Animation....Easier than you may think?

[steelers05]

I was gonna post this with my still renderings for this project but I thought it may need a new thread since it is focusing on animation. But im sure everything that is out there about animation is accurate and I am not saying that what I am doing is good or correct, but I did end up with a satisfying result without even looking at the 3dmax tutorials for animation. It is a short animation, but it was unbelievably easy to do. Check out the youtube link and let me know what you think (watch in hires for best view)? I will answer any questions anyone might have and please, anybody that does animation on knows anything about it, critique this and let me know what you dislike or like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG2T1xP3OIo

[will1113_cg]

Re: Animation....Easier than you may think?

Hey Steeler!!

Just checked out your animation!! It looks really good, I do not have not the first idea how to create an animation!!
Could you be so kind to give me and everybody else a mini tutorial of how it was done??
How long did it take to render the whole animation??
Top Stuff!!!

[nektares]

Re: Animation....Easier than you may think?

wow!! i would really love to animate one of my scenes! please man show us your visopt!! i love the animation!

[40th]

Re: Animation....Easier than you may think?

There few thing witch make it look unrealistic, such as the fire being frozen and the tv with the same frame (no motion).
But it's great to see vray animation. and it's a great way to take a customer to a tour ;D.
steelers05, It would be really great if you could write the step by step or eve a tut about it.

Congrats!

[steelers05]

Re: Animation....Easier than you may think?

Thanks guys. The TV and fireplace are definately things that I need to try and make work, but that will be another challenge in itself. I will try to put together a tut. for this as soon as I get a chance. I just need to finish my senior thesis paper this week and then ill get right on it. Ill keep you posted

[steelers05]

Re: Animation....Easier than you may think?

Ok sorry guys for the delayed response. I just finished up my senior thesis paper and finally got a minute. But here goes

First: Set up your scene tabs in SU the way you want them. I only used six for my animation

Second: Go to window; modelinfo; animation-And here you will see scene transitions. I had 2.5 seconds and 0 for scene delay. This is the amount of time between tabs. The more time you have, the more frames that will be rendered, because for a smooth animation you have about 30frams/sec. I like to have minimal scenes in SU because the transition are where you get the damn jerky, hard movement in the SU camera and I like to limit that as much as possible- (DAMN YOU SU)

Third: In vray, choose an output size and check on animation. I used NTSC, because 30fps is pretty similar to televsion from what I understand and it works smoothly. Now I did not use a physical camera at all. I just set my scene up the same way I would for a still rendering. Just test different views in your space to make sure the lighting and everything is consistant with how you want it throughout. Render your scenes (this is the lengthy part as it took my quad core 2-3 days fot this small animation).

Fourth: Take all your frames and composite them together. I used Adobe After Effects, but i know there are other progrmas out there and im sure there are some free ones if you look around.

Now im not saying this an exact science or if I am even doing the right thing, but it worked for me so I figured it was worth sharing. Im curious though what the benefits are from doing it the way the 3dmax tutorial tells you to and if that is quicker or better. Anyone that would know please fill me in. Also, use this thread to post any results because im sure many of us would like to see them. If you have any additional questions, just ask and I will answer them the best I can. Good luck guys.

[thomthom]

Re: Animation....Easier than you may think?

One thing to keep in mind is the light engine you're using. Irradiance map can cause inconsistent light between frames. So you want to make a small test first between a few frames to see if you settings give a smooth result.

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Animation....Easier than you may think?

Or you could calculate the IR map for all of the frames first (like every animation tutorial recommends), then do the final rendering. Change the fps to 6, enable Don't Render Final Image and change the IR mode to Incremental add. Clear the IR map, render then save the IR map. Set the IR mode to from file, load the saved IR map, and then re render as normal (disable Don't Render Final image, set FPS back to 30). ;D

[thomthom]

Re: Animation....Easier than you may think?

About time I read one of them tutorials I see.

[nektares]

Re: Animation....Easier than you may think?

yeahh!! thanks steelers! i just read your post and did a quick test!
here it is! http://rapidshare.com/files/158767277/animuno.rar
what Mr.Damien says looks a bit tricky but im sure it will deliver better results.
by the way i dont have after effects and the exe projector from swish made the
animation a bit odd, but swf looked great!!

[will1113_cg]

Re: Animation....Easier than you may think?

Thanks Steeler!! i am going to give it a go!!!

[will1113_cg]

Re: Animation....Easier than you may think?

Sorry!! What other software can be used other than Adobe After Efects?? which does the same job?? anything out there which is free?? thanks?

[steelers05]

Re: Animation....Easier than you may think?

Thanks dalomar and thomthom for the additional info. Ill have to look further into it all. This was just kind of quick work around that took limited work, and im sure you would get better results with the other methods. So I hope im dont mislead anyone.

Nektares. Good start man. If you have time to let your computer be occupied, id like to see what you come up with for an interior animation

Will. I think Adobe Premier does the same thing, but that is another expensive one. I cant think of a free one, but ill let you know if I come across one.

[nomeradona_cg]

Re: Animation....Easier than you may think?

thanks steeler for that animation. now you inspired me to try it. before kwisten has done alot of animation in fry and they are good, but im somewhat hesitant thinking it was so complicated, but now after your explanation it seems its not that difficult and complicated since you re using sketchup animation. i really hope that vray will support flc fire. so that the fire is nt constant.

[40th]

Re: Animation....Easier than you may think?

Thank you Steeler. When i''l try it as well, sometime soon.