Creating Solar Animations

A sun study is an animated movie of sunlight over a specified day of the year. It illustrates the way shadows are cast over a project as the sun’s position changes.

One of the most dramatic ways to present results from a sun study is to create a solar animation. The solar animator can transform a series of frames into a movie file that can then be played with the QuickTime™ movie viewer supplied with VectorWorks. Each frame of the movie is a rendered image from the current view and shows, in succession, the model lighted by the sun over the course of a day. This demonstrates the sunlight and shadows cast on the model as the sun’s position changes for any day of the year from any location on earth. The solar animator, combined with a top view of a project, can illustrate shadows cast over a site or onto adjacent properties.

In order to create QuickTime movies, QuickTime must be installed. This is available on the VectorWorks CD. In order to show shadows, RenderWorks is required.

To create a solar animation:

1.	Set the active window to the desired view and rendering mode. (Specify the image size using the view clipping frame if in Perspective mode.) Resize the active window to the desired frame size.

2.	Create and select a directional light source. If there is none, the solar animator will create one. See Adding Light for information on light sources.

3.	Select Model > Create Solar Animation.

The Create Solar Animation dialog box opens. Enter the solar animation criteria.

 

Parameter	Description
Site	Specifies the site location information. Time Zone Meridian must agree with Longitude unless the time zone of the location is not within the generalized 15 degree increment from Greenwich Mean Time. It cannot be more than one time zone out of agreement with the Longitude.
Date	Indicates the animation month and day
Page North	Indicates the angular difference between page north and true north
Show Frame Counter	Select to create a time stamp in the rendered scene using the current attributes
Daylight Savings	Select if Daylight Saving Time is in effect
Daylight minutes per QT frame	Specifies the number of minutes per movie frame (length of movie)

4.	Click Save Movie, and then enter a name and location for the QuickTime file when prompted.

5.	The Compression Settings dialog box opens.

6.	Enter the compression settings for the movie file. For the video Compression type, Motion JPEG A may provide the best results.

See Animating Drawings with QuickTime Also, see Apple’s Quicktime website for more information on QuickTime.

QuickTime is a complex program which offers great flexibility in selecting settings. Consult QuickTime documentation before changing Compression Settings.

7.	If Show Frame Counter was selected in the Create Solar Animation dialog box, enter a click point to locate the time-stamp text in the frame. The frame counter feature uses the current text size to calculate the proper text size based on the current view clip frame.

8.	When the rendering is complete, close or hide VectorWorks.

9.	View the movie in an application such as the QuickTime Player to watch the solar animation.