Animation + 3D Slideshow

[Ros. Riha]

After playing with animations and 3D Slideshow briefly, I would like to share the following:

 

1. SEEMS TO BE BUGS OR INACCURACIES (please, confirm)

1.1 Once I select animation - camera path and subsequently hit Esc when asked to select object, Unhandled Exception appears (semi-important issue, does not cause overall crash)

1.2 It would be helpful to show expected entity type on the command prompt  - something like "select object (polyline, line, spline):" while selecting paths. Or it could be explained in help (minor issue)

1.3 After finishing preview, AutoCAD+nXt seem frozen for couple of seconds (white screen w. "Not Responding" message) . Once I select the point for target, this lockup appears after the first frame (as a matter of fact, I had to kill acad.exe - while testing on more complicated=real model …after this, I switched to 3D Slideshow so I did not have time to explore any further). It happens if nXtengine=0, not tested on pathtracer … should not make any difference anyway…. (this looks important to me)

1.4 Once I hit "select path", AutoCAD window does not go to front, so I have to minimize or move Walkabout first to be able to do the selection (minor but annoying issue)

1.5 While rendering 3D Slideshow, it is not possible to minimize rendering window (very important issue - you cannot edit or save the dwg)

1.6 3D Slideshow does not také different FOVs of views into an account.

 

2. WISHES

2.1 Would it be possible to change framerate between two keypoints (grips on camera path - or between two cameras on 3D Slideshow?) Currently we overcome this limitation by splitting an animation into separate bits with different framerates, but it introduces new problems with exposure and workflow (once I am not using farm, I cannot queue jobs)

2.2 If the answer for the above would be yes, would it be possible then to add some sort of "smoothing"? IOW - some function, that would smoothen the transition between different framerates based on the percentage of the length of a segment of the Camera Path  - for example: If I set 10%, 10% of both parts of the path adjoining the grip, where the change of speed occurs, would be used to make the transition. Similar applies to 3D Slideshow - in this case the percentage would apply to the mumber of "adjoining frames" on both sides of a camera, where the change occurs.

2.3 If the answer for the above would be positive, I would like to be able to do the same for the field of view

2.4 Most importantly - I would like to see 3DSlideshow and Animation combined somehow… 3DSlideshow is very luxurious in terms of view settings (I do not have to play with camera+target paths and then wait for preview, I see the scene at every keypoint exactly the same as it would look in the animation and I can fine-tune the camera position realtime. At this moment, 3D Slideshow is easier and faster to set up, but with limited functionality… OTOH animation is more versatile, but less stable. At the end of the day, it will IMHO be necessary to combine functionalities: ease of settings of cameras at keypoints (3D Slideshow) and versatility of path settings of animation.

 

3. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

3.1 Pathtracer is more suitable for animations - each pass takes less time, on earlier passes, there is faster convergence… one is more bound to finish an animation job on time, as there is less risk involved and smaller likelihood of miscalculation - on nXtengine=0, one pass might take more than 0,5 hour, whereas pathtracer pass takes minutes only… multiply this difference by 1000 and you will see where I am heading

3.2 For the purpose of presentation, it is handy NOT to make a movie - provided your computer is fast enough, open the first frame up using IrfanView and then keep holding spacebar - you will get smooth video appearance with the advantage of being able to stop instantly, to go backwards, to zoom….all of it much easier

[akinlolu olugboji]

Why is this post empty of is it my pc?

[George Ioannidis]

Hi Ros, try to set on all light channels you have in your project. It's too dark ;-)

[Ros. Riha]

Sorry, gentlemen...:
After playing with animations and 3D Slideshow briefly, I would like to share the following:



1. SEEMS TO BE BUGS OR INACCURACIES (please, confirm)

1.1 Once I select animation - camera path and subsequently hit Esc when asked to select object, Unhandled Exception appears (semi-important issue, does not cause overall crash)

1.2 It would be helpful to show expected entity type on the command prompt - something like "select object (polyline, line, spline):" while selecting paths. Or it could be explained in help (minor issue)

1.3 After finishing preview, AutoCAD+nXt seem frozen for couple of seconds (white screen w. "Not Responding" message) . Once I select the point for target, this lockup appears after the first frame (as a matter of fact, I had to kill acad.exe - while testing on more complicated=real model …after this, I switched to 3D Slideshow so I did not have time to explore any further). It happens if nXtengine=0, not tested on pathtracer … should not make any difference anyway…. (this looks important to me)

1.4 Once I hit "select path", AutoCAD window does not go to front, so I have to minimize or move Walkabout first to be able to do the selection (minor but annoying issue)

1.5 While rendering 3D Slideshow, it is not possible to minimize rendering window (very important issue - you cannot edit or save the dwg)

1.6 3D Slideshow does not také different FOVs of views into an account.



2. WISHES

2.1 Would it be possible to change framerate between two keypoints (grips on camera path - or between two cameras on 3D Slideshow?) Currently we overcome this limitation by splitting an animation into separate bits with different framerates, but it introduces new problems with exposure and workflow (once I am not using farm, I cannot queue jobs)

2.2 If the answer for the above would be yes, would it be possible then to add some sort of "smoothing"? IOW - some function, that would smoothen the transition between different framerates based on the percentage of the length of a segment of the Camera Path - for example: If I set 10%, 10% of both parts of the path adjoining the grip, where the change of speed occurs, would be used to make the transition. Similar applies to 3D Slideshow - in this case the percentage would apply to the mumber of "adjoining frames" on both sides of a camera, where the change occurs.

2.3 If the answer for the above would be positive, I would like to be able to do the same for the field of view

2.4 Most importantly - I would like to see 3DSlideshow and Animation combined somehow… 3DSlideshow is very luxurious in terms of view settings (I do not have to play with camera+target paths and then wait for preview, I see the scene at every keypoint exactly the same as it would look in the animation and I can fine-tune the camera position realtime. At this moment, 3D Slideshow is easier and faster to set up, but with limited functionality… OTOH animation is more versatile, but less stable. At the end of the day, it will IMHO be necessary to combine functionalities: ease of settings of cameras at keypoints (3D Slideshow) and versatility of path settings of animation.