OTOY Forums

Quote from TIG form older post:
"If you tell it to make an OBJ for each scene it will take a very long time - there are options at the start - the only time you make multiple OBJ files is if the geometry changes between scenes - e.g. layers/on/off and geometry is thereby changed or 'moved'...
Are there lots of OBJ files [before you close the dialog] ?
Try with one...
Then it makes makes/opens the OCS with each camera setup and renders the image to a file."

I have a ocs made from different obj's combined in a geometry group node.
The obj's are made with Sketchup using the great Plugin! Works great!!!!!
Now I want to make an animation and I am experimenting with the SU plugin for animating the camera path.
That I can manage.
The thing I want to try next is animating one of the obj's, like a car for instance.
Is that possible while the obj I want to be moved is one of the obj's of the group node makes the total scene?
The above quote tells me it might be possible, but I don't know where to start to figure out.

Or can anyone explain how I can achieve animated object without having to make a render for every seperate frame by move the obj by 'hand' formevery frame before rendering... That is not doable.

The only effective way I know of to "animate objects" is to make multiple scene-tabs in the SKP - each with a scene-specific layer that is 'on' which contains an instance of the moving object [as a component-instance] - each object located in a new position varying by just a smidge in each frame [tab]... OR you can get/buy/use a tool like Key Frame Animation [?] in the SKP that automates much of this for you.
Then if you run/make an animation in the SKP it will show the effect.
Then in the Export tool process tab/frame-1 to set up the base OCS etc.
Save/close it.
Then Export the animation set using all of the frames made from these scene tabs [specifying the start and end ones], remembering to choose to make individual OBJ files for each frame...
Each scene then exports and renders its own image as specified in turn.
Wait for some time, until it's done... ZZZZZ...
Then you can compile those images into a movie using 3rd party software - many available - many free.

If you do not specify individual OBJ files in the animation set, then the model as represented in tab/frame-1 will be rendered in every frame [i.e. taken from the one OBJ file], with only the camera and the lighting/shadow settings varying with subsequent frame images... This is quickest and most useful if there are no moving objects, and just the camera and/or lighting is changing.

Using multiple OBJ files to cope with animated objects that you make this way will certainly extend the processing time considerably - depending on the model's complexity...