Animator supports the generation of Videos wherever you can play an animation interactively. By default, there is NO rendering (Natural mode).
Animator is designed to support the integration with Rendering software designed for Sketchup with 2 methods:
1) DIRECT INTEGRATION: Animator calls the Rendering software, which should expose a few APIs. This method has the benefit that most video generation parameters are specified in Animator (frame rate, dimensions, video formats, portion of the animation, etc...). Users will simply select the Rendering method if it is installed and compatible with Animator
This requires however some validation work with me, as I left flexibility to the APIs to be supported by the rendering software.
The technical specifications are described in the following document
2) REVERSE INTEGRATION: The Rendering Software calls Animator, it is already done for some Animation or Physics plugins (like SketchyPhysics). All parameters are thus defined in the Rendering software. Animator exposes an API allowing an external program to:
- Select the animation unit to be rendered
- instantiate the animation at any specified time
The technical specifications of the Animator API are described in the following document: