Animating Scenes

A QuickTime movie of scene settings can be created to preview the cue transition between the scenes. The contents of the active window, exactly as they display, are used to create the movie. Therefore, the images must be rendered before animating the scenes to accurately preview the lighting effect.

QuickTime should have been installed during the VectorWorks Spotlight installation. If not, it can be installed from the VectorWorks installation disk(s).

To animate the scenes:

1.	Set the rendering option parameters described in Gobo Projection Requirements.

2.	Save the scenes as described in Managing Scenes.

3.	Select Model > Animate Scenes.

4.	In the Choose Path dialog box, select a location and file name for the movie. Click Save to open the Scene Animation dialog box.

5.	Enter the parameters for the Start and End Scenes. Select the scene name from the list; its parameters display underneath.

6.	If desired, the scene can be edited by clicking the Edit Scene button. Change the Scene Name, Scene Number, Up Time and Down Time, and then click OK to confirm the changes. The Up Time and Down Time used to animate the scenes is taken from the End Scene.

7.	To create the animation, enter the scene Hold For time in seconds for both the starting and ending scenes.

8.	Edit the QuickTime movie settings by clicking the QuickTime Settings button. The Compression Settings dialog box opens.

Enter the Compression settings for the movie file. For the video compressor, Motion JPEG A may provide the best results. See Animating Drawings with QuickTime, as well as Apple’s QuickTime web site, for more information on QuickTime.

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

9.	Click OK to exit the QuickTime settings.

10.	When the scene animation settings are complete, click OK. The progress is displayed on the screen as the QuickTime movie is created in the specified location, based on the settings that were entered.

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