[Plugin Beta] Animator - v2.5a - 11 Sep 19 (SU2016+)

[fredo6]

To download the plugin from the Sketchucation PluginStore, click here:

What's new in latest release - v2.5a - 11 Sep 19

Requirement: LibFredo6 v9.1b or higher

Maintenance

• Making filename for video safe
• [b]Extension of validity

See Release Notes.

IMPORTANT: This version 2.5a will expire on 14 Jan 2020.

WARNING: Animator does NOT support VRay 3.6 for the time being (due to a problem in VRay). It works fine (or better) with VRay 3.4 however.


Notes on Features in the current Beta release

• Object transformations: translation, rotation, spin, screw, explosion, scaling, along path, with easing and oscillation
• Cameras: Still views, Scene views, Tracking camera, all with fade-out
• Visual Effects: Layer visibility, rendering style, shadow, Layer on-off, visual zoom, visual extents, trajectory, visual target
• Kinematic Constraints: Same Movement, Rigidity, Global Instance
• Visit Controller: not finished and therefore diabled in v2.0
• Video Generation: should work, but be aware that it takes some time (you can check the video at any time during the generation and then abort or resume)
• Rendering:
  
  • AmbientOcclusionEx v1.9.5.
  • TheaRender v1.5 (from Animator and in Batch from Thea)
  • SketchFX Ex v1.0.6
  • Twilight Render Pro v2.5.5
  • VRay v3.40.04
• Mac OSX: Video generation seems to work

IMPORTANT: Designing an animation is always a long process and it can be frustrating in case of problems (technical or design-related). So, it is advised to save an original copy of your model, and then frequently save-copy-as or save-as, as the Animation data are embedded in the model.

Animator is a script dedicated to the animation of Sketchup models. It provides a parametric, interactive framework to control movements of objects and cameras along a timeline.

Animations are based on the following concepts:

• Sequences are reusable unit transformations for objects (such as translation, rotation, spin, scaling, explosion, ...) and for cameras (still view, traveling camera, ...)
• Clips are grouping of Sequences instantiated along a timeline, called Clip Elements. When you instantiate a Sequence as a Clip Element, you can change a few parameters, such as duration, easing, ...
• A Clip can contain other Clips. So a Clip is also seen as a Sequence.
• By convention the topmost clip is called a Film.

Animator is based on a hierarchical recursive model, so that a clip can contain another clip and sequences can be re-used. This is quite similar to the Sketchup hierarchical framework for Component; Think of
- Sequence --> Component definition (so reusable)
- Clip Element --> Component Instance
- Clip --> Component containing other components (so instance and definition underneath)
- Film --> Model

Note: Although this may be abstract to you (as it is in Sketchup), this is useful to keep in mind when you design an Animation, as it is when you design in Sketchup. For instance:

• if you design a car movement, you will create a translation for the body and spinning for the 4 wheels. By encapsulating these unit movements into a Clip, you can re-use the Clip to move the car forward and backward by any amount, without redoing the body translation and wheel spinning each time.
• if later you wish to add extra animation when the car moves, say a rotation of the brake pedal at the end of the car movement, you will have to do it once only, and it will apply to all car moves.

Animator is parametric. Movement and cameras are recorded in Animator with their exact parameters (say direction / offset for a translation), so that it is possible to modify these parameters interactively.

Animator allows to record animations in context, which is easier in most cases. This is why this is the default. This means for instance that if you record an object Moving right, then further in the timeline, you can record the Movement Left for the same object in the context where the object is already moved Right. Animator however offers the option to record or play animation outside context (i.e. just the clip element selected or just the sequence under edition).

Although you can play animations within Animator, the objective is to generate quality videos at any specified frame rate. You will need to install an external tool, FFmpeg (see next section for details).

Animator is designed to support rendering for Animations (films, clips and sequences). Rendering software current supported are:

• TheaRender v1.5: from Animator and from Thea
• AmbientOcclusion Ex, v1.9.5 and above: From Animator
• SketchFX Ex, v1.0.6 and above: From Animator
• Twilight Render Pro, v2.5.5 and above: From Animator
• VRay, v3.40.04 and above: From Animator

Animator Plugin
There is NO user manual yet for Animator.
So the best is to refer to the Tutorial thread in this forum.

FFmpeg
Animator uses an open source tool, FFmpeg, to generate videos. FFmpeg is completely FREE for private and commercial usage. It works on Windows and Mac. FFmpeg allows generating video files in various formats (MP4, AVI, MOV, Animated GIF, ...). All you need to do is to download it once from the official site and put the single executable file required in the same directory as LibFredo6. Once installed, you won't have to bother: Animator will interface with FFmpeg and provide a dialog box to select the video formats.

Attached are the instructions to install FFmpeg,
For Windows:

Instructions_ffmpeg_Win.pdf

For OSX:

Instructions_ffmpeg_Mac.pdf

Animator works normally from SU2016 onward, on Windows and on Mac.

The RBZ files for Animator and LibFredo6 can be installed from the PluginStore. They are Certified for SU2016, SU2017, SU2018 and Encrypted .

Animator 1.0p - 18 May 16: first release for Private Beta program

Animator 1.0q - 20 May 16: Maintenance Release

• fixed a major bug for non-English keyboard (say French!), whereby movements would not load due to the problem of decimal separator in Sketchup for length. I noticed it in a model by Pilou (thanks).
• TheaRender: implemented a timeout so that Animator stops the rendering and goes to the next frame if the rendering of a frame is > 3 times the rendering of the previous frame. So you should now be able to launch a rendering with Thea and go take a coffee or lunch until it finishes.

Animator 1.0r2 - 24 May 16: Maintenance Release

• Fixed tentatively a number of problems on Mac OSX signaled by Oxer, such as the size of the Video generation dialog box and the video generation by FFmpeg
• Typing SpaceBar or a shortcut provoking a change of interactive tool now switch to Temporary Exit. A confirmation message is displayed. An option in Default Parameters allows to skip confirmation.
  I also added an Exit button, along with the "back to Animator" button.
• other bug fixing, in particular to avoid empty sequences

Animator 1.0t - 02 Jun 16: Maintenance Release with new features

• New Features
  
  • Visual Effects: Layer visibility, rendering style, shadow. This allows to set these parameters independently of views.
  • Support of SketchFX Ex (thanks to Alberto and Fluid)
  • Preview in timeline (you need to set it up in Default Parameters)
• Maintenance - Fixes and adjustments
  
  • Bug in Make film from selection
  • Non-ascii characters in model path and name made FFmpeg to fail - fixed
  • Position of the timeline (horizontal or vertical) is now retained across Sketchup sessions
  • Bug in Previw of video and sample image on Mac
  • Cosmetic changes in GUI

Animator 1.0u - 04 Jun 16: Maintenance Release with small evolutions

• Rendering Style bug is fixed. Should now work
• A Layer visibility element will now restore previous layer visibility when it is finished if it has a non-zero duration (as requested by ntxdave)
• Consistent numbering in naming by default (as suggested by Rich O Brien
• You can now open components and groups when in temporary exit to Sketchup
• Cosmetic changes in Video generation dialog box

Animator 1.0v - 13 Jun 16: Maintenance Release with small evolutions

• Reworked the Movement engine to make it more contextual
• Objects concerned by a movement are highlighted when mouse-over in the timeline
• Possible assignment of color to a Clip element
• Bug fixing
• Cosmetic changes

Animator 1.0y - 11 Jul 16: Maintenance Release with evolutions

• Support of Twilight Render Pro (Direct method)
• New cameras and visual effects
  
  • Tracking camera
  • Scene camera
  • Layer On-Off
  • Visual Zoom
• 2 methods for interpolating between cameras: Linear and Bezier
• Minimize option for timeline (option to clear up the screen when playing animations)
• Corrections for Rotation with Orbiting
• Bug fixing
  
  • in Tracking cameras (was not working in v1.0x)
  • in capture mode of rotation with orbiting
• Cosmetic changes

Animator 1.1b - 16 Aug 16: Maintenance Release with evolutions

• New Circular method for fadeout interpolation between cameras (closer to Sketchup animation between Scenes)
• History for Undo / Redo now covers all actions and is common to all clips and films
• Bug fixing and adjustments
• Cosmetic changes

Animator 1.1c - 12 Sep 16: Maintenance Release with evolutions

• Introduction of Kinematic Constraints (see [url=http:http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=401&t=64910#p603243]http:http:http:video tutorial[/url])
• Bug fixing and adjustments
• Cosmetic changes

[/list]



Animator 1.2a - 25 Oct 16: first release for Public Beta program

Animator 1.2h - 24 Nov 16: Major bug fixing

Animator 1.3a - 24 Dec 16: Some bug fixing + prolongation of validity

Animator 1.3b - 02 Jan 17: Some bug fixing for SU8 and SU13

Animator 1.4c - 16 Jan 17: Bug fixing and GUI for Positioners

Animator 1.5a - 12 Feb 17: Bug fixing and Trajectory

Animator 1.5b - 15 Mar 17: Fix for a bug in SU8 and SU2013 preventing the launch of Animator

Animator 1.5c - 13 Apr 17: just extend the validity

Animator 1.5d - 13 May 17: just extend the validity

Animator 1.6a - 25 May 17: Major release introducing Scaling and Along Path.

Animator 1.7a - 09 Jul 17: Major release introducing Visual Target effect and the support of high-resolution screens.

Animator 1.7c - 16 Aug 17: Minor release fixing bugs and supporting VRay.

Animator 1.7d - 23 Sep 17: Extension of validity.

Animator 1.8a - 02 Nov 17: Performance improvement for large models.

Animator 1.8b - 19 Nov 17: Bug fixing

Animator 1.8c - 20 Jan 18: Extension of validity

Animator 1.8f - 10 Mar 18: Extension of validity

Animator 1.8g - 14 Mar 18: Extension of validity

Animator 1.8h - 15 Mar 18: Fix a problem when saving cameras or visual effects

Animator 2.0a - 07 May 18: Major release with new GUI theme and functionality in the timeline

Animator 2.2a - 13 Jul 18: Minor release for extension of validity and configuration of prompt for sequence names

Animator 2.2b - 14 Jul 18: Minor release for Full Screen option

Animator 2.2c - 26 Aug 18: Fix a problem related to transparent move!

Animator 2.3a - 14 Nov 18: Fix issue with MouseWheel on Mac and other issues

Animator 2.3b - 16 Nov 18: Timeline scrolling works in parallel projection

Animator 2.3c - 18 Nov 18: Transparent Background option and bug fixing

Animator 2.4a - 10 Jan 19: Fix a problem for generation of the video files from Thea render

Animator 2.4c - 14 May 19: Extension of validity

Animator 2.4d - 14 Jun 19: Added permanent FFmpeg button and Extension of validity

Animator 2.5a - 11 Sep 19: Small bug fixing and Extension of validity

[fredo6]

New Release: Animator - v1.0q - 20 May 16

Main changes:

• fixed a major bug for non-English keyboard (say French!), whereby movements would not load due to the problem of decimal separator in Sketchup for length. I noticed it in a model by Pilou (thanks).
• TheaRender: implemented a timeout so that Animator stops the rendering and goes to the next frame if the rendering of a frame is > 3 times the rendering of the previous frame. So you shoudl now be able to launch a rendering with Thea and go take a coffee or lunch.

See main post for RBZ files

[JQL]

Thanks Fredo, I'm starting it now!

[fredo6]

New Release: Animator - v1.0r - 23 May 16

Main changes:

• Fixed tentatively a number of problems on Mac OSX signaled by Oxer, such as the size of the Video Generation dialog box and the video file generation by FFmpeg
• Typing SpaceBar or a shortcut provoking a change of interactive tool now switch to Temporary Exit. A confirmation message is displayed. An option in Default Parameters allows to skip confirmation.
  
  Animator - SU Shorts cuts.gif
• other bug fixing, in particular to avoid empty sequences

See main post for RBZ files

[JQL]

Thanks for providing this solution so fast!

I will resume my endeavours with animator asap!

[ntxdave]

Started to build a new animation with v1.0r. Was in the process of adding a translation sequence for the car and decided I had made an error so I hit X icon to escape without saving the sequence and now I have the screen below. I do not seem to be able to stop Animator or restart it. I did finally get the button to Back to Animator but the screen stayed the same.

vR- Editor Disappeared.PNG

I was finally able to continue by triple clicking in the viewport which killed Animator and I was able to restart it.

This has happened 3 times now.........

[fredo6]

Dave,

Just republished Animator 1.0r with the fix. Sorry for that.
LibFredo6 7.0r is unchanged.

I need also to think of an Escape, in case of bugs, because with the new Temporary exit feature, I got into a circular issue.

Fredo

[ntxdave]

Dave,

Just republished Animator 1.0r with the fix. Sorry for that.
LibFredo6 7.0r is unchanged.

I need also to think of an Escape, in case of bugs, because with the new Temporary exit feature, I got into a circular issue.

Fredo

Thanks.......I will update immediately

Tried the same thing - exiting the creation of a motion and it seemed back to normal (yes-it worked properly)

[duanekemp]

New update downloaded today.

Thank you so much.

[fredo6]

New Release: Animator - v1.0t - 02 Jun 16

• New Features
  
  • Visual Effects: Layer visibility, rendering style, shadow. This allows to set these parameters independently of views
  • Support of SketchFX Ex (thanks to Alberto and Fluid)
  • Preview in timeline (you need to set it up in Default Parameters)
• Maintenance - Fixes and adjustments
  
  • Bug in Make film from selection
  • Non-ascii characters in model path and name made FFmpeg to fail - fixed
  • Position of the timeline (horizontal or vertical) is now retained across Sketchup sessions
  • Bug in Previw of video and sample image on Mac
  • Cosmetic changes in GUI

I'll try to make some videos to demo the features more in details.
In the meantime, here is a small GIF showing that you can play with styles, layer visibility and shadows independently of views (watch the palette, shadows and background style).

Animator - v1.0t.gif

See main post for RBZ files

[solo]

I am having issues with this release, see video.

Video

[ntxdave]

Hey Pete - that stuff looks familiar

[solo]

Hey Pete - that stuff looks familiar

lol, yeah, I was trying something out that I thought could help you but I am having issues making my idea work.

[ntxdave]

Hey Pete - that stuff looks familiar

lol, yeah, I was trying something out that I thought could help you but I am having issues making my idea work.

Care to share?

[solo]

Trying to figure out how to do the water spray

[ntxdave]

Trying to figure out how to do the water spray

I have it working (not as an animated texture) but have it showing up and then hiding. I also did one where I used the Video Texture plugin that animates the spray but it did not work well with Animator. The animation of the texture did not show at all.

Take a look at this thread: viewtopic.php?f=401&t=65021&p=597074#p597074

[fredo6]

New Release: Animator - v1.0u - 04 Jun 16

Maintenance and small evolutions

• Rendering Style bug is fixed. Should now work
• A Layer visibility element will now restore previous layer visibility when it is finished if it has a non-zero duration (as requested by ntxdave)
• Consistent numbering in naming by default (as suggested by Rich O Brien)
• You can now open components and groups when in temporary exit to Sketchup
• Cosmetic changes in Video generation dialog box

See main post for RBZ files

[ntxdave]

New Release: Animator - v1.0u - 04 Jun 16

Maintenance and small evolutions

• Rendering Style bug is fixed. Should now work
• A Layer visibility element will now restore previous layer visibility when it is finished if it has a non-zero duration (as requested by ntxdave)
• Consistent numbering in naming by default (as suggested by Rich O Brien)
• You can now open components and groups when in temporary exit to Sketchup
• Cosmetic changes in Video generation dialog box

See main post for RBZ files

Ran some quick tests........

Style Change .gif

Style now changes........

Spray v1.0u.gif

Layer turned on but did not turn off at the end of the duration

Paint Object v1.0u.gif

Was able to temporally exit and change the use the paint brush to edit an object.

My observation was that sequences were sequentially numbered...

Did not try to create a video yet.........

[fredo6]

Layer turned on but did not turn off at the end of the duration

You need to hve a defined state for the layer visibility before your Layer visibility element.

In general, it's a good idea to place a view with shadow, style and layer visibility at the beginning of the film so that the animation always starts in a determined state.

Fredo

[ntxdave]

Layer turned on but did not turn off at the end of the duration

You need to hve a defined state for the layer visibility before your Layer visibility element.

In general, it's a good idea to place a view with shadow, style and layer visibility at the beginning of the film so that the animation always starts in a determined state.

Fredo

Tried just putting a normal view at the beginning and it did not change anything. Then I added a layer view at the beginning with 0 seconds and all works well (see below).

Layer Control v6 .gif

Fredo, I am fine with this. I fully understand having to place this view at the beginning. It helps insure that we have captured the "default" setting for all layers. I like using the duration to control when the layer returns to its original state. It give me a better visual of when the layer state will be changed in one control rather than having to identify 2 controls which could wind up in different time lines. Thanks very much for implementing it this way.

I only have one last item to be able to do my full car wash (as I currently see it ). I need to be able to scale a couple of pieces. Now I have to go off and generate several different materials for different types of sprays/foams.

[ntxdave]

OK - If I have multiple layers to show/hide, I cannot get it to work correctly (at least the way I would like) using the duration greater than 0.

Here is an example. I have 2 spray units. I have them at different times and different durations. They both turn on correctly but they do not turn off until after the 2nd layer is to be hidden.

Layer Control v8 .gif

I will try later using the original method of setting 0 duration for each layer to show and hide and see what happens. While this works, I was hoping the previous method would work as well. Maybe I am pushing the envelope a little too far. I will have multiple situations like this is a full wash. As previously stated, if a single control for each layer can be accomplished, IMO it would be much easier to manage.

Is this way out of perspective

OK - I see what is going on is that each time any action is taken, it is for ALL layers. Thus I would need to break my example down and have 5 layer visibility captures:

1. At beginning to capture the initial state of all layers
2. Beginning of the first spray to turn that layer on and the other spray layer off
3. Beginning of the second spray to turn that layer on and make sure the other layer is still on
4. End of the first spray to turn that layer off and make sure the other spray is still on (since in the case there is actually some overlap
5. End of the second spray to turn that layer off

Is it out of the question to ask if it is possible to control each layer independently?

[ntxdave]

Trying to figure out how to do the water spray

Have not heard/seen anything more from and was wondering where you were headed with.

[JQL]

Trying to figure out how to do the water spray

Why don't you composite it using Natron or other similar software?

[fredo6]

New Release: Animator - v1.0v - 13 Jun 16

Maintenance and small evolutions

• Reworked the Movement engine to make it more contextual. This answers some valid requests by Pilou and Dave. See video below
• Objects concerned by a movement are highlighted when mouse-over in the timeline. I still need to illustrate the movement itself
• Possible assignment of color to a Clip element. This may help to distinguish them.
• Bug fixing, in particular when creating new films and for random cases where the offset of transaltion was 'unset'
• Cosmetic changes

Note for the video:
- The Rubiks cube is actualling 'orbiting' around the small cube. Orbiting means Rotation by a point which is attached to another object (versus absolute pivot).
- It can however move by itself individually (the small jump)
- The inside of the Rubiks cube is also animated
- That why, in the second part of the video, the second instance only shows the movements within the Rubiks cube.

Animator - Mix movements instances.gif

See main post for RBZ files

[ntxdave]

New Release: Animator - v1.0v - 13 Jun 16

Maintenance and small evolutions

• Reworked the Movement engine to make it more contextual. This answers some valid requests by Pilou and Dave. See video below
• Objects concerned by a movement are highlighted when mouse-over in the timeline. I still need to illustrate the movement itself
• Possible assignment of color to a Clip element. This may help to distinguish them.
• Bug fixing, in particular when creating new films and for random cases where the offset of transaltion was 'unset'
• Cosmetic changes

Note for the video:
- The Rubiks cube is actualling 'orbiting' around the small cube. Orbiting means Rotation by a point which is attached to another object (versus absolute pivot).
- It can however move by itself individually (the small jump)
- The inside of the Rubiks cube is also animated
- That why, in the second part of the video, the second instance only shows the movements within the Rubiks cube.

Some good enhancements. I am playing with these a little and having a point of reference for rotating (orbiting another object) will turn out to be valuable. Already playing with that a little.

In particular, I like the ability to hover a sequence and get some visual feedback on which objects the sequence is attached to is REALLY valuable (IMO). I also like that I can color code a sequence so I can easily identify all of the sequences that belong to a given object visually. I think this will be another tool that can be used a lot.

Here is good example. I have 2 panels of the garage door that I have animated. By color coding each panel, I can easily see which sequences belong to which panel.

Animator 1.0t.PNG

[fredo6]

About Orbiting, for the time being:
- when you have clicked to select the pivot, you should click-right and choose the reference object if this is not the one taken by Animator or if you wish an absolute pivot.
- The reference object for pivot is highlighted in Orange.

I'll make the GUI more explicit in a next version.

Fredo

[fredo6]

New Release: Animator - v1.0x - 08 Jul 16

• New Features
  
  • Visual Effects: Layer visibility on-off (see tutorial)
  • Visual Effects: zoom
  • Cameras: Tracking Cameras (see tutorial)
  • Cameras: Scene Cameras
  • Support of Twilight Render Pro (thanks to Chris)
  • Minimize timeline(to hide all palettes when playing animation) - see tutorial
• Maintenance - Fixes and adjustments
  
  • Corrections for Rotation with orbiting
  • Various bugs
  • Cosmetic changes in GUI

See main post for RBZ files

Here are two videos

1) Tracking Cameras

Video

2) Layer visibility: State and On-Off

Video

[chri]

hi Fredo
the new release don't works for me
When i click on the icon ... nothing !

(i use SKETCHUP PRO 2014 AND WINDOWS XP )

Chri

[fredo6]

chri,

Can you open the Ruby console to see what is going on

Fredo

[chri]

chri,

Can you open the Ruby console to see what is going on

Fredo

message in Ruby console

Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method `definition' for #<Sketchup::Group:0x968a150>>
...