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Can't seem to understand turntable animations??...


WillBellJr
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Hi folks, I was up last last nice simply trying to make some turnable animations of some asteroids I'm messing around with for a game.

 

Being a 2D game, I figured, I could voxel together some nice looking astroid objects, render out a quick 36-frame turnable animation and use it for testing in an a quick 2D scene.

 

I created a 512x512 custom sized render area and centered the "rock" within the window.

 

Thinking it would be easy, I set the view to orthographic, and shift-rotated the rock to the Front view.  I save the scene as "Frame00".

 

Next shift-rotated the scene for the Left, Back, and Right views again saving the associated scenes.

 

 

I checked Render Frame Sequence, specified 36 for the number of frames clocked Render Animation.

 

After selecting the first saved file, and specifying again 36 for the number of frames, the program begins rendering the turnable.

 

Everything goes great up to the last set of 9-frames - instead of continuing on to the last (Front) view again, the model reversed and quickly rotates backwards to the starting frame again???

 

 

I've even tried creating Camera Shortcuts and also turned on "Closed Spline" hoping it would complete the "circle".

 

 

I realize that it's the interpolation of the rotation that is causing it to what?, take the shortest path back to the first frame, but then how are others creating these turntables?

 

I tried rotating using 45-degree angles, which is painful compared to just shift-rotating to get the correctly locked views.

 

 

What the HECK am I doing wrong - why can't I create a simple turntable?

 

 

Any suggestions are appreciated!

 

 

 

-Will

 

 

 

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Well thanks for at least responding, the main question for me is HOW are you setting up the animations?

 

Like I had mentioned, I changed to an Orthographic view (Front), centered my rock within a 512x512 window and saved the first .3b scene.

 

Then holding down shift, I'd rotate to the Left view, save the .3b scene for that one, (then Back and Right views) netting me 4-scene files.

 

Setting the frames count to 36, I'd start the animation and everything goes great up until it gets past the Right view render.

 

 

If I specify "Close Animation" AND/OR a 5th scene (Front view again) to "close" the rotation, after rendering the frames for the Right view, it reverses the rotation, speeding up (to cover the remaining 9-frames) instead of continuing in the forward direction back to the Front view.

 

 

I'll see if I can try the same here at work today, to see if I experience anything different.

 

Thanks for your time!

 

 

-Will

 

 

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Hi Carlosan, I had never used camera presets before, but after having probs getting this to work, I tried using the camera presets as well - again started from the Front view (snapped the camera), left view (snapped) (back, right views snapped) ran the animation configured to use the camera snaps - same issue, right after rendering the right view, the objects reverses direction, speeds up back to the initial (front) position.

 

Here at work, I've attempted the same - with the same results - rotation reversal at the last step of the animation, next I'll try using the camera preset as well.

 

 

What so sad is I could use the renders as is, no need to retopo, UV etc., just convert the frames into sprites and get going with what I'm trying to test - sigh...

 

-Will

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camera > rotate around world center 

 

numpad 2 > front view > ctrl+up arrow add camera shortcut

numpad 6 > right view > ctrl+up arrow add camera shortcut

numpad 8 > back view > ctrl+up arrow add camera shortcut

numpad 4 > left view > ctrl+up arrow add camera shortcut

 

render frame sequence ON

folder to store images > copy the path to the folder and paste  here

closed spline ON

move around shortcuts ON

 

Render (no render animation)

 

 

frames to render 4 -as example-

 

post-10142-0-09830400-1413487521_thumb.j

post-10142-0-64323300-1413487529_thumb.j

post-10142-0-03097600-1413487541_thumb.j

post-10142-0-92118400-1413487552_thumb.j

 

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Thanks so much for the detailed steps, Carlosan.

 

Are you saving out the 3B files after changing to each view?

 

I see you have said "Render, (no render animation)..." ??  If I just click the render button it only renders ONE view?

 

If I click render animation (without saving any 3b files), nothing happens.

 

If I save the 3Bs for each view, I get the same issues with the animation reversing.

 

I guess when I get home tonight I'll record a video of exactly what I'm doing and you'll get to see what I get afterwards - I had really hoped following your steps would have solved my issue (the step about setting the camera to rotate around the world center was very helpful - thanks for that one!)

 

 

 

-Will

 

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If you check Render Frame Sequence, it should render your turntable instead of an image if you hit Render button.

 

About saving, I have no idea why you do that, i dont save anything for a turntable render.

Edited by Malo
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If I just click the render button it only renders ONE view?

 

NOPE if you have render frame sequence ON

 

- render animation is another feature used for another task, not for your task

 

will you please follow my steps and try ?

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Okay, I know I'm not crazy - I made a quick video:

 

http://www.willbelljr.net/public/3d-coat/BadTableAnimation.mp4

 

 

You can see where I've set a custom size, I created the Front, Left, Back and Right views (which I had also saved as 3Bs previously before recording the video), and then the associated camera shortcuts.

 

As you can also see, I have Render Frames selected, my target folders is the same as the source file(s)  (which now as I type I"m wondering if it's a problem which I will explain in just a minute).

 

 

So as per your suggestion, when I click just the Render button, only the ONE view renders, and yes, Render Frames is checked!

 

Finally you can see what I get when I select Render Animation - the table starts off great but right at the last leg of the animation, it spins backwards - Grrrr!

 

 

Now I have to say when I FIRST setup my (techsmith) recorder and did a test run for myself, when I only clicked the Render button, it actually DID create multiple frames!  The asteroid was spinning off center for some reason, in and out of the 256x256 box I have setup, but it did at least create multiple frames!

 

I haven't been able to reproduce that again besides that first time??

 

At first I thought that perhaps having SnagIt open loaded up some codecs or some such which help 3DC in some way to get the Render button to work properly.

 

But now I'm remembering that I had originally had the render folder specified as a different folder from where the .3b files are located - I'm wondering if having those files stored in the SAME folder as where the frames are deposited is somehow confusing 3DC, that's the ONLY thing I can think of that's different where the Render button work compared to now where all the files are in and generated in the same folder.

 

 

I'll go change the render target folder now to test if that makes any difference.

 

 

I really do appreciate your help on this but, at this point, if I can't get it going after tonight I'll have to generate my sprite frames in another app just to move forward with this. (Unfortunately I'll have to retopo / UV and all that other stuff whereas this would have been so simple for creating a variety of asteroid sprites for my testing...

 

 

-Will

 

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Hi, thanks for your video as well - welp, obviously either I'm doing something wrong, you saw my steps in the video I uploaded, OR there's something wrong about BOTH my installation at home, and the fresh one I installed at work yesterday.

 

What version of the program are you using, I grabbed the latest version off the site, reinstalled it at home, even refreshed the DirectX install, which didn't seem to need to do anything.

 

 

I eventually was able to get the [Render] button turntable to work (somehow), but it was still doing the reverse game on me.

 

 

I'll attempt to do what you just did by grabbing the default human object and just working with that.

 

I really wish I could figure out what the heck is WRONG on my end...

 

 

Thanks folks!

 

 

-Will

Edited by WillBellJr
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when you render animation in the Render room that's all it does is rotate around Y in one direction or the other. 

 

render animation was a new feature added at version 19.02.2013 BETA12

 

- Render room got improvement - possibility to render blended states between several saved scenes.

In so way short animated illustrations may be easily rendered.

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Okay this is what I'm experiencing...

 

When I start a new scene, drop in the Base Human object, center it, go immediately to the Render room, setup the 512x512 render window, click render frames, set the frame count to 36 and click the Render button, it works fine, no problems!

 

However for some reason, if I drop in a sphere, push / pull etc., and create a nice looking rock, set the pivot to center mass, move the rock to 0,0,0 and then setup the same 512x512 render, when I click the Render button, same effn thing - it flashes for 1 frame, nothing is even created in the >default< output folder.

 

I had thought perhaps my original scene had got corrupt somehow, which would have been okay but now it seems I can't even stretch a sphere a coupla times and get it to render properly GRRR!

 

 

-Will

 

 

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Not when I can't get it to render AT ALL!

 

 

That's the least of my problems.

 

 

When I finish shaping my asteroids, they're usually off balance from the center, so I move the pivot to center mass, then I translate it back to 0,0,0 - then I go to the render tab, and yes, I also select rotate around world center but as I've said - at that point the turntable doesn't render for me.

 

Can you try doing the same - grab the medium sized sphere, add the "rock looking" shader to it and just add a coupla lumps here and there to your fancy, and see if it renders okay for you?

 

 

 

-Will

 

PS - At this point it would be nice if Andrew chimed in - do I need to email my probs to the link posted at the top of this forum for him to take notice of all this?

Edited by WillBellJr
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Okay followup - I figured I'd follow my own suggestion.

 

I created a medium sized sphere, I didn't add any shaders or anything else, I selected the Move tool, stretched it 3-times in different places, went immediately to the render room selected Render Frames, went to the front view and the render worked.

 

 

So far I'm at the point where the render is working - I've added back the "rock" shader, did a couple more push/pulls, and now I'm trying to see how or where I break the Render functionality.

 

I'll report back if I can find something solid. 

 

Of first note, I noticed if I select either the Top or Bottom view and hit the Render button, I get the same symptom - it flashes for a single render with nothing added into the output folder!

 

If I select any other view before I click Render, it renders fine.

 

So somehow I'm thinking that internally the "render camera" got hosed on me somehow which caused what I showed in my video, even though I was select Front each and every time...

 

 

-Will

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@Will

I am on 4.1.17

 

After several testing, i dont get any bug,

The turntable works always as it should.

If i create a Rock out of position, center to mass and then back to xyz 0, the turntable is still works.

 

 

 

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Okay I think I found it, originally I preferred to have orthographic frame renders so I had clicked the Ortho/Perspective button.

 

Now when I put the view to Perspective, it renders FINE, if I set it to Orthographic, then it flashes but does nothing.

 

This so far is repeatable for me - I'm not sure if there's anything else that causes the problem, but this is definitely repeatable for me!

 

 

I want to thank you so much for sticking this out with me - your patience and time is really appreciated!

 

As a benefit, I got to see a nice video of a sword / axe being created - I had wanted to create a spear matching a 2D one I had a reference image to, a coupla months back, and with my meager talents, I totally failed, seeing the video above has me wanting to attempt it again!

 

 

Thanks to everyone who responded!

 

-Will

 

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