Play & edit animations – ARCHLine.XP

The Edit and Play Animations dialog makes it quick and easy to create spectacular animations, which can be saved to your computer as videos at the touch of a button. During animation, the project comes to life thanks to moving people and objects, as well as effects. People animations, interactive animations, object animations that you can set in the object properties, as well as the fire, water, smoke, weather effects and animated vegetation that you can place from the library can bring your project to life. To create an animation, all you need to do is set up a sequence of views, LIVE automatically connects them together and creates a smooth-moving video.

Main animation dialog

Clicking on the Play and edit animations icon will bring up a dialog for general animation management. Here you can manage all animation parts at once, and play the entire animation.

Add a new animation:

You can add a new animation to the list by clicking on the plus sign, and the edit panel for that animation part will automatically appear. The animation will always start from the current view of the camera, then you can add new keyframes to the animation by moving the camera to a new view. By clicking on the arrow above the plus sign, three additional animation creation functions are available:

Animation: click on the plus icon on the left edge of the panel to make the current camera position the starting point of the animation. Move the camera to set the next view of the animation, then click the icon in the animation tray to add the view to the animation.

Walk animation: clicking on the walk animation icon fixes the camera height to eye level, giving the illusion of a personal walk-through of the model. Movement is controlled by the A, S, D, W keys, with the SPACE key used to jump over obstacles. The left mouse button can be used to add new views to the animation, and the right mouse button or Esc key can be used to stop the animation.

Fly animation: clicking on the fly animation icon will move the camera freely in the model space. Use the A, S, D, W keys to move the camera horizontally, and the Q and E keys to move the camera vertically. The left mouse button can be used to add new views to the animation, and the right mouse button or Esc key can be used to stop the animation.

Still image: during the animation creation process, still images can be inserted into the final assembly as desired, so that custom logos, title images and closing images can be inserted into the video.

If there is at least one animation part in the animation tray, a icon will appear next to the preview image, which can be clicked to insert a new animation part.

Add an animation part: this method makes it easy to create animations that are immediately in the right place in the animation list, so you don't have to change the order afterwards.

Select an animation:

Clicking this button displays all the animation parts in a list, so you can easily select the element you want to edit. Animation parts can be renamed in the editor dialog for easy differentiation. You can also enter the editing mode by clicking on the preview of the animation.

Animation playback control panel:

Previous animation: when playing animation parts, the animation slider jumps to the previous frame border.
Stop: press this button to stop the animation playback and return to the first frame.
Play/pause: with this button you can start the animation, press it again to pause the animation. Pressing the play button again will resume the animation from the paused position.
Loop: animation playback can be made infinite by activating this function.
Next animation: when playing animation parts, the animation slider jumps to the next frame border.

Animation slider:

The animation slider graphically indicates where the animation playback is in relation to the total animation length. To the left of the animation slider, the program displays the duration of the animation already played. By editing this value, the animation will jump to the view corresponding to the set duration. The duration to the right of the slider indicates the total length of the animation. By editing this value, you can set the length of the entire animation to be shorter or longer.

Animation tray:

The animation tray displays previews of the animation parts. You can use the arrows below the preview image to change the order of the animation parts. Between the arrows you can find the start time of the animation part. In the top left corner of the image, you can toggle the interactive animations on and off for a given animation part, and in the top right corner, you can delete a given animation part.

Settings:

In the settings, you can specify that the animation parts appear with transitions, and you can specify the length of the transitions between 0.5 and 4 seconds. The frame rate allows you to specify how many frames per second LIVE should produce when saving a video. These settings apply uniformly to all parts of the entire animation.

Generate a video file:

Clicking this button will save all the animations in the animation tray to a video file, with all settings taken into account. The file is saved in the project folder. The rendering time and the size of the video file depend on the resolution and the length of the whole animation.

Open video folder:

Click on this button to open the folder containing the video file in one click. This folder is the same as the project folder.

Manage animation parts

Back to the camera animation list:

You can use this button to go back to the main animation dialog, where you can create new animation parts, view the whole animation or start rendering.

Select an animation:

It's quick and easy to switch between animation parts. Click on the pencil icon to rename the active animation part.

Director mode:

In director mode, the camera path and views are displayed on the screen, so you can modify the animation as an outside observer. With this feature enabled, the path of the selected animation part is clearly visible. When enabled, a preview of the animation part is automatically displayed and when the animation slider is moved along the path, a camera icon indicates where the animation is.

Animation playback control panel:

Previous animation: in the animation part the animation slider jumps to the previous animation frame border.
Stop: pressing this button stops the animation part and returns to the first frame.
Play/pause: with this button you can start the animation part, press it again to pause the playback. Pressing the play button again will resume the animation from the paused position.
Loop: animation playback can be made infinite by activating this function.
Next animation: in the animation part, the animation slider jumps to the next animation frame border.

Interactive object animation switch:

The main switch for interactive animations set for objects. This can be used to turn interactive animations on or off for each animation part.

Snapshot list:

Clicking on the snapshot list icon will display all saved snapshots in a list, which will automatically jump to the preset view when clicked, so you can easily add saved snapshot views to your animations. Camera properties set for snapshots are overridden by camera properties set for the animation part.

Animation part tray:

New views can be added to the animation part by pressing the button. After positioning the camera in the right position, you can simply insert a new view at the desired location, changing the path of the entire animation section. The length of the animation part can be easily customised by changing the duration under the previews.

Sunlight settings:

The Sun position button is located on either side of the animation part tray. On the left side you can set the start point of the Sun and on the right side the end point of the Sun. Different Sun positions can be set for each animation part, so that each animation part within a video can show different scenes. When auto light switch is enabled, LIVE switches light sources on or off according to the position of the Sun. When off, the operation of the light sources is not affected by the position of the Sun.

Poly/Spline path:

Animation parts can be defined by viewpoints and paths connecting them. Viewpoints can be connected in two ways. The default setting is spline, which connects the viewpoints with an automatically generated curved path, so the camera moves smoothly with no breaks. The polygon setting connects the viewpoints with straight lines, so the camera's movement is not as smooth, with corners formed at the viewpoints along which the camera moves further.

Animation slider:

The animation slider graphically indicates where the animation part playback is in relation to its total length. To the left of the animation slider, the program displays the duration of the animation that has already played. By editing this value, the animation part jumps to the view corresponding to the set duration. The duration to the right of the slider indicates the total length of the animation part. By editing this value, you can set the length of the animation part to be shorter or longer.

Settings:

Update current keyframe:

The view highlighted in green in the animation part tray can be updated with this button. When the view is selected set the new view, then by clicking on the button the preview is updated and the animation part is also updated.

Smooth video playback:

By giving different durations to the views that make up an animation part, each part can be faster or slower, which can upset the dynamics of the video. Clicking this button will automatically set the camera to move at a steady speed throughout the animation part.

Generate a video file:

Clicking this button will save the animation part to a video file, with all settings taken into account. The file is saved in the project folder. The rendering time and size of the video file depends on the resolution and the length of the animation part.

Open video folder:

Click this button to open the folder containing the video file in one click. This folder is the same as the project folder.

Close dialog: click this button in the top right corner of the dialog to close the panel. (You can also close the panel by clicking on the Play & edit animations icon on the toolbar.)

Main animation dialog

Manage animation parts

Related articles