Speaker 1: We recently posted a
video and how we can create
animations within SOLIDWORKS and
then take it into visualize
professional for rendering. In
this video, we showed a Go-Pro
gimble advert that has different
animations stitch together with
text appearing, transitions
between design, color,
variations, and water swirling
around the model among other
effects. In this previous video,
we showed how to create movement
of the parts. It did not go over
how to crate some of the more
advanced effects. Although if
you have access to and are an
expert in video editing
software, some of these could be
done outside of SOLIDWORKS or
visualize We can also produce
them in the CAD animation
process, which for a lot of
people can be easier and faster.
The text in the gimble advert
was done in SOLIDWORKS by using
simple rectangular sketch with a
surface plane feature used to
create essentially a board to
add the text to a new sketch can
then be created on top of this
surface consisting of a
construction line with the text
added using the text tool, the
text must then be used to split
the board up using the split
line tool. We can then
differentiate the background
from the text by adding an
appearance onto the face of the
background, remembering to
include any internal regions
within the text.
If outputting the animation from
SOLIDWORKS, remove the
background completely by setting
this appearances transparency
amount to one in the advanced
illumination tab. Once the text
bar has been created, we can
import it into an assembly
depending how we want to animate
our text. We must mate it into
position, but have it editable
within the motion study to make
it into the correct place but
have it Rotatable. For example,
often the easiest method is to
draw a sketch line, to act as
the rotate access. We can then
add a couple of simple
coincidence mates from the
surface boundary edge to this
sketch line. This will hold the
surface in the correct place,
but allow a rotate to occur. The
last thing for a SOLIDWORKS
animation that is worth doing is
setting the display style for
the writing component to shaded.
So we don't get any edges of the
surface plane. We can do this
separately to the global design
style. So all the edges from the
design still shown, we can then
animate it into the motion
study, like any other part file.
If we want to photo realistic,
look, we can take it into
SOLIDWORKS visualize using the
add. In the tech surface we'll
import, but the appearance won't
be completely transparent. Like
it was in SOLIDWORKS. We can
either set a glass apperance and
set the interaction to the light
to zero. So it will be
completely transparent.
Or we can just simply delete the
surface around the text. If we
were to do this in SOLIDWORKS,
it would create many different
bodies for the writing in
visualize it groups, the writing
into one part. Even if you
delete the surrounding surface
to ensure the writing is clear,
a flat appearance can be used,
which essentially means that the
part has no interaction with
light at all. And its color is
always true. Of course, instead
of bringing the text files into
the SOLIDWORKS assembly, which
we may be using for other things
such as drawings and BOMs where
we don't want to have the extra
components, we can always bring
the text bar directly into
visualize. The main thing is to
ensure they're scaled all the
same as to not produce text of
different sizes, but they can
then be edited as with other
pieces of key frame animations
or rotation animations. We can
add alternative transitional
effects, such as white
transitions using alpha channels
or the apearance apply to the
text and animating this
appearance by adding key frames
to move the alpha channel from
side to side, the alpha channel
used here is simply a PNG that
is half white, half black. So at
the starts, the text is hidden.
This is because within the alpha
channel texture option, black
will always be completely
transparent.
The alpha channel was then moved
and the white will turn the part
opaque key frames are used to
remember these positions with a
change bar, illustrating an
interpolation between the two
keys. The same can be done with
arrows or any other geometry
that you would like to add extra
information for the major
advantage of doing texts like
these in SOLIDWORKS and in
visualize is that even if we
know how to do it in a post
editor, it can take
significantly more time due to
having to add lots of masks to
allow the text to pop up around
the model. It is just simple
static text that doesn't
interact with the model at all.
It may be faster in an editor
and I will show you how we can
do this in a free editor. Later
on another effect that was shown
at the advert was a video
background, both to show at
glittering background to show
off the design and also to show
the camera's screen is visible
over the gimbals arms. Video
decals were added in visualize
2019. They're very useful for
showing effects, the obvious one
being the screen show movement,
but also for things such as
steam coming out of a kettle by
using a black background video
and utilizing the brightness as
a passive masking option. What
we saw in the gimbal advert was
using a video for the background
behind the model.
It is not currently possible to
add a video back plate. Like you
can add a static image to show
the part in context. Therefore
we can instead use the video
decal, but on a piece of
geometry aligned perpendicular
to the camera we are looking
through, we can do this very
easily with a couple of tricks.
First, add a wall primitive from
the models tab, add new model.
This will place a large flat
surface on the center point to
get it normal to the camera. We
could try and do this manually,
but the easiest way is to mate
the wall model with the default
camera on the transform tab, the
wall will appear to disappear,
but activating another camera.
We can see what has actually
happened. The plane has jumped
to the same location as the
camera. We just need to move the
plane behind the model, away
from the camera, using the
object manipulation tool. The
plane is now perfectly
perpendicular for normal to the
camera. If we move or animate
the camera, the plane behind
will move or animate as well and
stay normal to it. All we need
to do now is add our video decal
to this wall and resize it to
fit our screen. The only thing
we want to watch out for using
this method is having too big a
wall as it will block light from
the scene, eliminating the back
of the product.
Any reflections in our model,
however will reflect this video
decal and an emissive material
on the decal can mean that the
decal provides extra light into
the scene. When using accurate
mode, a similar technique could
be used for animating to show
color changes in the adverts
shown earlier, the three choices
was shown by a sliding color
edit. This was created by
rendering three different videos
and masking them together in a
post processor. We would review
how this was done later on, but
if you want to show color
changes, all done within one
output had video, a slightly
different technique can be used
like shown here. The actual
model is fairly easily shown to
be changing color, using an
appearance key frame animation.
The only thing we need to watch
out for in this case is the
fading between colors rather
than jumping from one color to
the next, unless we are going to
offer whole spectrum of colors.
This is probably not what we
want. And therefore we want to
change the appearance animation,
key transitions to hold. So it
jumps from one color to the
next. The issue comes when we
want to animate the background
color change as well. Although a
key frame animation track can be
added in the scene. It only
records value changes such as
brightness or rotation rather
than the background color
change.
Therefore, if we change the
background color, it will change
the entire animation, whether or
not the scene has keys added
because of this, the technique
of the plane in the background
comes in useful. Again, if we
add this plane into the model
behind the geometry and make it
larger than the field of view,
we can add a flat appearance
meaning it won't be affected by
lights and animate this just
like our other appearances. To
make it a bit of a nicer
aesthetic on the transition. We
can also add a copy of our model
add an emissive appearance to it
and fade this in and out. When
the color change occurs with a
little help from the bloom
filter on the camera, this will
whitewash wash the model on the
instant that it changes color,
providing a less abrupt feel to
the animation. The last effect
that we will have a look at
before we jump into the
post-processing options is the
water animating around the
model. This is actually a
downloaded model that was given
a water appearance and animated
in the normal way. These kinds
of organic looking models are
sometimes very hard or
impossible to create an
engineering program such as
SOLIDWORKS. They can be created
more easily in a subdivision
modeler.
The great thing about visualize
is we can import a huge number
of CAD file formats, including
OBJ, FBX, and 3DS to name just a
few and therefore bring in
models such as this water to
enhance our animation and show
our SOLIDWORKS models in their
best light. So all the
techniques so far have been
about creating as much of the
video inside of visualize as
possible, rather than doing any
of the post-processing. However,
to get some results that you
might be after it is sometimes
necessary to take it into a post
editing software to stitch or
edit your renders programs, such
as Adobe After Effects, Adobe
Premier Pro, Vegas pro, and
Camtasia all have benefits and
can really finish that animation
render off. However they are all
paid for. If you're not using it
every day, you may not want to
pay for a post processor and
therefore are looking for a free
alternative. One of the most
advanced free video editing
softwares available is DaVinci
Resolve. DaVinci Resolve has
been used for a huge number of
the biggest Hollywood movies
with a paid version for just 225
pound. But the free version also
has more than enough tools to
edit our animation renders, to
create a great advert within the
software. We can stitch
animations together, add
transitions, add text, add
logos, add audio, and add any of
the effects that we need to
enhance. What we have created.
This is another huge piece of
software to learn and see if we
can reduce the amount of work by
doing it in visualize it is a
bonus. To create this GoPro
color variation clip first and
visualize. We must render three
different colors of the same
turn table animation for this.
We can use configurations
activating three different
scenes with different background
colors and different appearances
applied to the geometry. We can
then send each one to the queue
to render to them all in one, go
once the three renders are
complete, we can then bring them
into DaVinci resolve with a
simple drag and drop and layer
them on top of each other. In
the timeline of the edit tab,
they will all play at the same
time. And all we then need to do
is mask bits of the top three
videos out at certain times,
this can be done within the
fusion tab, using a rectangular
mask and changing the settings.
So the mask will cover the
entire viewport, but starts off
screen within the key frame
timeline keys can be created
much like we create in visualize
to mark the starting location of
the mask. And then moving later
in the timeline and changing the
settings of the mask to cover
the entire viewport. So we can't
see the video anymore.
When we play the video as a
whole, the render underneath is
then shown this process must be
repeated for the next two videos
with the key frames being moved
to slightly later in DaVinci
resolve. This can be done with a
simple copy and paste of the
mask. No texts was created and
visualized for this clip, and
therefore we will add it in
post. This is a simple process
as we just want to add simple
static text as sits on top of
the four videos. This can be
done within the effects options
in the edit tab, making this
text interact and move in and
around the model will take a lot
of masking and effects, which is
possible, but would take more
time than we looked at before in
visualize once this is a
complete, it is a simple process
of animating the final colors,
turntable animation with
settings that are appropriate
for video usage, H264 is
normally the most suitable
encoder to use. We can then
bring it into another project to
combine it with all the other
animations on, to know more
about what you can do and
visualize, give us a call or
have a look at our training
courses..