Help with animation

[the_seraphim]

Ok so i need some help, and go easy on me, im not too clever in the head.

if i had the animation module, with set keyframe, i wouldnt ask... so my first question is:

can i purchase the (i dont care if its incomplete) animation module seperately?

please answer question 2 anyway

how do i manually set frames in TG2?
so lets say i have a 3000 frame scene, i set up the scene in frame 1, then simply move the slider to frame 2 and reset the scene for the second frame and so on and so forth ad infinitum... im not on a deadline so i dont care if i have to freehand the whole thing.

OR

How can i create a chan file...

and this is the kicker... i can write the positions by hand... i used to code straight into notepad, i find it easy to visualise the changes the numbers represent, i can simply write the position for the camera frame by frame, starting with a known position of x miles left (or right...) y miles up and z miles out (or in... makes sense in my head, and if the camera goes backwards, easy enough to fix) rotation is also easy i can do the math for the frames in my head... i would simply step through to where i would put a keyframe and just do the math for each frame into a text file.

i would prefer the third option because 1, i love numbers... and these are big numbers and 2, im flat broke, should have got deep with ani instead of without... but couldnt and cant afford the extra $100

i dont want to realistically export from another piece of software, as im only really changing the camera for this project (a few weeks i reckon, once ive got the chan file format down pat) and i can (i hope) use a similar file format to import into other attributes.

like i said, text files are my friend, if i have to export... i could manage to dig out my copy of 3dstudio max 6 i think maybe 7 i forget... but no maya, dont like cinema 4d etc...

i hope that lot up there makes sense... does to me but then like i said... soft in the head, makes it harder for the data to bounce.

[Oshyan]

You can buy the Animation Module separately as an upgrade to TG2 Deep.

With the Animation Module, you can set keyframes within TG2 quite easily for almost any parameter. It will interpolate intermediate values though you cannot currently change the interpolation method, and it can create some odd interpolation artifacts in some cases.

You can also programmatically create animation values and directly modify the .tgd file. In this case you'd want to do 1 "keyframe" for each rendered frame. This will give you the most accurate results, if you have a method for generating the positions externally.

Another option is to generate e.g. camera paths in a 3rd party app like Cinema 4D and export to CHAN format, which TG2 can import.

You cannot animate without the animation module. Even though you could set keyframes by manual entry into the .tgd files, you could not render sequentially. Commandline support is not available in the free version and is limited in the Deep version. If you really want to animate I highly recommend getting the Animation Module.

Note also that additional features are in development for the Animation Module that will add additional interpolation types, more import/export formats, and a timeline/keyframe editor.

- Oshyan