Simple 3D Animations
3DCrafter Animations
In this section we will use 3DCrafter to create a simple animation for use as a stereoscopic 3D video.
To begin, open the previous 3DCrafter file used to create the anaglyph image. If it is not available, download a copy of the file ANA1.3DC here. ANA1.3DC (484 kB) Save the file where you can find it later, possibly in the Downloads folder on your computer. When the file has finished downloading, Right Click on the file and click on "Open Containing Folder" to locate the Downloads folder. You might want to create a shortcut to this location on you desktop for further use. It would be a good time to create a folder named C:\MT1 for further use when creating new animations. Copy ANA.3DC to C:\MT1. This will keep all of the files together for easy editing.
First, we will want to hide the camera showing at the bottom of the 3DCrafter layout. Follow the instructions below, or click on the image for more detail.
Now enable the animation tools by clicking on the lower left icon "Animate the Scene". The animation player tools will become active and ready to record a simple animation. Click on the image below for a larger view in a new window.
Continue to increment the seconds counter by 2 seconds each time and move the torus around the cube and back to it's original location.
You can now press the play button to see your animation in action. If you like what you see, it is time to screen capture the animation to video. Another freeware program, Cam Studio, is very useful for capturing screen action. It is freeware easily downloaded from https://camstudio.org/. For those of you with Windows7, Windows Live Essentials Movie Maker is a great free program to edit and produce video clips.
The final step is to convert the 2D animation to stereoscopic 3D. As with everything else, there is freeware to accomplish this. Download QQPlayer from this link by clicking on the GREEN download button. Freeware is fine, especially when trying a new technology, but for production video, this step is best performed with a professional 3D converter that provides more options and more formats. A program like Make Me 3D for $41.00 is an exellent choice. If nothing else, go to the link and look at the various options that you will have available when you choose to go pro.
In the meantime, download, install, and start QQPlayer. You will see some oriental characters, but what the heck it's free. One of it's limitations is that it will not convert 2D SWF files to 3D, but it does work well with WMV video files. Download ANA2.wmv here, save in the C:\MT1 folder, and choose to open this file when opening 3D files below.
Right Click on an empty space on the player and click on Open -> 3D Video. This will allow you to convert your animation to 3D Red - Cyan anaglyph.
Make the selections shown below. "2D Go 3D" and "Red/Blue". Red/Blue is obviously a poor translation since fortunately it is actually Re/Cyan. Swap is checked to bring the animation forward out of the screen instead of viewing it as through a window behind the screen.Try it with and without the swap and see which you prefer.
Your resulting anaglyph video should look something like the animation below.