Programmed Animation in Sketchup

A free plugin for object animation• In this folder

http://www.cs.ucc.ie/j.bowen/cs2508/widgets/mover

you will find a file called mover.rb and a folder called mover_extensions

• This plugin, mover.rb, is free and comes from http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=17459

• Copy the file and folder for the plugin into your Sketchup plugins folder

• I have copied them into mine and you will see the functionality of the plugin on the next few slides

• It produces object animation– but the animation cannot be exported

A plugin for object animation• A Sketchup document with several objects

A plugin for object animation• Let's select the small box for animation

A plugin for object animation• Make it into a group

A plugin for object animation• Open the scenes window

A plugin for object animation• Create Scene 1

A plugin for object animation• Tell the mover.rb plugin to remember position of selection

A plugin for object animation• Update Scene 1

A plugin for object animation• Create Scene 2

A plugin for object animation• Move the small box to its position for Scene 2

A plugin for object animationTell the mover.rb plugin to remember position of selection for Scene 2

A plugin for object animationUpdate Scene 2

A plugin for object animationCreate Scene 3

A plugin for object animationChoose camera position and box position for Scene 3

A plugin for object animationRemember box position for Scene 3

A plugin for object animationUpdate Scene 3

A plugin for object animationCreate Scene 4 and set up camera and box positions

A plugin for object animationRemember box position for Scene 4

A plugin for object animationUpdate Scene 4

A plugin for object animationChoose timing settings for animation

A plugin for object animationChoose timing settings for animation

A plugin for object animationPlay the animation

A plugin for object animationExport the animation ...

A plugin for object animation... as a QuickTime movie

A plugin for object animation• I have saved the Sketchup file• It is here

http://www.cs.ucc.ie/j.bowen/cs2508/widgets/animationWithMoverPlugin.skp• Load it into Sketchup and you will see that the animation works• But, when you export a QuickTime movie, you will see that the object does not move

A commercial plugin for object animation

A commercial plugin for object animation• SU Animate is a commercial plugin for object animation• It is available here

http://www.ohyeahcad.com/suanimate/

and costs $79• However, it is possible to download an evaluation copy for free

– this has a life-span of 10 days• SU Animate appears to offer some attractive functionality

– see this demonstration video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfy8Drf-KL8

• SU Animate appears to function in a way which automates the manual animation process we saw earlier– it generates scenes by using layers

• Animations produced by SU Animate can be exported as movies• However, some users have reported that SU Animate is unstable and

frequently causes Sketchup to crash– this has been my experience too

A commercial plugin for object animation• I have saved the Sketchup file• It is here

http://www.cs.ucc.ie/j.bowen/cs2508/widgets/animationWithMoverPlugin.skp• Load it into Sketchup and you will see that the animation works• But, when you export a QuickTime movie, you will see that the object does not move

Exercise

• Tackle Exercise 35