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Original Article Date: April 8, 2002
This stuff should be a breeze for you by now! So far we’ve looked at using animation for producing camera animations for a better looking fly-through and now it’s time to take another step in the process where we create a standard target from the animation palette and have it invisible during the animation. This is the method we use to pan around a room. Note: The contents of this article is based upon MicroStation /J.
Go to Animation in V7 Part 1 - Getting Started Go to Animation in V7 Part 2 - Let the Jet Spin! Go to Animation in V7 Part 3 - Heads are gonna roll! Go to Animation in V7 Part 4 - The Sequel Go to Animation in V7 Part 5 - Propeller Heads Go to Animation in V7 Part 6 - Make your camera fly! Go to Animation in V7 Part 7 - Panning Go to Animation in V7 Part 9 - Saved Views Now we’re cooking with gas. This stuff should be a breeze for you by now! So far we’ve looked at using animation for producing camera animations for a better looking fly-through and now it’s time to take another step in the process. In the last tutorial we used a moving actor as the target, this time we are going to create a standard target from the animation palette and have it invisible during the animation. This is the method to use when we want to pan around a room. The steps for this are as follows:
Using Set Active Depth from the 3D View Control tool box, set the active depth in the Top view from any of the adjacent side views; you can pretty much use any depth that you want. Tip: Although there are a number of ways we can set the view depth, I find it rather convienent to have the 3D view control icons set up on the view scroll bar.
Now that we've set the active depth, we can set up our camera. Select the Create Camera tool and set up the camera so that we are looking towards the light stand in the top left hand corner of the room. Give the camera a name and we’re ready to go onto the next stage.
Step 2: We're going to have a stationary camera so all we need to do is set the camera in the script. Select Script Camera adjust the settings as follows: Begin Frame: 0.00 , Velocity: Accelerate-Decelerate. This will cause the camera to pick up speed until the half-way mark and then slow to the end. This is just one of the many velocity features.
Step 3: Since we already have the active depth set in our Top view, we can simply place our path element using the Place SmartLine tool. It's also a good idea place this element in construction class so that it can be easily turned off when not needed. Tip: Set the Vertex Type to Rounded to ensure that there are no sharp changes in the camera direction.
Step 4: Select the Create Target tool and set the scale of the target to 50 - this will help us to locate it in the view. Place the target at the start of the path element we just drew and give it an identifiable name. We now have our target ready to go.
Step 5: At this time we need to tell MicroStation to use the target with the camera and to animate the target to move along the path element. First, to set the target to work with the camera, we need to script it by using the Script Target icon. Double click on the name of our target ensure that the Begin Frame is set to 0.00 while the End Frame is 50. If these numbers don't work out, we can always increase the number of frames later on.
We now have to animate the target along the path. Go to the Animation Actors tool box and select the Define Actor Path tool. Double click the name of our target and snap to the end of the path element. In the resulting dialog, check that the frames are set to match our settings above. Now comes the fun part. Open the Animation Producer and use View 1 as a test. Let the animation run through in Wireframe mode and make any adjustments before you do the final recording. If you want your animation to be longer than 50 frames, go to File > Scale Script and shorten or lengthen by decreasing or increasing the scale. It's just as easy as that. When you’re happy with the path and the preview, set off the animation and sit back and enjoy the show! More soon.
Go to Animation in V7 Part 1 - Getting Started Go to Animation in V7 Part 2 - Let the Jet Spin! Go to Animation in V7 Part 3 - Heads are gonna roll! Go to Animation in V7 Part 4 - The Sequel Go to Animation in V7 Part 5 - Propeller Heads Go to Animation in V7 Part 6 - Make your camera fly! Go to Animation in V7 Part 7 - Panning Go to Animation in V7 Part 9 - Saved Views
AskInga Article #107