[Plugin] Camera Recorder v1.7.2 UPDATED May 23, 2013

[Chris Fullmer]

Yeah, all those thoughts about path smoothing are going through my head too. How to smooth it, but not too much, but a little.....etc.

Well for now I've added an option to show construction points at each frame and target. Its interesting to see for sure.

I don't know how to make the recorded path editable in a useful way...I'll keep thinking though.

Chris

[Chris Fullmer]

UPDATED Nov 11, 2009
UPDATES v 1.5

• Fixed the lag bug that occured in the beginning of each recording
• Added more user feedback when buttons are pressed in the wrong order
• Added the abilty to control image output height, width and anti-aliasing
• Added better file names so that more software will correctly order the image frames
• Added a recording playback button, so that recordings can be played back before exporting.
• Added a tool to place constructions points at the location of each frame, with another construction point where the camera is pointing.
• Added some new icons, but they still need help.

As promised, I got a chance to update this script tonight. The icons are silly. I added more icons to the toolbar since Modelhead and TIG provided some icons, so their packs didn't quite work entirely. So its a mish-mash of icons for now.

[thomthom]

Wow. You're steaming!

(p.s. maybe update the thread title to reflect 1.5?)

[Chris Fullmer]

Wow. You're steaming!

(p.s. maybe update the thread title to reflect 1.5?)

Thanks Thom, Title updated! I've had a little down time at work and free time at night, so I've been able to spend some time on this. Its been fun to write.

I also made a video right now, but it is still processing on youtube. So in the morning I'll try to get it posted to the first post in the thread. Or it might be up in an hour or so if anyone wants to see it beofre I post it:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ChrisFullme ... d90--LV9FI

[plot-paris]

hey Chris. I am afraid, the buttons of the toolbar end up blank.

the zip file, you posted contains a ruby file called 'clf_center_on_origin.rb' and a folder with the Camera Recorder files.
within this folder there is the camera recorder ruby, several images and an empty folder called 'images'.
but no matter, where I placed the images (within the images folder. or the images folder directly in the plugins folder) it doesn't seem to be working

[Pixero]

Brilliant. Thanks! You know I've been ranting about the lack of animation tools in SU. What a great start.
Create curves looks very interesting. A lot of potential there.
Could you add a w,a,s,d key flying/walking camera tool since the walk tool is so bad?
Also adjustable playing speed to watch it in slowmotion for finding problems or quirks.
Another way of getting precise camera movement would be to be able to position the camera for "key" frames and then have the script to add the inbetweens based on a given speed (meter/second). As I said LOTS of possibilities there...

[Ecuadorian]

I like where this is going.

Pixero, I don't think this plugin is about new navigation controls, just recording what you see, at least for now.

But if you do implement new navigation controls, Chris, perhaps C. Philips could contribute some game controller code from SketchyPhysics.

1019xbox360controller550x50.jpg

[modelhead]

Here are the path and replay icons to match....

example2.jpg

[Chris Fullmer]

Hey, thats great Modelhead!

Chris

[modelhead]

Last....I gave the start (green button)and stop (red button) a bit of shape so they are not so flat....cheers!

example3.jpg

[TIG]

It motoring...
What next ?

[Chris Fullmer]

Next will be to save, export and import animations from one model to the next. I'm planning on writing simple csv files that can be easily written and read.

I'd love to improve the file save dialog window.

@Equadorian - Sketchyphysics has game controller code? If you install SP, you can control SU with a game controller? If so, then I would'nt need to include it in the script. You can start recording and then navigate with his controller and my plugin will still record it.

Chris

[Mike Lucey]

Thanks for the video Chris. Hey you have quite a talent for voice overs, very natural with a nice flow and easy to follow

Its looks like you have excellent colaborators coming on board for CR that will make it a super easy to use animation output tool.


Mike

[ely862me]

Impressive!! Well done!

Thank you!


Elisei

[Ecuadorian]

Chris, the game controller code is there but the user must implement it. There are entire videogames made using SketchyPhysics.

Now I regret having sold my XBOX 360 wired controller. Oh, well.

[CadFather]

hey Chris. I am afraid, the buttons of the toolbar end up blank.

the zip file, you posted contains a ruby file called 'clf_center_on_origin.rb' and a folder with the Camera Recorder files.
within this folder there is the camera recorder ruby, several images and an empty folder called 'images'.
but no matter, where I placed the images (within the images folder. or the images folder directly in the plugins folder) it doesn't seem to be working

Thank You Chris - this is something i wanted for a very long time..

any thoughts on the above?

[Chris Fullmer]

yeah, clf_camera_recorder_loader.rb and the clf_camera_recorder folder go into the plugin folder.

All .pngs and the clf_camera_recorder.rb script file go into the clf_camera_recorder folder. THe IMAGES folder also goes into the clf_camera_recorder fodler, and it should be empty. It is there only as a default location to export images into. It should not have any of the icons in it.

If you do that, it should work like a charm. I recommend not using winzip to unzip your files if they are not automatically unzipping with tehir full folders and paths. Just use the built in windows explorer if possible. Its superior to winzip in so many ways.

Let me know if that does not work. I suppose there could be some other unknown issue?

Chris

[CadFather]

yes but like plotparis said, there isn't any loader

just some clf_center_on_origin.rb

am i missing something?

[Chris Fullmer]

I missed that litle fact, sorry guys! I didn't put the right file in the zip. I'll fix it in a little bit.

Everyone who downloaded the first version got the loader, and that is why it is working for them. Everyone who is trying to install this version fresh is left without the loader.....sorry!

Chris

[CadFather]

cool.. thanks Chris!

[Chris Fullmer]

ok, the download files have been updated. And it includes the new icon set. Please redownload! Thanks for your patience,

Chris

[CadFather]

[spence]

This is a very nice addition to SU, thanks Chris, your work outstanding.

[CadFather]

Chris, at some point it may be useful to add 'stop playing the animation'

at any rate, this is a genius script.

[plot-paris]

Chris, at some point it may be useful to add 'stop playing the animation'

is it possible to change the play button to show a stop button when the animation is running?

[Chris Fullmer]

Yeah, thats a good idea and I think its possible to do. I could do a play/stop button. If this plugin ever gets any editing capabilities, then forward and backwards 1 frame would be nice too.

Chris

[solo]

Now the inevitable question...

This plug-in will record raw SU output as a series of images, what will it take to get it to play nice with a render engine so that a rendered animation is possible?

Kinda like recording all the frames as camera scenes so that it can render them sequentially.

[Chris Fullmer]

Thats a good question. I'm not sure how render engines have implemented animation support. I would guess that it will be fairly simple to get it to work. Do they just need a scene for each frame?

I was also wondering about separate program like VUE. Do those softwares have a standard camera path file type that I could export this to? That would be itneresting also.

Chris

[solo]

I'd think Vue would be able to use this if an exporter could be worked out, there is a script that Alex made which exports SU camera's into Vue.
Currently Vue is interchangeable with XSI, MAX and C4D as far as camera animations go.
Vue has a bezier type camera path creator.

[solo]

Actually I thing that if you can make the path editable, I could use it in Vue as a camera path.