ANIMATION IN BLENDER 2.79

 

 ANIMATION PART 1 -NOTES

INTRODUCTION - BASIC CONCEPT OF ANIMATION.

Animation is the process of making something appear to move  by showing a series of still images, one after another, each one slightly different from the previous one, creating an  illusion of motion. This is the concept used in movies. When the images are moved at a rapid speed of 24 pictures(frames) per second or more, then the human brain perceives such change as continuous, which is based on the concept of "Persistence of vision".

TECHNICAL DETAILS

FRAMES, FRAMES PER SECOND, DIFFERENT VIDEO STDS –NTSC,PAL ETC.

Each image in animation is called a frame. Normally 24 frames are shown per second (fps). In Blender we set up scenes using the different characters called object, which perform some action. To enhance the quality of the scene, colored back ground, lighting are included. The whole action is displayed on the computer screen. This is captured by the camera, set up inside Blender and converted into still images which when assembled sequentially becomes a video.
A series of videos assembled with proper sound effects becomes a movie. For display on television the American Standard NTSC specifies 30 fps and the Australian Standard PAL follows 25 fps.
A one minute video, will have 60X24=1440 frames, for 24 fps.

TIMELINE EDITOR.

Time line editor is basically used to set and visualize the frame movement, with its control to start, stop and rewind buttons and provision for setting the total number of frames. It is used for setting the key frames.

 PART 1

OBJECTIVE : BASIC ANIMATION -TO MOVE AN OBJECT FROM POINT A TO POINT B AND THEN TO POINT A.

STEPS

1.ADD AN OBJECT TO ANIMATE.

2.SET FRAME RATE AS 24 FPS, TOTAL NO OF KEY FRAMES 240. START FRAME IS 1 AND END FRAME IS 240.

3.SET KEY FRAME FOR THE OBJECT AT POINTS A, B AND  A AGAIN. SAVE FILE.

4. PLAY ANIMATION.

STEP 1 :ADD AN OBJECT TO ANIMATE

To add an object in 3D window, set your cursor in the 3D window and then press Shift+A keys. A pop-up menu will appear. Here select "Mesh" and then "Cube". A Cube will be added at the location where the cursor was last positioned.

Set the view to Front Ortho view, by pressing "1" and then "5", in the Numpad.

To see the x, y, z location coordinates of the cube,  press "N" key while the cursor is still in the 3D window. A  properties panel will appear on the right side where you should be able to see the location coordinates of the Cube. Set it to x=0,y=0, z=0. Let us assume that this will be point A where the Cube shall be located in  our animation.

STEP 2 : SET START AND END KEY FRAMES

The Start and End key frames are set to 1 and 240 by default. The frame Rate per second(fps) is set to 24fps, the default value.


STEP 3:SET KEY FRAMES

Key frames, are set in the 3d Window, key frame is visible in the Time line window. The current location of the cursor, indicated by the vertical green line in the Time line window is the frame number which we want to set as key frame. When a frame is set as key-frame, a small, vertical yellow line will appear along with the green line in the TimeLine Window.

To set a key-frame, SELECT the Cube, by clicking the Right Mouse Button(RMB) on the Cube. An yellow border-line will appear around the Cube. (If you want to deselect the cube,press "A" key). Let the Cube remain be selected. Note that the current location of the Cube is 0,0,0.

To SET KEY FRAME, press  the "I" button and then click on "Location", in the pop-up menu.A key frame is set  for this location of the Cube. This is indicated by the small yellow line, in the Time Line Window.

Save the File, by pressing Ctrl+S. In Blender, you need to save the file, frequently at regular intervals, to save your work.  

Now we need to repeat these steps for the two other location of the Cube at Point B and C.

Now we shall set key frame for point B.
In the Timeline Window, click on the green line using your Left Mouse Button(LMB) and drag it to frame number 120.This value is displayed on  the Current Frame Number button in the Time Line Window. We  can set the Current frame also by entering a value here. This is an alternate method to set current key frame.

Let us position the Cube at x=0,y=0,z=5, by entering these values  for location in the properties panel.

Make sure the Cube is selected, indicated by the yellow border line around the Cube. Click on "I" Button. Select "Location" in the pop-up menu. A small yellow line will be displayed at frame number 80, in the Timeline Window.

Save the File, by pressing Ctrl+S.

In the Timeline Window, click on the green line using your Left Mouse Button(LMB) and drag it to frame number 240.This value is displayed on  the Current Frame Number button in the Time Line Window. We  can set the Current frame by entering a value here. THis is an alternate method to set current key frame.

Let us position the Cube at x=0,y=0,z=0, by entering these values  for location in the properties panel.

Make sure the Cube is selected, indicated by the yellow border line around the Cube. Click on "I" Button. Select "Location" in the pop-up menu.

Save the File.


At this stage, four yellow lines must be displayed in the TimeLine Window at frame 1,120 and 240.In case you want to delete a key frame, select the key frame,with the Cursor positioned within the 3D window, press "Alt+I" key. Save the File.


STEP 4: PLAY ANIMATION

First set the current frame to frame 1 in the Timeline Window. Press Alt+A keys to play the Animation. The Cube must move from location A to B to C  and repeat the cycle.You can also press the > key, which is the play button in the Timeline Window. To stop the animation, press on the Play Button once more, or hit the "Esc" key.

This completes Part 1. Though the instruction may seem to be elaborate, it is meant to assist the first time learner. Once you get a hang of the steps, it is hardly a few minutes job.

Just play around. If some thing goes wrong, badly, start over again ! Nothing to loose.
 
 VIDEO LINK :ANIMATION USING BLENDER 2.79 PART 1 

 

VIDEO LINK : ANIMATION USING BLENDER 2.79 PART 2

 

VIDEO LINK : ANIMATION USING BLENDER 2.79 PART 3

 

VIDEO LINK : ANIMATION USING BLENDER 2.79 PART 4

 

VIDEO LINK: ANIMATION USING BLENDER 2.79 PART 5 

 

TO ANIMATE THE COLOR SETTING OF A LAMP

 TO ANIMATE THE COLOR SETTING OF A LAMP

Blender 2.79b
Open a new Blender file with the default objects - A Cube, Camera and lamp.Set up the objects as per details given below.
Settings:

1. Cube- location 0,0,0, rotation to 0,0,0.
2. Camera- location, 7.5,-6.5,5.5 ,rotation 65,0,45.
3. Lamp- location  4,1,6 , rotation  40,0,110. on the  Properties Editor window set lamp  energy to 10 and   diffuse (RGB) value to 1,0,0.
4. View - Camera view by pressing 0 on the Numpad.
5. Viewport shading - Rendered - In the 3D window header.
6. Time line editor window-Set cursor (green line) at frame number 1. End frame to 100.


In 3D window select the Lamp, then in  Properties Editor window,click on the Lamp icon, and then, below the Point lamp button, click RMB on the Red color band which opens up a pop-up menu. Click on Insert keyframe. An yellow line appears at frame one indicating that a key frame is inserted. Now move the cursor to frame 100. Change the color setting of the lamp to 0,0,1. Click RMB on the color band,in the popup menu , click on insert keyframe, a key frame will be inserted at frame 100. Now save the file.Position the cursor at frame number 1.

On the info Editor header, Click on "Render" and then click on "Render Animation". The animation will  be rendered. Once the rendering is done, click on "Render" once again and click on Play Animation. The light color of the Lamp will change from Red to Blue, as the cursor moves from frame 1 to 100.
This effect will be visible with the color of the cube  changing from Red to Blue due to animation of color setting of the Lamp.

ANIMATE ANYTHING IN BLENDER

 ANIMATE ANYTHING IN BLENDER

 

 While you animate the normal parameters associated with an object with Blender like its location, rotation and scale, have you ever wondered whether it would be possible to animate other parameters, which are in plenty in Blender, like the color of the material, the texture applied, the brightness and color of the lamp, the alpha settings or  the shape of a mesh ? 

 The big answer is YES. Practically almost all parameters in Blender can be animated. You want to know how? Just get in touch, or keep watching for my next post.

TO COPY AND PASTE KEY FRAMES

 TO COPY AND PASTE KEY FRAMES

Delete the Cube and add a Monkey. Go to frame one set up a key frame. Do changes in  location and rotation settings. Go to frame 125 and set up another keyframe. Now if you want to copy the key frame at frame 1 and paste it at frame 250 follow the following steps.

To copy/paste keyframes for the same object,go to the Dope sheet, press "A" key to de-select all action points (yellow squares). Then select the action points which corresponds to the key frame you want to copy by right clicking each action point while holding down the "Shift" key.Once you have selected all the desired points  press Ctrl+C to copy, go to the key frame where you want to paste then press Ctrl+V. Save the file.Run animation to check for the desired result.

RIGHT OBJECT SCALE FACTOR FOR RIGID BODY PHYSICS SIMULATION

 When you want to do rigid body physics  simulation make sure that all the objects created for the scene must have a scale  factor of 1,1,1 along all three axes. To do this, select an object after scaling, and press Ctrl+A and select scale. You can see the scale factor set to 1 along all three axes in the properties panel by pressing N and looking under the head  "Scale".

 This is essential for the objects to perform properly when you do the rigid body physics simulation.

TRACK TO CONSTRAINT

 

When we talk about constraints we talk about a source/owner and the target object. Constraint is applied to the source object. The source object, when it has to pickup  the control parameters from another object, then a target object is added. Some constraints of this type are transformation constraint, action constraint, copy location/rotation/scale constraint. Some  constraints which do not require a target object are limit location, limit distance, limit rotation and so on.

 Track to constraint, in simple terms means  a "Look at"  sort of constraint. When you have an object say a monkey(target) and the camera (source) on which the constraint is applied, the camera is set to face the monkey, irrespective of the movement or rotation of the Monkey or the camera. If the "Up" and "To" axis setting is the same, the constraint will not work. The influence setting can vary from 0 to 1. Zero means no effect, 1 means maximum effect.

 

The three images above shows how the Camera is always facing the Monkey.

The settings to activate the Track-to constraint is shown above. Some other examples of using this constraint are given below:

1. Let us say a ball is bouncing across the ground and the player's eye balls are continuously following the ball, then the constraint  is applied to the eye ball with the ball as the target.

2. Let us say a singer is moving around on the stage and a focus light is set such that the light beam always follows the singer, then the target will be the  singer and the constraint will be applied on the light(source/owner).

Experiment with the settings to get a hang of how it works.

CONSTRAINTS

 Constraints are a way to control an object’s  location, rotation or scale. Constraints can be used on objects or bones.Constraints are  mainly  used in animation. It can also be used on objects for controlling in a static sense. While constraints are used on the object as a whole it can also be used to control a vertex group or a bone part.
 

To apply a constraint to an object(or bone), first select it.

Constraints can be activated from the Properties panel  by clicking on the button having two chain links as its image icon. Hovering the cursor over this icon will display its name.

 When you have an object in the 3D window, constraints can be  activated by going to the header bar which is below the 3D windows, clicking on Object ->Constraints-> "Add constraints with target".  Keyboard shortcut for this is Shift+Ctrl+C. This will open the constraints menu panel. Here click on the particular constraint. This will open the particular constraint's menu window where required setting should be made to  activate the constraint. 

 More than one constraint can be applied to an object which is known as cascading constraints. All the constraints from top to be one below till the last one will have its effect on the object. 

 A constraint when applied to an object may be temporarily deactivated by clicking on the eye icon in the constraint window, to closing it. 

 Further the influence setting which has a value varying from 0 to 1 can be animated. Setting the influence value to zero will also deactivate  constraint.

TO SHIFT ORIGIN OF AN OBJECT TO ANY POINT

 

Origin of an object can be shifted  to any point on the object or outside it.

 

TO SHIFT ORIGIN OF AN OBJECT TO ANY POINT ON THE OBJECT

 Follow the steps given below:

1 Select the object and go to edit mode by pressing Tab key.

2. If all the vertices are selected, press  "A" key to de select all vertices.

3. Click on the desired vertex on which the Origin needs to be positioned and go to Mesh-> Snap->Cursor to selection.

4. Press Tab key to go to object mode. Now press Object->Transform-> Origin to 3D Cursor.

TO SHIFT ORIGIN OF AN OBJECT TO ANY POINT OUTSIDE THE OBJECT.

1. Let us consider a Cube for this example.

2. Select Cube and press Tab key to go to  Edit mode. 

3. Select all the vertices, including the ones hidden from your direct view.

4. Assume that we want the Origin to be 3 Blender units away from the geometric Centre of the cubes. Press G-> X-> 3 and hit Enter key.

 

ANIMATION

 ANIMATION-2

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

 Here we shall learn about some additional  features of animation in Blender. When we want to animate a character(say a Cube), apart from changing its location, its angle of rotation and size(scaling) can also be animated. Again combinations like location and rotation, location and size,rotation and size or all three location-rotation-scale can be varied. Further these changes can be effected on all three axes - X,Y and Z.
 Further not only the objects in Blender like the Cube, Cylinder,Cone, UVSphere can be animated, the Camera and Lights can also be animated .  Further, the different shades of colour of an object or the brightness level can also be animated.  
 If there are more than one object in the 3D Screen, when we animate, we must set key frames for each Object. Again when the movement of the object is complex, (when we make a robot to walk like a man) then the number of keyframes would also increase very fast. This can be a very daunting task. To simplify the keyframing process and to speed it up, we can use Auto keyframing.

BLENDER ANIMATION

 ANIMATION 1 -INTRO

The word "Animation" is derived from the word "Animate" , which means to make an object come alive or to move like a living being. Cartoon characters are a good example of animation where the characters are made to walk, jump,slide,laugh or do  any other motion.


ANIMATION CONCEPT

Let us understand the basic concept of animation. Look at the image of an arrow facing upwards in Fig-1. 

                                                      Fig-1


We want this arrow to smoothly turn to the horizontal position as shown in Fig-2.

 Fig-2

To animate this arrow, we draw images of the arrow at in-between positions as shown in Fig-3.

                                                                         Fig-3

 The whole set of image, from beginning to end,  would then be as shown below in Fig-4.

                                               Fig-4


When we animate these images the computer will generate images for all in-between positions and show all the images in  sequence. The arrow will appear to turn smoothly from Vertical to Horizontal position as shown in the video, whose link is given below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1krmBTsjkgH9fgMNc59FPzZn7MZxIsxkb/view?usp=sharing

 In animation, one basic idea we must know is that when a sequence of images are run quickly at a minimum rate of 24 images per second the human eye sees the image movement  as a continues movement. This   idea is used in all animation, videos and movies.

 In Blender each of this image, where some change is made, is called  a Keyframe. We must set the key frames in Blender. In the Arrow animation example we discussed above, we have set four keyframes.  When we animate, Blender generates all the intermediate frames.

Now we shall learn to animate a Cube in Blender. The steps are given below:

1. Open Blender and then a new file and add an object(Cube)  at x,y location(0,0) in the Top view(Press Numpad 7).
2. In the Timeline window as shown below, set the frame number to 1.

2. Position the cursor in 3D window and press "I" key. In the "Insert keyframe Menu" panel which opens, select "Location".

 

 

An yellow line will appear in the Timeline window which indicates that a key frame is inserted.

3. Next set the frame number to 125 in the Timeline window as shown below. 

 

In the 3D window move the cube to x,y location (5,5). Hit "I" key, then select Location in the "Insert Keyframe Menu" panel. An yellow line will appear in the time line window which indicates that a key frame is inserted at frame 125.

4. Next set the frame number to 250 in the Timeline window as shown below.

 

In the 3D window move the cube to x,y location (10,10). Hit "I" key, then select Location in the "Insert Keyframe Menu" panel. An yellow line will appear in the time line window which indicates that a key frame is inserted at frame 250.
5. Now set the frame number to 1 by pressing |<< key in the TimeLine window. This can also be done by entering 1 in the window as shown in the image above. To play the animation, press > key.
6. Save the Blender file.