Animation

[AlexelA]

Hi there,

I have recently purchased Terragen2+Animation and it's the latter which gives me a hard time.
I have been searching the site for info on animation in particular and would welcome a distinct animation area within the forum as well.
I have got the following questions regarding animation in Terragen2Deep + Animation:

1. How do you animate a camera (I have only managed to animate a meteorite like rock but couldn't get the render camera to follow that rock, whenever I moved or rotated the camera in the preview window the corresponding values in the parameter and settings pane didn't change at all), which camera can you use for animation?

2. Is there a camera path option in the terragen2 deep + animation edition?

3. What is the default frame rate and how/where can you adjust it?

4. How do render the animation, is there a command line render option and is it similar to the Autodesk Maya option for example?

I am really glad that I found Terragen2 and look forward to seeing more features coming out to enhance this amazing piece of software.

Thanks
Alex

[FrankB]

Hi Alexia,

you can animate the camera by setting animation keys for the camera's position and rotation.
However, moving the camera in the 3D preview doesn't really change the camera's parameters UNLESS you hit "set camera" (with the button below the 3D preview). Once you hit "set camera", you can then set the animation keys (position and rotation) in the camera's node dialog.

There is no frame rate as such, TG2 will just output the number of images in your animation that you have specified. What you would do is set the camera e.g. for frame number 0, the move the camera to the next position, and make this position i.e. frame number 25, then hit set camera again, then set an animation key.. You'll need to compile these to a movie, and set your frame rate then. So considering these 25 frames, you can have a 1 second animation at 25 fps, or half a second for fps 50, ....

cheers,
Frank

PS: I'm no way near experienced or anything in animation, there are many others here who could tell you more about this. But in essence, the above mentioned steps should work.

[Seth]

actually it is 15 images per second in TG2.

[cyphyr]

The playback rate of the pre-view may be 15fps (I dont know) ~ but since Terragen dose'nt actually make animations itself, just sequances of images, its not really relavent. You will set your frame rate in your compositing package.

Richard

[AlexelA]

Hi,
thanks a lot for your input.
I'm going to do a composite with Maya Models inside a Terragen fly-through.
So basically it's all dead and desert on earth you see a close up inside a deep canyon. At the bottom there are a couple of toxic waste drums exposed by time and tide.
From there the camera would head up to the surface of the planet which is desert/rock like pan over the surface and continue it's journey to the outer space to get a full view on the planet (I have seen a similar movie on the Planetside website, cool stuff!!).
The camera would still be moving away yet facing the planet. Suddenly a flying object passes by and the camera turns around to follow the object back to the planet. The object travels at tremendous speed and is heading for a giant gate like structure in the middle of nowhere and dissapears inside the gate, into another dimension (akin to the gate in "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" movie). That's it.

Cheeers
Alex

[Seth]

The playback rate of the pre-view may be 15fps (I dont know) ~ but since Terragen dose'nt actually make animations itself, just sequances of images, its not really relavent. You will set your frame rate in your compositing package.

Richard

yes, but click on the play button in TG2 and you got 15 fps.
and if you batch the renders without changing rate, you have 15 fps.
and i can assure you it is "relevant" when you need to do a 20 seconds animation with pre-definite speed ^^

[cyphyr]

Sorry to hijack but I dont get it. If you end up with a folder with lots of seperate images in it then how is there a frame rate.
The only I can make sense of what your saying (my brain, no offence intended) is that you using a batch renderer that outputs directly to a movie file (avi, mov, mpg) or that your using Terragens preview to test your anim.
Please explain
Richard

[Seth]

yes of course

Let's say I need a 20 seconds animation. and I need that my cam moves errr... 10 meters per second.
So that means that my cam will do 200 meters in those 20 seconds, and that will be in 300 frames.
If I now transform my 300 frames in another software to be in 25 fps, the cam will still do the 200 meters but only in 12 seconds.

That's why I thought it was something important. Maybe I am wrong and missing something but as I am working on some animation for 3 weeks now and knowing that I'll need to transform it in 25 fps, I'll be glad if you explain me where I am wrong, because that could be of some help here

[cyphyr]

I dont think either of us is wrong 

I'm used to using Lightwave for animating, I set my scene up in TG, export to LW, animate the camera, objects there and then import all that data back to TG. Of course in LW you can set the frame rate to what ever you need.
I also think we work from opposite directions. I want to make an animation of say 20 seconds, I know right away that I'll need 500 frames @25fps. It seems that your working with much tighter constraints than I am, maybe that is it.
Richard

[Seth]

It seems that your working with much tighter constraints than I am, maybe that is it.

money for the render farm ? ^^

ok i understand and you're right, none of us was wrong ! good enough !
I need to try lightwave... does it have a trial version ?

[cyphyr]

By constraints I ment that your needing the camera to travel a defined distance in a defined time. A render farm would be very sweet
Lightwave dose have a discovery mode, limited poly count, watermarks, limited render settings etc. Thinking about it you should be able to do all your camera moves and exports in the discovery version.
Good luck
Richard

[Seth]

thanks cyphyr ! and sorry to AlexelA for the hijacking thread

[AlexelA]

No bother,

it's as educational as it is funny to follow your ping-pong argument but why do you Cyphyr import your composite back into Terragen after stitching it together in Lightwave!?

Alex

[cyphyr]

My usual workflow is as follows.
Firstly I create the terrain I'm going to be using in TG, then I export it as a LWO mesh and load that into LW. Here I can use all of Ligtwaves animation tools and precisely add in any models that need to be specifically placed. The camera animation can then be exported out of Lightwave in the .chan format. This is then imported back into Terragen along with any models needed. Now all thats needed is to render.
The reason for all this is that the animation controls are that much better in LW. I expect that once the animation module is finnihed much of this process will be superfluous.

Richard

[AlexelA]

Hi,
I have just been to the NewTek website to have a quick peek regarding Lightwave which I have never heard of before. If I got this right it's a 3D app. just like Maya. If yes than I would go the same way as you only with Maya and agree with you on the animation capabilities of Terragen2, but on the Planetside website there is a screen shot of a mountain with a camera animation path around it which I can't find in my version of Terragen. I think that would make camera movement much smoother rather than doing it from key frame to key frame.
Alex