New keyframe for view changes to Axonometric

[jeffgrune]

I'm animating a camera. I tried to add a keyframe that preceded the first keyframe set 2 seconds after zero on the timeline. The view changed to what appeared blank. I checked the view parameters. The keyframe tool changed the view from perspective to axonometric. There is nothing in the tool palette for keyframe to do this. This is not in the timeline. I see nowhere that it can be controlled. I saw it as an option when setting up tracks from the animation palette, but nowhere else. Why would anyone want to change from 3-point perspective to axonometric in an animation anyway? I tried to repeat it on a new file but I can't send anything demonstrating this.

[Tech]

Hi Jeff,

 

If we save a Perspective View, Keyframe it, and add a new Keyframe in the Animation Editor, our view stays as a Perspective:

 

 

If you are able to reproduce what you report, can you be more specific about your exact steps?

 

You can use the Animation Editor to fine tune an animation, but I probably would use other methods to create it in the first place.  Perhaps the following tech note will help:

 

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Here is a quick summary of 3 different methods that you can use to generate animations in formZ:

 

Option 1:  Animating from keyframes:

 

Save all of the desired (keyframe) views in your Views Palette, and select them in the desired order (using  the checkmark to the right of the view name in the palette, or by graphically selecting them in the screen).  Get the Animate Entities tool and click in the screen, and select the desired options.  Click OK, and a new view will be added to the bottom of your View Palette.  Make this view Active, and then you can scrub your timeline or click the Play button see the view animate.

 

(To affect the velocity, you can either space your keyframes appropriately, or after the animation is generated, you can move the keyframes from within the Animation Timeline to adjust this as you would like.)

 

Option 2:  Keyframing a camera (view):

 

Save a view in the Views Palette and make it visible so you can see the camera.  Click on the camera with the Keyframe Tool.  Move the timeline, and then move the camera.  Move the timeline again and move the camera again if desired.  Scrub the timeline, or click Play to see the view animate.

 

Option 3:  Animating along a path:

 

Draw a 2d (open or closed) polyline or curve to serve as your animation path.  Get the Animate Along a Path tool, choose the desired options, click on a View, and then click on the path.  (When selecting these options, you may wish to select Tangent: +Z, Up Axis: +Y.)

 

NOTE that if you want to create an animation of the camera going around your objects (similar to the Turntable feature), you can do this very easily by creating the desired starting view that is centered on your objects.  Then go to a Top view and draw a circle whose center is at the Center of Interest, and whose circumference is on the Eye Point of the camera.  Go to a Side View, and Move the circle straight up so that its height is equal to that of the Eye Point.  Then simply animate the  Eye Point of the camera along this path.

 

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Note also that for both Options 2 and 3, you can Keyframe the entire camera, just the Eyepoint, just the Center of Interest, or both independently if you like.

 

Once you have previewed your animation and have everything as you would like, you can select Generate Animation from the Display Menu to save this as an animation file.  We generally recommend saving this as a FAN file with compression set to Off, or Deflate.  Once this is generated, you can use the File Menu: View File command to play back the animation.  You can then use the File Menu: Export Animation to export the FAN file to a Quicktime Movie file (MOV), to a wide variety of image file formats, or if you are on Windows, you can also export this to an AVI file.  Note that with MOV or AVI, you can select from different CODEC options, which will affect the quality and size of the resulting animation.

 

You can also right click on any tool in formZ and choose Manual to open the documentation to the appropriate page. 

 

In addition, there are many animation videos that you can find here:

 

<http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEF4E89FBDF4318F1&feature=plcp>

 

These videos are for formZ 6, but this applies 99% to the current versions of formZ.

 

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

[jeffgrune]

The Perspective-to-Axonometric camera change is intermittent and not easily repeatable. I have copied and pasted the camera and objects to a new file, but it doesn't change the view in the new file. I have animated cameras before using paths and move-and-set keyframes. It usually works. When unexpected things happen, like the view switching to Axo, I'm stumped.

How can the Center of Interest or be tweaked after the tracks are down? The COI isn't where I want it to be during part of the sequence. How do I move it without generating a new keyframe?

[Tech]

Turn off the Auto KeyFrame from the Animation Time Line?

[jeffgrune]

I like the Animate Entities tool. Lots more control over camera positions. Didn't know how it worked before now.

[Tech]

Yes, Option 1 is the most straightforward...