Example: Creating a Rotor Animation
The "rotor" camera path with a ping-pong effect simulates the rotation of a product as if it had been placed on a rotating pedestal whose center corresponds to the point at the center of the active viewport. In other words, a rotor animation is a rotation around the Y axis at the coordinates of the ZX plane at the center of the active viewport.
A rotor animation can be easily created using a bookmark animation camera path.
Open Timelines and create a new camera animation.
In the Camera Animations editor, give your animation a meaningful name, such as "Rotor Animation
Choose the bookmark animator camera path type.
Position your product. The point at the center of the viewport will provide the ZX coordinates to use as the central point of the rotating plane.
Create a bookmark in the Camera Animations editor by using the New Animation Bookmark button
.In the Bookmark zone, provide the following information:
Duration : Enter the desired duration of the rotation in seconds.
Type: Choose the value Orbit. This will create a rotor movement.
Orbit/Head > During… % of step: Enter 100 to have the rotor movement occupy the full duration of the bookmark.
Orbit/Head > Turn… times: Supply the number of times to turn. For a rotor movement, this value is usually between 0 and 1. 1 corresponds to a full rotation around the center point; 0.5, for example, corresponds to half of a rotation around this point.
To implement a ping-pong effect:
Place your animation clip in the timeline.
Place a second instance of the same clip in the timeline, positioned so that it begins exactly when the previous instance ends.
Select the second clip by clicking on it.
Using the mouse, right-click on your selection to open the context menu and select the option Reverse playback.
Tip
To make the transition from one bookmark to the next during a ping-pong effect appear more fluid, increase the Smoothness in the Camera Animations editor.