3D Animation

Image-Pro allows you to create animations of image sequences viewed as volumes in the 3D Viewer. An animation is a sequence of snapshots of the volume taken as the 'camera' is moved around it. When viewed in rapid succession, the animation makes it appear that the volume is being rotated, turned, or otherwise moved in space.

The Animation tab contains the tools that allow you to create, record, and play animation files (*.anm) in the Image-Pro workspace. It has the following groups of tools and options:

  • Timeline
  • Animation Path
  • Frames
  • Playback
  • Options
  • Output
  • Navigate

Timeline

The Timeline group has only one tool -- the Timeline tool. This tool lets you synch your animation in time and space. The timeline panel will open automatically when you activate the 3D Animation ribbon. The timeline panel shows the current animation with thumbnails of the key frames, and allows you to play and edit the animation sequence.

The individual frames in your animated image are synched to the locations along the time line. The x-axis of the timeline represents the time of each key frame in the overall duration of the movie. The following controls are displayed in the status bar.

The X axis can be labeled as Frames or Time (s).

Clicking on any position in the timeline will change the current position in the timeline, and will activate the given camera position in 3D view. The current position is indicated by a dotted line, as you can see at frame 20 of the Animation timeline in the previous figure. Note that the current position is very important when adding key frames to the animation. The timeline can be zoomed in or out using the zoom controls or the mouse wheel. The number of key frames can be adjusted by dragging the key frame separators.

Timeline editing is done by adding or deleting key frames. Each key frame is indicated by a blue pointer at the top of the timeline. Multiple key frames can be selected by clicking on or before the first key frame, and then using <Shift>+<Click> on the last key frame. Multiple key frames can be selected using <Shift> +<Click>. The selected range can be then deleted by clicking the Delete button.

Animation Path

The Animation Path group lets you insert camera animations into your timeline with a single click.

Spin: The Spin button allows you to add a sequence of frames rotating the camera around the screen axis (Vertical-Y, Horizontal-X, and Perpendicular to the screen – Z). The drop-down menu contains buttons to rotate the camera around 3 axes in both directions by the given angle defined by 90,180 and 360 radio-buttons. The number of intermediate frames for a 360-degree spin is defined by the Circular Frames option in the Options group.

Fly-Around: The Fly-Around button allows you to add a series of frames by moving the camera in an evenly spaced, circular path parallel to the Viewer window, and half-way between the two sides of the window. The Fly Around rotations are created around the world axis. World axes are X, Y and Z and can be visualized by activating the Axes button on 3D View tab. Fly Around animation gives the effect of helicopter flight.

90/180/360: The center options let you choose amount of rotation for both the Spin and Fly-Around selections. To go completely around your screen or volume one full turn, use 360 degrees, or 90 degrees to go only ¼ of the way around

Rock: Rocking or “see-saw” animation. This animation rocks the image around the vertical axis back and forth by approximately 30 degrees. Clicking this tool displays the Create Rocking Animation dialog.

The Rotation axis group defines the screen rotation axis. The Sweep angle and Number of steps controls define the amplitude of rocking and the number of intermediate frames.

Custom: Custom lets you design a custom animation by selecting time points and camera positions. Clicking this tool displays the Create Custom Animation dialog.

Clicking the Screen radio button allows you to create fast transitions by rotating the camera around the screen axis (Vertical-Y, Horizontal-X, and Perpendicular to the screen – Z).

Clicking the World radio button let you create animation by activating the Axes button on 3D View tab. World animation gives effect of helicopter flight.

The Sweep angle and Number of steps controls define the amplitude of rocking and the number of intermediate frames.

You can rotate your animation around the X, Y, or Z-axis, by clicking the drop-down menu button and displaying these items

To save an animation path, click the Save button and select path and name for the animation file. Saved animations can be loaded using the Load button. The Copy button does not work directly with you animation timeline, but will copy the current 3D view of the volume to the clipboard as a picture that can be inserted into a presentation or document.

Frames

The Frames group gives you tools for managing the key frames in your animation, as well as spacing between the individual frames.

Add Camera Position: Clicking the Add Camera Position button adds the current camera position (and any changes to the view) as a new key frame at the current position within the animation timeline.

Replace camera position: Clicking the Replace camera position replaces the current key frame with the current camera position (and any changes to the view).

Key: The Key spin box indicates the current key frame number.

Inter: The Inter spin button indicates the number of intermediate fames and camera positions in the key frame. You can adjust or edit the number of intermediate frames by using the spin button, or by dragging the key frame handle on the timeline.

  • Click the single red X button (Delete) to delete the active key frame and its intermediate frames.
  • Click the multiple red X button (Clear) to delete all key frames and clear the animation timeline.
  • Click the first green button to double the number of intermediate frames at all camera positions.
  • Click the second green button to halve the number of intermediate frames at all camera positions.

Playback

The Playback group lets you play your animation forward and backward. It also controls the playback rate in Frames Per Second (FPS). The toolbar has the following buttons:

  • Go to first frame
  • Go back one frame
  • Play animation forward
  • Go forward one frame
  • Go to last frame

Options

The Options group provides several options to tailor the way Image-Pro renders animations. When you click on this tool, the options menu is displayed.

Record Rendering Settings: The Record Rendering Settings option allows you to use different rendering settings for every camera position in the animation. You can change any rendering parameter, such as transparency or palette, and turn visibility of slices, channels, and volume measurements on or off. The changes will be applied when the corresponding camera position and following intermediate frames are rendered. Note that only existing rendering elements can be used here. You will need to add all necessary elements, such as ortho and oblique slices, iso-surfaces, and volume measurements before starting to record an animation. The visibility and parameters of all rendering elements can be changed during recording. This option should be on unless you are animating only simple views of the basic volume.

Connect Start and End: Check this option to have the final intermediate frames interpolate between the last key frame of the animation, and the first one. Note that any option that has an on/off setting, for instance visibility of an element, cannot be interpolated. For this reason, the final key frame of any movie that should be looped should have the same on/off settings as the first frame.

Synch with Time: If the loaded image set has multiple time points, use this option to synchronize the time points with the camera positions.

Options: Additional options are shown when you click the Options drop-down button.

  • Hide/Show Animation Cameras: Click this button to turn the display of the camera positions on or off.
  • Circular Frames defines how many frames will be generated when you create a new circular animation path using the Spin or Fly-Around features in the Animation Path group.
  • Inter Frames: The Inter control defines the default number of frames that will be added with each key frame. The actual number for any key frame can be adjusted later, as previously discussed.
  • Antialiasing: This tool allows you increase or decrease the quality of edges in your animations. The greater the number of passes, the better the edges will appear. • Passes: The multi-pass antialiasing is activated during the creation of animation images. Every image is rendered according to the number of passes from slightly different camera positions, averaging the results.
  • Use fixed image size option allows you to define the size of the generated animation or image. Enter the values for Width and Heights (in pixels) to set the size. When this option is off, the current window size is used. If you will be making your movie for display on an HD monitor, you will usually want to use the Use fixed image size option, and set the Width and Height to either 1280 and 720 (for 720p HD display), or 1920 and 1080.

Output

The Output group lets you create snapshots of your current view, or to render your complete animation to a movie:

Snapshot: The Snapshot button will create a new image holding a snapshot of the view at the current position in in the timeline. This image workspace can be saved to any file format supported by Image-Pro. The new image is not stored to disk until you use the Save As command.

Movie: The Movie button will create a new image sequence of the complete animation. The new image workspace will have as many frames as is currently specified in the timeline, and can be saved to any movie file format supported by Image-Pro.  The new movie file appears in the application workspace titled "<original_sequence_name>_3DAnimation". The new movie file is not stored to disk until you use the Save As command.

Navigate

The Navigate group allows you to select and view the 3D animation from different positions.

Select Button: Use this button to select object manipulation (and deselect View mode). The cursor shape will change to an arrow. In this mode, you are manipulating and holding objects in the Viewer window. Using the <Ctrl> key while clicking the mouse will deselect any object.

View Button: Use this button to select camera or viewer mode (and deselect object manipulation mode). The cursor shape will change to a hand icon. In this mode, you are moving the camera in 3D space, which changes the perspective of the rendering in the Viewer window.

See also:

Adding a New 3D Animation