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
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.
- 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:
For OSX:
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
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