COMPUTER AIDED ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
Workshop 11 Notes, Week of November 12, 2012

Animation, Demonstration of Generative Component Surfaces

1. Animation

Part I. Animation WIth the Animation Producer Dialog Box

Animating Views and Sun
1. Construct a simple model with a surface plane and three simple solid objects (slab, sphere and cone – from Solids palette) in iso view.

2. Go to the front elevation view.
3. Select perspective too from view 3 window (quick method tool selected in window below).

4. Begin to save a series of views that establish a sequence of movement towards the three objects. Keep in mind that as you set up your views (keyframes) you will be able to apply different velocity descriptors: "constant", "accelerate", "deaccelerate" as a way to control the seed of movement between views. We will will use "constant" velocity further below. Go to: utilities/saved views, and save at least three successive views of the model.

• enter Name "v1" and Description "start view", and select inside the view 3 window.
• Next: rotate view slightly and zoom in slightly
• Return to utilities/saved views and enter enter a name and description ("v2" and "middle view")
• Then: zoom view again, and save another view by entering a name ("v3" and "end view") and so on for as many views you want incorporated into the animation.

5. Once you have saved the views you can begin to assemble the views into your animation sequence. Go to: Task List Animation. Select the animation producer icon highlighed below (Q1).

and then, from the "Animation Producer" dialog box, open "tools/saved views":

as depicted below, in the Script Saved View dialog box::
double click on v1 and enter: Start Time "0", Interpolation "spline", Velocity "Constant"
double click on v2 and enter: Start Time "20", Interpolation "spline", Velocity "Constant"
double click on v3 and enter: Start Time "40", Interpolation "spline", Velocity "Constant"

.... and so on if there are any additional saved views you wish to incoporate into the animation sequence.

Note that Interpolation “Spline” refers to the movement between your views as key framed locations for the camera in the model space. Velocity “Constant” refers to the velocity that the animation moves between the given views.

Next, create a subdirectory, such as one named "movieframes", for storing individual animation frames on your local hard drive (a folder).

6. Go to Visualizationm task, select the W1 lighting manager tool, to setup global lights and turn on the sunlight. Check also that the Ambient Light and Flashlight are set to appropriate intensites and that the color of all the lights is white.

6. To preview your movie from within the Animation Producer dialog box. goto Tools/ Preview, and play through the results for view 3.

7. Next, return to Animation Producer dialog. Go to File/Record Script in order to record animation as a series of single single jpg files with the following settings:

• Output File: select the "movieframes" folder (created in step 5 above) on your local hard drive and name the first file "animation000.jpg"
• Resolution: 320 x 200 (roughly for low resolution test)
• Format: "JPEG"
• Render Setup: "Untitled"
• Render Mode: "Luxology"
• Light Setup: "From View"
• Antialias: "Medium"

Select the "OK" button, and animation will render with a visible echo back to the view screen.

8. To play your movie: go to the menu utilities/image/movie, and then with the "Movies" dialog, box, go to "Load" and find the image file "testani000.jpg" under whatever folder you have created in step 5 above.

9. From the same Movie dialog box, you can then use file "Save As" option to save the completed movie to single file ( avi etc.), such as
" animation.avi".

10 . In order to simulate the pathway of light throughout the course of a day, in the Animation Producer dialog box/animation palette go to:
Lights/Global/Solar/Time, and right-click on the word "Time" to select the "script" option. This results in the "Animate Settings" dialog box.

In the "Animate Settings" dialog box, create the following settings for two different times:

• Solar Time "8 a.m." Start Time "0", Interpolation "Linear", Velocity "Constant"
• Solar Time "6 p.m." Start Time "60", Interpolation "Linear", Velocity "Constant"
  
  

11. As before, record animation in the jpg format with the following setttings:

• save to name animation.avi

12. Use the "Environment Maps" (A5) tool to create background environmental conditions for the "Untitled" setup, such as for fog as depicted with the settings below. Note that the value for "Density" at 10.0 would represent a fairly thick fog. Density is a setting that can be animated through the animation producer dialog box, similar to solar time.

PART 2. Animating Objects

1. Making an actor

• Go to Animation Task/Aactors palette / and use Create Actor tool (W1) to make the slab into the actor named “box".

• Choose the degrees of freedom desired (in the above example, there are six degrees of freedom for "Move Along" and "Rotate About"):
• Select the object and then select a point locate the origin of actor (right-hand side in image above) .

2. Now keyframe the actor via Animation Producer Dialog box:

• Go to Tools/Named keyframes
  
  
  

• Select the Create Button and name a key frame for the box and give it the Name "box-ground" and the description "box on the ground" (see dialog box above).
• Use the Manipulate Actor tool (W4) to move the box up the z-axis in the "F" front construction plane.
  
  
  
• Crate a second key frame for the box with the Name "box- inair" and the Description "box in the air" (similar to making the key frame "box-ground" ).

3. Now script the keyframes at 0 and 60

• From the Animatiion Keyframes dialog box, double-click on the keyframe for the ground and set the frame 0
  
  
  
  
• Similarly, double-click on the keyframe for the box in the air and and set the keyframe to 30.
  
• Disable views v2 and v3 in Animation Producter Storyboard Panel so that only v1 is recorded.
  
  
  

4.Record the animation as jpg or avi as before.

• resolution 320 x 200
• raytrace – antialias

5. You can then make and select more actors (animate more objects) if so desired.

6. Using algebraic descriptors

6.1 Go to the Tools/parameters in animation Producer Dialog box, and create a variable

From the Animation Producer dialog box's Tools menu, choose "Parameters" .

1. The Animation Parameters dialog box opens

2. Click the "Create" button and the The Create Parameter dialog box opens.
3. In the Name field, key in the name for a new parameter (e.g., "cylinder_height").
4. In the Value field, key in a value such as 10.
5. (Optional) In the Description field, key in a description of the parameter.
6. Click the OK button.
7. The Create Parameter dialog box closes, and the parameter is added to the Animation Parameters dialog box.
   

6.2. Now, go to the Script actor tool (W6), and select the "box".

In the blank field for "Z Position" , enter "cylinder_height * frame/maxFrame" and select the OK button.

6.3 Record animation using methods already expored.
res. 320 x 200
raytrace – antialias
save to walk4.avi

6.4 Similarly, the Z Positio parameter could use the Sine function "sin" and the absolute value functions "abs" such as in the expression:
"fabs(heightbox * sin(frame * 360/ maxFrame))"

Additional variables

Additional functions

These functions are identical to those in the standard C math library, except that all angular values are expected and returned in degrees rather than radians.

Note: The use of cylinder_height above is but one example of a customized animation parameter. We can paramterize objects in a way that is similar to how we used algebraic expressions within generative components.

PART 3: Graphing the Movement Of Objects

1. A third method of scripting an actoris to graph it. To explore this method:

• Make a truncated cone into an actor
• Create key frames low and high positions.
• Script low and high key frame position using de-acceration towards later.
• In the Animation Producter dialog box, select the actor "Cone", go to View/Velocity graph in the StoryBoard Panel

• To modify curve, select move points tool (shown above) and select control point of velocity graph and then select “send to velocity graph” .
• Create an animation such as cone.avi.

2. Throughout, remember to create new subdirectories to keep all the rendered images of ananimation together.

PART 4: Motion Paths

To move an actor or camera along a path. You first create a path, such as bspline. You also create a camera. You then set the actor or camera in motion along the path. The path can be a closed element (such as a block or circle), or an open element (such as a line, line string, curve, arc, or B-spline curve). You can identify the actor graphically, or you can double-click its name in the drop-down Actor List menu in the tool settings

• Create a bspline plath from the top view and then move it such that it is above the ground plane:
  
  
  
• Within the Animation task, use the Create Camera tool, labelled "E1"
  
  
  
  
  
• Create a camera by snapping to start end of the bspline and then the end of the bspline adjacent to the objects.
  
  
  

• The next step is to animate the camera along the path.
• Select "Define Actor Tool" from the Animation Actor palette to turn the bspline into an actor "mypath".
  
  
  
  
• Next, use the "Define Actor Path" tool to move the camera along the the bspline actor named "mypath".
  
  
  
  
• Note that when selecting the path element, if the actor is near one end of it (within 10% of the total path length) the direction of the actor is automatically calculated and the actor will animate over the entire length of the path. If, however, the closest point of the actor to the path is some distance along the path then an arrow displays to indicate the current direction. You can change the direction by moving the pointer to either side of the point on the path and entering a data point when the correct direction is displayed.
• Immediately following the selection of the path and the camera, you are prompted to indicated the frame numbers, velocity and other properties of the cameras movement.
  
  
  
  
• Note that cam1 is now an actor that moves along the path. However, we also want to use "Script Camera" tool so the camera so that the view from it is the basis for the rendering:
  
  
  
• Select the camera, and set the start frame to 0, use Interpolation "Spline" and Velocity "Constant" and it now takes precedence in the rendered view.
  
  
  
• Use the AnimaitonProducer/Tools/Preview tool to test the result.
• Turn off the layer with the bspine pathway and render the result.

PART 5: CREATING MOVIE FILES FROM JPG FRAMES IN QUICKTIME

Animations saved as AVI can be viewed though Quicktime can be download from Apple's web site.
A series of animation frames can also be flie loaded through Quicktime Pro available on public computers in the school and saved directly to the Quicktime mov format (e.g., myanimation.mov) for higher quality 24 bit color. Quicktime Pro is available for purchase through Apple Computer.

PART 6: Animation through Simpler One-off Options (not covered workshop)

1. Solar Animation

1. Go to: Utilities/render/solarstudy
2. Select a start time and total time
3. Pick the number frames
4. Save (AVI 16 bit) in desired drive/directory
5. Use the above steps for viewing.

2. Fly By / Through

1. Go to a plan/top view and zoom out and create a separate level on which to place your path.
2. Use a bspline curve to set your path by drawing the curve towards your model from across the screen. Go to a side view to move the curve up in space.
3. Then:
Utilities/render/flythrough
4. Fix target position
Output view 3
Raytrace
30 frames

 

Note: For further animation reference materials (older interface) you may want to consult the ARCH 545 website:
http://www.arch.virginia.edu/arch545/handouts.html