An introduction to animation

Module(s): Animation

In animation, you can shade (from a palette of up to 16 million colors) the walls, windows, 3D lines and so on you created in the 3D and architectural modules.

Using Set Project Light (How), you can set any number of colored light sources of varying intensity which allow you to create realistic scenes. Using Set Surface (How), you can assign surface properties to the architectural and 3D elements. You can use textures, such as wood, marble, stone, sand and so on, supplied with the program or bitmap images such as scans of tile structures for material simulations.

Activate Set Surface in one of the following ways

• Menu bar: Change Presentation Animation

• Toolbar: Change
• Palette: Tools Change area in the following module(s):

Animation

• Shortcut menu: Navigation Mode selected - Right mouse button

Activate Set Light for Project in one of the following ways

• Menu bar: Change Presentation Animation

• Toolbar: Change
• Palette: Tools Change area in the following module(s):

Animation

• Shortcut menu: Navigation Mode selected - Right mouse button

In order to view the object in its real surroundings or to achieve other visual effects, you can place a bitmap (for example, a scanned photograph) as a texture in the background. You can then display this background bitmap as a 2D plane or a 3D sphere.

Using Render (How), you can render images based on Global Illumination (with/without QMC) to produce photo-realistic images for presentations.

Activate Render in one of the following ways

• Menu bar: Create Presentation Animation

• Keyboard: F2

• Toolbar: Create
• Palette: Tools Create area in the following module(s):

Animation

• Shortcut menu: Navigation Mode selected - Right mouse button

Using Set Camera Path (How), you can match camera positions intuitively from the viewport. You can also define a camera path in plan view or enter the coordinates of the cameras. Using Record Movie (How), you can record the camera path as an AVI movie, which you can then play back on any Windows computer. You can save the bitmaps calculated and use them for presentations. Predefined camera paths, such as Rotate camera by 360 degrees and Orbit camera by 360 degrees as well as Sun study produce meaningful results in no time at all.
When recording movies, you can choose between the Animation (quick, Flat-Shading, Gouraud or Phong method) and Render (realistic, Global Illumination method) settings.

Phong shading computes the lighting effect for each pixel, producing precise light cones.

Gouraud shading computes the lighting effect at each surface point and shades the surface evenly.
You can achieve smooth color gradients using this technique.
The program calculates transparency and textures. If you require precise light cones, you must use Phong shading.

Flat shading fills surfaces with uniform colors.

Activate Record Movie in one of the following ways

• Menu bar: Create Presentation Animation

• Toolbar: Create
• Palette: Tools Create area in the following module(s):

Animation

• Shortcut menu: Navigation Mode selected - Right mouse button

Activate Set Camera Path in one of the following ways

• Menu bar: Change Presentation Animation

• Toolbar: Change
• Palette: Tools Change area in the following module(s):

Animation

• Shortcut menu: Navigation Mode selected - Right mouse button

So you can quickly and easily check each design stage or construction stage and create convincing presentations. If you do not want to display the entire 3D model in animation, you can select individual components using Element Selection (How). You can even display only a single design entity in animation.

Activate Element Selection in one of the following ways

• Menu bar: Elevation

• Toolbar: Viewport toolbar

• Shortcut menu: Navigation Mode selected - Right mouse button