Display the Animation Editor

In GeologyCore, animations are first created by defining a sequences of frames, which contain information regarding camera locations and timing.

Note:  The key frames are not tied to the data displayed in the View Window, but to the geographic location displayed when they are created. As a result, key frames may be used to animate more than one type of data, if it is in the same geographic location.

To use the tool:

  1. Click the icon in the View Window toolbar or the Ribbon Control menu. This will open a new panel.

  2. Position the data in the View Window to a desired start position. Then, click Create first keyframe in the Animation Editor window.

  3. Move the data in the View Window to the next position. Then, click Append key frame. Key frames are created at the current location of the playhead. If the playhead is at the end of the animation, new keyframes will be appended to the end of the animation at 5 second intervals. Key frames can be inserted by moving the playhead to the desired location by clicking and dragging with the left mouse button and then selecting Insert keyframe.The key frames are displayed as vertical lines on the playbar. The times between keyframes can be increased or decreased by clicking and dragging the keyframe.

  4. Click Play to preview the animation in the View Window. Loop playback runs the animation preview continually if ticked on.

  5. Click Advanced to access further options.

    • Smoothing factor — Use the slider to adjust the degree of smoothing applied to the camera path, from linear to smoothest. Range of 0-1.

    • Show frame markers — Select this checkbox to label each keyframe in the View Window. These will not be visible in the end video.

    • Show look vectors — Select this checkbox to display look vectors showing the camera orientation at each point in the camera path in the View Window. These will not be visible in the end video.

  6. Click Publish to create the AVI file output.

  7. Select a Start time and an End time for the animation if applicable. If left unchanged, the full animation will be exported.

  8. The Rendering settings determine the quality and resolution of the output AVI file. Higher quality videos take longer to render. Turning off the High quality tickbox creates a low quality video, and is only recommended in order to make a preview before creating the final video.

  9. Select a location to save the animation to the Save as field.

    10. Note:  Right-clicking in this field displays shortcuts to destination directories.

  10. Select Show in folder to open the destination folder to open when complete, if desired.

  11. Click OK or Apply to create the animation.

Note:  Do not select Raw (uncompressed) from the Bit rate drop-down unless post-processing will be performed. Standard video players cannot play this type of file.

Note:  Rendering a video is a very demanding process, and it is recommended that other tasks are kept to a minimum while rendering.