reverse the order of the animation by putting the scenes in reverse order.

-Precisely control the length of the animation between key frames.

-Animate any group or component. Sub-groups (and sub-components) can also be animated. They can be nested to any depth.

-Rotations are interpolated correctly every time. Proper Animation and Mover.rb run into problems with rotations, unless the point of rotation is the component's origin. This is due to a bug in the Transformation.interpolate method, which both plugins rely on.

-Generate ordinary SketchUp scenes, which capture the animation in between the key frames. Let’s call them tweens. Each tween has a copy of the animated objects, and the camera, at a different point in the interpolation between key frames.

-Export the tween animation to an AVI movie (QuickTime on the Mac), right from SketchUp.

Demos

Here are a couple demos. They were exported directly from SketchUp, and uploaded to YouTube. The first one is the obligatory rotating gears. (25 fps, 480p)

[flash=480,385:3hatn1cl]http://www.youtube.com/v/Vv1jTZfMAds?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0[/flash:3hatn1cl]

This demo uses 16 keyframes, and 12 animated components, to show the steps in the construction of a slat platform bed frame made entirely from interlocking wooden parts. (15 fps, 360p)

[flash=640,385:3hatn1cl]http://www.youtube.com/v/2ou8_SRnLjo?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0[/flash:3hatn1cl]

Tutorial

This video shows the basic steps to make a simple animation, and how to export the animation as a movie. It is a bit outdated now, it shows the workflow for version 1.3, before there was a toolbar.

[flash=640,390:3hatn1cl]http://www.youtube.com/v/TokvZKmWLlQ?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0[/flash:3hatn1cl]

Thanks for your feedback, Bob. I'll think about your toolbar suggestion -- or, at least, let it simmer on the back burner.

So, what is in the pipeline? Well, when I am not distracted with the 3D printed lamp Design Challenge, I am working on a new project. All I can say at this point is that it does not involve geometry creation -- for once. If I don't hit any snags, I should have a lot more to say about it in a couple weeks.

Well, I only have 8 or 9 plugins at this point. Once I hit an even dozen, I should release an author-menu type plugin. That would be an option for people who like to organize their plugins by author.

Update to Version 1.1.

The original version used an approximation to compute the points on the curve -- unfortunately, I couldn't solve the math for the exact equations. Since then, I came across the equations that do compute the exact values for the coordinates of each point. They are implemented in Version 1.1.

The difference in the spherical helix between the two versions is not really noticeable. But, if you are doing something that requires accuracy, then it might be worth downloading this latest version.

A spherical barber pole! That looks great, Dave.

Yeah, geometry has its own sort of beauty -- one reason why I prefer graphics programming to web development.

This plugin draws spherical helix, also called a luxodrome. It is a spiral curve on the surface of a sphere, which crosses all meridians of longitude at the same angle. It is another type of spherical spiral, other than the Archimedean spherical spiral I posted a week ago.

I like to think of it as the path a ship would trace across the globe if it always pointed in the same direction relative to true north. The curve below is an example of a course that proceeds slightly north of east, by 5 degrees, at every point.

M.C. Escher used this curve in his drawing, Sphere Spirals.

Using a lofting plugin to create a surface between two spirals, and then making 4 copies of the "ribbon", I constructed a crude depiction of Escher’s drawing in SketchUp.

%(#BF0000)[CHANGE LOG

*** Version 1.1 - October 7, 2010 ***
More accurate. Computes the exact values for the points on the curve.]

The Loxodrome Plugin is at: regularpolygon.org/plugins/loxodrome.php.

Thanks.

@unknownuser said:

Ah damned too late for these posts and following

They were drawing spirals on a torus, so this wouldn't really help, right?

But I was thinking, that would be another good plugin. One that draws a spiral on a torus. The spiral can revolve around two directions, the "big circle" and the "little circle." A simple plugin would allow you to enter the number of revolutions in each direction and then draw the spiral.

Here is another simple to use plugin for geometry creation. The spiral is a 3D curve that wraps around the surface of a sphere, going from pole to pole. Specifically, this is an Archimedean spherical spiral because, like the 2D Archimedean spiral, the turns are all the same distance apart.

To activate, select Draw -> Spherical Spiral (Archimedes). Enter the parameters in the dialog box, and the spherical spiral is created as a component that you can place in the model.

It looks better if you give the spiral curve some substance using a plugin like Tube Along Path.

The Spherical Spiral is at: regularpolygon.org/plugins/spherical-spiral.php.

Thanks

Hi all,

I figured I'd write one more 3D fractal, and then I'll do something practical. This plugin will construct a Sierpinski Tetrahedron up to the seventh level. Access is from the Draw menu, which brings up a dialog box with 2 parameters for you to enter.

The geometry is added to a component, which you can then place in the model. Here is an example of the fifth level tetrahedron.

There is more documentation on the construction and usage, and a link to download the plugin, here: Sierpinski Tetrahedron.

Thanks