What software do I need for animations?

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What software do I need for animations?

Post by DavidL »

Hi all,

So far I've been playing around with the Scene Video plugin which seems good for a simple fly through at a constant speed. However I now want to try something more sophisticated. What I would like to be able to acheive is a video whereby elements of the point cloud are animated such as making walls disapear to reveal hidden areas, also to have annotations such as text/arrows appear.

How do I go about this? If anyone can point me to some examples of the sort of thing I'm talking about then that would be good.

Thanks

David
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Re: What software do I need for animations?

Post by geowac »

Hi David,

interesting task ;)

In former times, I used Pointools, but Bently bought it and (I guess) didn't continue to maintain the standalone version. But showing text was not possible...

Actual I am cheating, rendering my scenes many times with different settings and combine this in some video editing software. Text is inserted by the editor software too, because it's the fastest way.

If I need shadows or have to combine the pointcloud with textured models, I use Recap and 3ds max. This is the slowest way and often needs up to five minutes per single frame, but the results are amazing! Unfortunately most render farms do not have my plugins installed. Therefore I use all Workstations over night and on weekends I have access to ;)

But nevertheless I render some parts many times with different settings and combine them at the end to one video - most time only 90 seconds remaining ...

Cheers
Stefan


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Re: What software do I need for animations?

Post by 3DForensics »

3DS Max all the way. It has a steep learning curve but you can do all sorts of things with it. There are other great programs too like Arena 4D but if you have a wide variety of tasks, Max will do what you need.

Eugene
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Re: What software do I need for animations?

Post by DavidL »

Thanks

Stefan, I can see how video editing software would be suitable in certain cases. I can work with our Forensic A/V unit to edit and incorporate simple text and graphics. A problem I have with the Scene Video App is there is no way (that I can see?) to control the speed of the camera movement between viewpoints, but I suppose this could be achieved in editing as well.

Eugene, I will look into Arena 4D. They appear to have a number of Youtube videos so I will work my way through them. I used 3DS Max very briefly at univeristy as it was a course requirement. This was 10 years ago though and it was complicated enough back then... My concern is that I won't have the time to invest in it, even though it does sound like it might be the best way to go.
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Re: What software do I need for animations?

Post by Mark Christy »

Hi David,

I normally try to stay out of "which is best" conversations as it would be impossible to come across as anything but slightly biased :)

However the truth is that there are probably a few packages out there that will do what you want, and it's just going to be a case of picking the best to fit your budget I feel.

I see your signature details say Thames Valley... your traffic colleagues have just taken delivery of Arena4D and some training to go with it so may be worth a chat with them? We're always happy to give a helping hand to show you what can be done in Arena4D, so if you want an example video putting together to showcase a few ideas then just drop us a line.

Many Thanks

Mark
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Re: What software do I need for animations?

Post by DavidL »

Hi Mark,

I will have a chat with the traffic guys to find out how they will be using your software. Now that you mention it I recall hearing the name 'veesus' beng mentioned by someone. My department is Imaging, you may get a call from us at some point.

Cheers
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Re: What software do I need for animations?

Post by Notecola »

Hello David,

Have you already tried SceneMark (http://scenemark.com) ?
There is a free trial version available.
Animating camera should be quite easy although you would not be able to hide objects dynamically in current version.

Best regards,
Alexander
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Re: What software do I need for animations?

Post by Paul Everett »

you could also use Cinema4D, and a plugin that I developed specifically for rendering large point clouds.

here are a couple of example renders.The plugin fully integrates with the C4D raytracer, so you can mix your pointclouds with all the features of Cinema4D.

https://vimeo.com/192371872
https://vimeo.com/188966312
https://vimeo.com/192450775

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Re: What software do I need for animations?

Post by vislaw »

We rely heavily on 3ds Max as well. Although Max has finally incorporated point cloud capabilities, the Clouds2Max plug-in is exceptional (http://www.clouds2max.com/) and I highly recommend it.

I understand and agree with the daunting learning curve. However, we've developed an approach to train people to do functional animation using a limited set of the application's tools. We were inspired by a local college that had a one-day "quick & dirty PhotoShop" course that allowed pure novices to use a limited subset of the admittedly extensive tools in Adobe's flagship editing application.

We stay away from all of the modeling and texturing tools and focus simply on camera motion and basic rendering. Eventually, of course, you can use more of the application as you become experienced, but I recommend trying to keep focused on a very limited set of tools.
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