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ANIMATION ALONG PATH ISSUE


DLDINYC

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HAVING AN ISSUE WITH 2020. WHEN I CREATE A PATH IN TOP VIEW OR TOP/PLAN VIEW AND THEN CREATE ANIMATION ALONG PATH TOOL IT DOES NOT STAY ON THE SAME PLANE BUT GOES ALL OVER THE PLACE IN TERMS OF KEEPING THE CAMERA AT THE SAME HEIGHT.  HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD THIS ISSUE? I HAVE LET VW KNOW TODAY THAT THIS SEEMS TO BE AN ISSUE.

1 PLAN VIEW PATH CREATED.pdf

2 PATH HEIGHT CONFIRMATION.pdf

3 RESULT AFTER SELECTING WALK ALONG PATH CREATE ANIMATION TOOL.pdf

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Guest Alex Sagatov

@DLDINYC

 

It is a little hard to tell from the PDFs/Screenshots the exact result you are getting, so its a bit of a lengthy response.

 

I THINK you are running into a situation where the path is basically converting as if you converted it to screen plane. If this is the case, this is a known issue when in direct front/back/side views that we are hoping to address in a future version of the software. Thankfully, this one has an easy work around. If you do the animation along path command in a non-direct front/back/side view (such as one of the isometric options or just use flyover to change the view slightly), it should then keep the path along the correct path.

 

The other thing you might be running into is Vectorworks trying to move the camera to the top of the geometry on the layer. If you draw a 2D shape in a top/plan view and try using the animation along path command, it will try its best to follow your slabs/terrain. If this is the case, I would recommend converting your path to a NURBS curve and assigning the height you want in the Z field. If you do this first, it should remain that height and not try following geometry like it would with a 2D path.

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i think this may have solved the issue... so I changed the path to a nurbs curve and when I chose the animation i was in a axonometric view... It seemed to work but now I have made a very complicated nurbs curve and it is taking quite a long time to create the animation. Is there a way for me to to this in the cloud?  if the drawing is in the cloud can it render it there so i can keep working? 

 

Thanks so much for your help so far... Juan, in tech  today does not know this, so maybe fill him in too...

 

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Alex

 

Would you - Please and Thank You ... Clarify ?

 

... If this is the case, this is a known issue when in direct front/back/side views that we are hoping to address in a future version of the software. 

 

I have struggled (VW / RW 2020)  when moving Keyframes and Look-To points along a Fly Freely Animation path. 

A simple movement of a Keyframe along the animation path, adjusted while in the TOP / PLAN view, may result in a dramatic change in the "Z" location when viewed from the Ortho Front or Right view. Not as expected.

 

Suggestions? - Thanks - Peter

 

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4 hours ago, Elite Exhibits said:

adjusted while in the TOP / PLAN view, may result in a dramatic change in the "Z" location when viewed from the Ortho Front or Right view. Not as expected.

 

Try putting the drawing into Screen Plane when moving the Keyframe or points on the path.  This should prevent them from any motion in the z direction. Switch back to Layer or other plane mode as needed.

 

-B

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@Alex Sagatov 

 

Is there a way with this new animation method in 2020 to edit the transition speed of the camera orientation between keyframes? 

 

I have created an animation using the Walkthrough From Path Selection, but my camera movements between each keyframe are not smooth.

See attached screenshot of the path and video of the animation. 

Screen Shot 2020-04-01 at 10.46.27 am.png

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Brendon

 

Clarification will assist me - Please and Thank You ... 

 

"Try putting the drawing into Screen Plane when moving the Keyframe or points on the path.  This should prevent them from any motion in the z direction. Switch back to Layer or other plane mode as needed."

 

Is Top / Plan View the same as ... putting the drawing into Screen Plane"

 

Suggestions ? - Thanks - Peter

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On 4/1/2020 at 11:31 AM, jayden.s said:

@Alex Sagatov 

 

Is there a way with this new animation method in 2020 to edit the transition speed of the camera orientation between keyframes? 

 

I have created an animation using the Walkthrough From Path Selection, but my camera movements between each keyframe are not smooth.

See attached screenshot of the path and video of the animation. 

Screen Shot 2020-04-01 at 10.46.27 am.png

FlyThrough-Model-2.mov

 

@ASagatovVW did you have any suggestions for this?

 

 

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Guest Alex Sagatov

@jayden.s Sorry for the delay! I didn't realize there was some communication trying to go back and forth with me above! The interface is significantly different from 2019 and older versions. I wasn't a big fan of that dialog, but in some ways, I did find it easier for your specific question here.

 

For any kinds of speed adjustments or camera view adjustments, these can be made in the object info palette. These kinds of adjustments will mainly be a combination of the Speed slider per keyframe field and the "activation Camera View" which can be used on each keyframe to angle it where you want it.

 

 

Screen Shot 2020-04-20 at 9.22.08 AM.png

 

The help article may also help describe these settings in a bit more detail:

https://app-help.vectorworks.net/2020/eng/index.htm#t=VW2020_Guide%2FCameraViews%2FEditing_a_camera’s_speed.htm

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@Alex Sagatov thanks for getting back so quick! 

 

I've had a read through the help article and another play around with speeds, unfortunately I don't see much improvement. I've reduced the speed % but essentially get left with a slower version of my initial problem. 

 

I think this is really coming down to a problem with the way the views are recorded. The current setup is more of a 'point the camera in a direction, then move it, then point the camera somewhere else' method, rather than 'point the camera at this target, and edit target and camera positions over frames' approach. 

 

It would seem to me that the second method I've mentioned would removed the jarring movements of the camera animation (which is making this feature unusable for me at the moment..).

 

What you've suggested above essentially has me recording camera positions per frame to get something close to the result we should be getting with a fly through, but even then it's still a bit of a guessing game. Unless i've missed something? 

 

I guess that could just be point down as a feature request at this stage?

 

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@Elite Exhibits Oops, didn't see or respond earlier.  Perhaps the screen plane idea was not the answer anyway - see below.  But to answer a bit about the drawing planes:

 

No, Top/Plan is not same as screen plane. See image.

 

Top/Plan is a view designation (along with Front, Back, iso, etc).  It might default to Layer Plane depending on your drawing settings.  Layer Plane allows snaps to vertices above/below the layer plane, depending on which drawing tool is in use. Normally, when a 3d tool or a render mode is activated, the drawing switches from Top/Plan to Top.

 

Layer Plane and Screen Plane and some other plane designations refer, in general, to the working plane status of the drawing - the plane on which vertices will locate as they are drawn. I don't want to try to explain the whole setup (probably would miss a bunch), but the Screen Plane is usually explained as an imaginary plane parallel to the computer monitor screen (assumed to be flat).  Editing a vertex of an existing object in screen plane limits movement of the vertex to be always parallel to the screen, meaning it will not move towards or away from the screen. It will "snap" to the projection of points in front or in back.  This is handy in a Front view for example if intension is to move a vertex in z direction only, but aligned to projection of a vertex of an object further back in the drawing.

 

For the animation edits to make the key frame views correspond to your needs, read the Help about editing Walk and Fly Freely paths.

It's a combo of:

•Edit the the xyz of the path vertices via Reshape tool and OIP, in various views (Top, Front, etc). Z value sort of corresponds to camera height.  and,

•edit the camera LookTo direction and other properties at each key frame in various views via the Select Tool and OIP

•The Show Camera View (especially in separate pane mode) can be very helpful.

• The drawing may automatically go in and out of Screen Plane, so watch that Drawing Plane menu.

 

Lots more to it, but that's a nutshell.

 

-B

 

image.thumb.png.b4df1159d89c65098cdca9fc0069159c.png

 

 

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18 hours ago, jayden.s said:

@Alex Sagatov thanks for getting back so quick! 

 

I've had a read through the help article and another play around with speeds, unfortunately I don't see much improvement. I've reduced the speed % but essentially get left with a slower version of my initial problem. 

 

I think this is really coming down to a problem with the way the views are recorded. The current setup is more of a 'point the camera in a direction, then move it, then point the camera somewhere else' method, rather than 'point the camera at this target, and edit target and camera positions over frames' approach. 

 

It would seem to me that the second method I've mentioned would removed the jarring movements of the camera animation (which is making this feature unusable for me at the moment..).

 

What you've suggested above essentially has me recording camera positions per frame to get something close to the result we should be getting with a fly through, but even then it's still a bit of a guessing game. Unless i've missed something? 

 

I guess that could just be point down as a feature request at this stage?

 

 

@Alex Sagatov 

Here's a couple videos of the fly through after reducing the speed at each keyframe to hopefully better explain the jarring movements i'm experiencing. 

 

 

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