Beginner animation Q

M

moooztar

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Beginner animation Q

Hi!

I now feel that I am "OK" in modelling / rendering and scene building. Next: animation.

I get it. Insert / set RecordKey where you want to do something (Lets say at 1 sec) and shrunk a ball and it shrunk between 0 sec and 1 sec. Great.

However: If I have a complex X-mas scene with lots of elements in a group I tried to rotate (group) and Change X position but it wont record it...

Ps. I have set all "lights on" in the animation panel (auto set etc) P, Key etc (bottom left corner)

Thanks for helping!
 
frank beckmann said:
The group is represented by a folder; do you have select the folder while recording the keyframes?

Cheers
Frank
Click to expand...

Hi Frank yes that was what I did. I perhaps think too much in Carrara 3D logics here.. Can I animate by folder? (Change rotation, scale etc so all in that folder scales and rotates)
 
Instead of recording everything possible make a right-click on the record button to see&record what you just need. Just to be sure; rotating the group won´t rotate it´s content - if you want to rotate every grouped object you need a different approach.

Cheers
Frank
 
frank beckmann said:
Instead of recording everything possible make a right-click on the record button to see&record what you just need. Just to be sure; rotating the group won´t rotate it´s content - if you want to rotate every grouped object you need a different approach.

Cheers
Frank
Click to expand...

Ugh! I did it the other way around... Logically I added a "Record key" and then started to tweak the mesh´s rotation point etc and it failed. When I first went to 1 sec set the rotation AND THEN added the Record key all works - even on folders / groups.

Great! Phew.. Such simplicity and yet so difficult haha.. (Searched even the forum before I posted and yes... I do feel a tad stupid right now)

So again in C3D its totally opposite of all my other tools BUT it works and I am still in love with a Cheetah!
 
Does C3D use ease-in / ease-out by default on animations?

I have set som Recording points and done some "rotations" on an ornament.. But struggle with a nice loop..

How to reveal if there are any ease in/outs.. Is that in f-curve editor..
 

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Make a right-click on that particular recorded key and call Tangent-Spline, adjust curvature for instance:

Cheers
Frank
 

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frank beckmann said:
Make a right-click on that particular recorded key and call Tangent-Spline, adjust curvature for instance:

Cheers
Frank
Click to expand...

So tangent > soft would that give a nice looping "ornament" that gently slides from side to side hanging from a string (where I put the pivot on top of the string=?)

As in: how to a. quickly make a loop with b. nice "slow down, slow start effect. "gentle start, gentle stop"..

I use 30 keyframes pr sec. Set an animation of 2 seconds so 60 frames, and stop on frame 59 but get a little "bounce" effect (so its not smooth starting from zero again.
 
timing ease-in/ease-out

I haven't found an answer regarding the ease-in/out for timing of camera motion. Splines effect the path, but can the speed be change at the beginning and end?
Anyone know?
Thanks!
 
What do you have in mind? Decreasing speed is easy via spline tangents. Acceleration not - unless you put in new keyframe or shorten time for animation.

Cheers
Frank
 

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Thanks Frank. It seems to me that the tangents alter the animation path, not the acceleration from a stopped point. Sounds like I need to add keyframes to slow the camera down to a smooth stop. Correct?
 
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andyatkins said:
Thanks Frank. It seems to me that the tangents alter the animation path, not the acceleration from a stopped point. Sounds like I need to add keyframes to slow the camera down to a smooth stop. Correct?
Click to expand...
The ease-out comes from lifting the spline handle to get the animation curve as horizontally/flat as possible.
If you have an example file we might go more practical - if you wish.

Cheers
Frank
 
Frank, I think I got it worked out with the splines.
I just had to pull it over horizontally much more that I first had it.
Thank you so much for your quick response. I really appreciate it!

BTW I have forgotten, where is the add attachment button?
 

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* As Frank explains in his diagrams. splines are the simplest way to control smooth / exponential transitions of keyframes. You will need to acquire some feel for the transformation to achieve various tricks (like bullet time).
* A few experiments should get you there in an hour or two.
* In the context of the above mentioned bullet time / dolly zoom you fiddle the angle of view / camera position. With some exceptions (eg point record) you can use splines with most F-curves.
* Research some takes off Kubrick´s The Shining or The Matrix by the Wachowskis to get some ideas.
 
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* Yep. Hitchcock (and Sergej Eisenstein, Fritz Lang, Orson Welles, and ...) should be mandatory viewing for anybody thinking about 3D animation involving complex storyboards.
* I am frequently frustrated by videos which show excellent skills and stunning creativity in the various crafts of 3D work (geometry, lighting, materials, rendering, whatever) but the composition and cinematography is on the level of stick figures in the kindergarten of Altamira.

* Admittedly, most of our projects don't end up on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
* Only recently, when considering some minor improvements to Mickey Langelo´s painterly tricks - I had planned adding a textured pig here and there - I was unceremoniously kicked out by an irate chap, Francis Somebody.
* A spot of product placement for Cheetah 3D in the Vatican´s Papal electoral chambers may have improved our Good Doctor´s chances to be revered as Saint Martin in the near future :tongue:
 
Thank you, Frank.
I did not find that in the history but it is a good example.
Cheers to Hamburg :tongue:
 
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