This chapter "Animation for Architectural Visualisation" covers how to do basic
animation with visualisation in mind.
First it covers some of the uses of animation within Blender and more specifically in
regards to Architecture. Also covered is the Video Sequence Editor, a feature that
makes Blender very powerful in the Architecture realm. Then in the final section of
this chapter Interactive Animation is covered.
Planning animations and the various types of story board and Animatic techniques are
covered. Animation using Animatics and Rendering with CTRL-Render this scene feature
button are described.
After this the basics of Blender Animation Keyframes and their usages are covered. This
enables us to go on to make a camera animation which moves the camera though a
building. The Timeline, NLA, and IPO windows are described and shown briefly how they
are used. Also covered are the techniques and keyboard shortcuts that can be used to
altering their parameters.
As well as animating a cameras moves, object/target tracking is also introduced so as
to enable a camera to always point towards a specific location.
Once the camera walk through animation have been completed the sections move onto
generating an Animation, by describing the Animation panel and its various
options.
After the animation has been created things move on to using the Video Sequence Editor
to describe what the Video Sequence Editor does and then using it to combine various
other components, to produce a Walk through and apply titling over the top of the
animation using the features of the Video Sequence Editor. Also briefly covered is
techniques for splitting one big animations into smaller parts, as well as the various
special filter effects that can be applied.
A description of Meta Strips is given and this is very useful as often it is not
described.
And finally in that last section of this chapter "Interactive Animation" is covered.
Interactive animation basically means an animation/environment in which the display and
control of the animation is controllable by the user. So for example in the example of
a building visualisation walk through. Rather than have the walk through just follow a
fixed walk through path, you can control where the walk through path will go at runtime
by using either a mouse or keyboard or other controlling devices.
This as the chapter says is a very powerful feature and sets Blender apart from a lot
of other modelling systems.
Now this subject is only covered very briefly and the Interactive Blender Game Engine
is very powerful so obviously you aren't going to get an in-depth explanation of all
the features of the Game Engine. But what this section does cover is enough for you to
make a Camera which can move it's location by the use of cursor keys. This is amazingly
useful for visualisations. I was really surprised how easy it was to do.
This section alone makes the entire chapter worth reading.
