Michael Lord

SolidWorks Motion Study and Render Animation

After my initial Animations in KeyShot I thought it would be appropriate that I should try Render Animation in SolidWorks.

So I started with my Chess set and applied Appearances.  Chrome Plate for the Black pieces and Bone China for the White pieces.  (My reflection addiction).  Scene: Reflective Black Floor. Background: Gradient. Environment: Studio Room       

Which gave me this Render.  (Maybe a little too much light)

To create the Motion Study

Start by Selecting Motion Study Tab

To commence the movement – Select the Piece (Highlighted Blue) and Select Add Key

Move the Timeline (to the Time required)

Move the Piece to the new position

Select Add Key

Continue making moves as per above instructions.

As Pieces are captured I had them Fade out.  This was achieved by Rolling the Timeline back.

Select Add Key

Move the Timeline (to the Time required)

Right Select the Piece and Hide

Select Add Key

Pieces moved shown with Green line

Pieces Fading (Hide) or Colour change (representing the Mate position as in Chess terminology not SolidWorks terminology)shown as a Magenta line  

Once all the movements are made it time to Save the Animation. 

This can be either just the Motion Study by Selecting (Renderer) SolidWorks Screen (basically a screen capture).   

Part of the Motion Study – SolidWorks Screen

Motion Study

Or as a PhotoView Render Animation

This is where we need to do some calculation.   Even reducing the Image size (600 x 480) each render was approximately 3minutes (180 seconds) That’s what happens when I insist on using very reflective appearances.  Keeping the frames to 12 per second that’s still 70sec x 12 = 840 Frames x 180 = 42hours of Rendering time!

As I was in no great hurry I could afford to Render smaller sections at a time using Time Range over a few days and a weekend!

If this was a commercial application I would use one of the Render farm companies (e.g. Render Bay)        

This is the result of my first Render Animation using SolidWorks!

Change setting to at least 720p or 1080p for better image

Render Animation