FEATURE IN BETA STAGE - THIS DOCUMENTATION IS STILL IN PROGRESS
Studio was not created to be an animation application, just a basic 3D layout scenario where you can drop objects and setup up your lighting, materials and environment –similar to a photographer's studio– so it doesn't include all the animation tools typical on any animation application. But sometimes it can be useful to have some easy tools to produce simple animations quickly –like turntable or time lapses– without leaving Studio.
To do so, Studio includes an Animation tool with which it is very easy to generate simple animations on a scene directly from Studio. The Animation panel is accessible from the toolbar.
Once opened, the Animation Parameters panel allows you to generate a sequence of frames from your scene animating the camera, an object, the environment or the sun.
- Output path: indicate the location for the MXS files that will be generated
- Output name: set the name for the exported frames
- Frames: number of frames for the animation
- Target: set the item the active camera will be aiming at. It can be a particular object in the scene, the origin (-origin-), or the current target of the camera (-keep-)
- Render after export: this option launches automatically the animated sequence to be rendered by Maxwell after the export is finished
Generating an animation in Studio
Once set the output settings and number of frames, you can proceed to define the animation of the camera, of any object, of the environment or of the sun, or any combination of them all.
- Animate camera: you can define a rotation traveling of the camera around the target set in the previous step. You can set the rotation arc (in degrees), the animation direction (clockwise or counterclockise) and its speed (constant or easy in/out). Motion blur could be calculated regarding the rotation of the camera. Great to display an object from all around.
- Animate object: you can define an object that will be rotated around its own axis. You can set which object, the rotation arc (in degrees), the rotation axis (X, Y, or Z), the animation direction (clockwise or counterclockise) and its speed (constant or easy in/out). Motion blur could be calculated regarding the rotation of the camera. This option is perfect for producing turntable animations for showing objects.
- Animate environment: you can animate the active environment –sky or IBL– describing a rotation around the scene. You can set the rotation arc (in degrees), the animation direction (clockwise or counterclockise) and its speed (constant or easy in/out).
- Animate sun: this option allows you to easily produce a time lapse animation on your scene, from an begin to an end time. You can also define the animation direction (forwards or backwards) and its speed (constant or easy in/out).
