Testing the Animation

At this point we have a four scene animation with a duration of 35 seconds.

The Animator provides us with an excellent way to record and document our script. In addition to saving all aspects of our animation when we save the application (or the Animator object), we can also create a Readable Script. If you do this, it will create a file with the following content. Please note that the indentation shown below is as created to help segregate the scenes.

Initial Conditions:

 View:

  Azimuth = 180.00

  Elevation = 90.00

  Scale = 1.00

  Roll = 0.00

  True Scale = 0.017769601196

  XCenter = 11336.29

  YCenter = 12900.69

  ZCenter = -111.35

  XTrans = -201.44

  YTrans = -229.24

  ZTrans = 1.98

 _plume_shell: Iso Level = 0.000000

 slice_easting: Position = 11618.000000

 slice_northing: Position = 13122.000000

 slice_easting: Transparency = 0.100000

 slice_northing: Transparency = 0.100000

Start scene 1:

 Comment: Begin at Top View and rotate down to SW-210 at 25 Deg. elevation

 Duration: 5.00 Seconds

 Change view to:

  Azimuth = 210.00

  Elevation = 25.00

  Scale = 0.95

  Roll = 0.00

  True Scale = 0.017769601196

  XCenter = 11336.29

  YCenter = 12900.69

  ZCenter = -111.35

  XTrans = -201.44

  YTrans = -229.24

  ZTrans = 1.98

Start scene 2:

 Comment: Rotate through North to 510 Azimuth and change isolevel to 3 (1000.0)

 Duration: 9.00 Seconds

 Change view to:

  Azimuth = 510.00

  Elevation = 25.00

  Scale = 0.95

  Roll = 0.00

  True Scale = 0.017769601196

  XCenter = 11336.29

  YCenter = 12900.69

  ZCenter = -111.35

  XTrans = -201.44

  YTrans = -229.24

  ZTrans = 1.98

 Change _plume_shell: Iso Level to 3.000000

Start scene 3:

 Comment: Rotate to 570 - Elev 38, move slices and fade them in

 Duration: 8.00 Seconds

 Change view to:

  Azimuth = 570.00

  Elevation = 38.00

  Scale = 0.95

  Roll = 0.00

  True Scale = 0.017769601196

  XCenter = 11336.29

  YCenter = 12900.69

  ZCenter = -111.35

  XTrans = -201.44

  YTrans = -229.24

  ZTrans = 1.98

 Change slice_easting: Position to 11054.000000

 Change slice_northing: Position to 12679.000000

 Change slice_easting: Transparency to 1.000000

 Change slice_northing: Transparency to 1.000000

 Pause for 2.00 seconds.

Start scene 4:

 Comment: Rotate to 540 - Elev 90, move slices to center and reset plume level to 0.0

 Duration: 5.00 Seconds

 Change view to:

  Azimuth = 540.00

  Elevation = 90.00

  Scale = 1.00

  Roll = 0.00

  True Scale = 0.017769601196

  XCenter = 11336.29

  YCenter = 12900.69

  ZCenter = -111.35

  XTrans = -201.44

  YTrans = -229.24

  ZTrans = 1.98

 Change _plume_shell: Iso Level to 0.000000

 Change slice_easting: Position to 11336.000000

 Change slice_northing: Position to 12900.000000

 Pause for 2.00 seconds.

 

Combined with a few pictures, a 4DIM file, and/or a coarse version of your animation, this script should provide you the ability to communicate the intentions of your script to a layperson. This should allow you to discuss and revise the script as necessary

Since we have yet to set an Image, Animation or .4D file name, if we RUN the animation it won't create anything, but it will control our application and we'll see each frame in the Viewer. For testing purposes, we usually change the frame rate to a lower level so we can get a quick review of the content and duration of the animation. Change the Frame Rate to 5.0 (frames per second) and click on the Run Animation button.

If we don't like some aspect of our animation we can change it. The things we can change are:

  1. Content

  2. Scene Duration

  3. After Scene Pauses

  4. Adding additional parameters

  5. Adding additional scenes

In other words, we can change anything!

After my test run, there was only one thing that I would change and it was minor. For Scene 3, I didn't like the 38 degree elevation. I felt it should be lower.

To change this you do the following:

  1. Set the Current Scene slider to 3

  2. Hit the image\up_arrow.jpg Up Button above End one time to use the end of scene values from the Animator.

  3. Change the view with Az-El to 30 degree elevation.

  4. Hit the image\down_arrow.jpg Down Button above End one time to set the values in the Animator.

Note: You can see what the end of scene key frame is for every scene by setting the current scene and using the Up Button.