"Manual" animation in TG2 free version

Started by kevnar, May 09, 2010, 05:34:37 PM

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kevnar

It occurs to me I can manually animate a scene in TG2 by setting up a landscape, doing a render, punching in a slight variation in the camera position (adding 0.01 to the X position of the camera for example) and then doing another render.

Has anyone tried this? What results have you gotten?

I'll be back in a day or so with a test animation.  ;D

Ps. It helps if you have a copy of virtualdub to compile the images into a video.

Kadri

#1
Quote from: kevnar on May 09, 2010, 05:34:37 PM
It occurs to me I can manually animate a scene in TG2 by setting up a landscape, doing a render, punching in a slight variation in the camera position (adding 0.01 to the X position of the camera for example) and then doing another render.

Has anyone tried this? What results have you gotten?

I'll be back in a day or so with a test animation.  ;D

Ps. It helps if you have a copy of virtualdub to compile the images into a video.

You just discovered stop motion , Kevnar ! Pşit , be quiet and be thankful that Planetside is making the free version! LOL ;D




Couldn't resist ; sorry  :)

Zairyn Arsyn

stop motion TG2 animation?  :D are you insane?... maybe you are insane, but thats fine by me. ;)
Quote from: Kadri on May 09, 2010, 05:53:26 PM
Quote from: kevnar on May 09, 2010, 05:34:37 PM
It occurs to me I can manually animate a scene in TG2 by setting up a landscape, doing a render, punching in a slight variation in the camera position (adding 0.01 to the X position of the camera for example) and then doing another render.

Has anyone tried this? What results have you gotten?

I'll be back in a day or so with a test animation.  ;D

Ps. It helps if you have a copy of virtualdub to compile the images into a video.

You just discovered stop motion , Kevnar ! Pşit , be quiet and be thankful that Planetside is making the free version! LOL ;D




Couldn't resist ; sorry  :)
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kevnar

I'm not complaining. Just considering an insanely tedious work-around to the lack of free animation tools in TG2.  :P

Kadri


I use the free version too , Kevnar just that you know  :)

neuspadrin

Hahaha, yeh technically possible... but boy will it be tedious, and you won't have spiffy features such as motion blur.

dandelO

Ha! When I done my first small cloud anim's, using the deep+animation version, mind, I didn't even know how to specify keyframes. I set up 90 frames of cloud animation manually!
Man, did I feel stupid when I realized I could have just set up the first and last frames in a couple of clicks and let TG fill in the gaps with smooth, incremental frames itself! :P :-[

Kadri

#7
Quote from: dandelO on May 09, 2010, 07:38:43 PM
...I set up 90 frames of cloud animation manually! ...

90 frames ! Wow! I feel your pain , DandelO  ;D (OK it doesn't look quite so , i know :D)

kevnar

I was wondering what the cloud animation features are like. I mean, you don't want to have clouds sitting there through an animation as static as a photograph. Does TG2 displace them for each frame like TG1 could? I was also wonder if it's possible to slowly morph clouds frame by frame so that in an animation the clouds seem to puff and billow and bloom as they drift across the sky, just like in the time lapse nature videos.

gregsandor

Quote from: kevnar on May 09, 2010, 06:02:03 PM
I'm not complaining. Just considering an insanely tedious work-around to the lack of free animation tools in TG2.  :P

It's nothing compared to the lack of free food, shelter, and clothing in Matt's home town.

Tangled-Universe

Quote from: kevnar on May 10, 2010, 01:38:22 AM
I was wondering what the cloud animation features are like. I mean, you don't want to have clouds sitting there through an animation as static as a photograph. Does TG2 displace them for each frame like TG1 could? I was also wonder if it's possible to slowly morph clouds frame by frame so that in an animation the clouds seem to puff and billow and bloom as they drift across the sky, just like in the time lapse nature videos.

Every parameter in a node which has that function-symbol-like-button (can't get to the name of it) can be animated :)
Yes, you see that correctly, that's virtually EVERYTHING in TG2 ;D

For moving a cloud you put a translate shader in between the cloud fractal and cloud node. Then set a keyframe for the starting position. The go to the target-keyframe, say end of the animation @ frame 240, and change one of the translation values to X metres. Now TG2 will move the clouds for X metres over the 240 frames.
You can repeat these steps for every parameter, so you could change contrast in fractal, or density of cloud. You name it :)

Here's something I did some time ago: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=8502.0

gregsandor

In addition to animating, as T_U points out, virtually every parameter in TG, you can also use techniques of real stop motion animation, including replacing models,or example model a human or animal walk cycle and for each frame substitue the next frame model.  

shadowphile

I only have the Deep version, no anim, but I had great luck exporting my terrain as a proxy object (lightwave mesh), importing to Blender, creating a camera path, saving then importing that into TG.  You still have to stop-motion render but at least you can work out the camera mechanics in Blender (or what your app is).  Plus it just becomes a matter of moving the frame slider in TG to animate the camera (and any other animation channel you may have imported).

PabloMack

Well then using this method, if you have a still camera then what does anyone need a camcorder for?  You can save a bundle of money!  (Don't reply.  It's just a joke.)
Seriously, I am looking forward to seeing your animation.