Assembling Process Animation

Overview/Goal

The structures of water cleaning systems are unavoidably complicated. So, images drawn by AutoCAD are put on the confluence pages to help new users and members in AguaClara learn easily about the complex structures of the water plants. The AutoCAD images, however, are two dimensional while the actual water plants are, obviously, three dimensional. With the two dimensional figures, it is hard to show effectively what components the water plants consist of and how the components assemble together to function as a water cleaning system.
Thus, I created three dimensional animations to show the assembling processes of the water plants. The animations would not only enhance the visuals on our confluence pages but also help the new users and developers understand about how each component the water plants interacts and assembles with one another.

Programs Used

To create animations of the assembling process, I used both AutoCAD and Autodesk VIZ. AutoCAD is a strong software for drawing and editing three dimensional objects. Autodesk VIZ is a graphics software similar to AutoCAD. Though it is less precise than AutoCAD in drawing and editing objects, it has very a strong program for creating walk-through and move-object videos. So, I edited the design of the water plant with AutoCAD and imported the image into Autodesk VIZ and created animations by using "rendering scene tools."

Difficulties in Creating Animations

As I rendered animations using AutoCAD and Autodesk VIZ, I found several difficulties that slowed the process of my tasks.

Complex Structure of Water Plant
As mentioned in Overview/Goal, a water cleaning system is complicated. For example, the sedimentation tank (one part of the water plant) consists of more than 100 objects. To make move-object animation in Autodesk VIZ, I needed to specify and record the original and moved locations (xyz coordinate) of each object. This task is a simple work, but it is repetitive and takes pretty long time.

Too Many Frames to Render
The Autodesk VIZ takes more than 2 hours to render just one and half minute of animation showing how each object assembles into a sedimentation tank.

Automated Scripts Not Possible
As far as I know about AutoCAD and Autodesk VIZ, both softwares do not include any commands that allow users to write automated scripts for rendering animations. This being said, each time the design of water tank is updated, a new move-object video must be created from the beginning.

Future Goals

Because this project is in the early stage, there are many tasks to be done. Here are the goals I suggest for the future group working on this project.
1. Make videos with zoom-in and multiple perspectives.
The video I made has one fixed viewpoint and shows the overall assembling process. It might be better to create videos showing more detailed
2. Make walk-through videos
A walk-through video that traces the water flow within the water plant must be intriguing and show how each component of the water plant functions.
3. Work on other parts as well
I focused mostly on the sedimentation exit channel. The videos of flocculator and other parts of the water plants must be created.
4. Find more efficient way of creating animations
As mentioned above, the major difficulty in creating the assembling video is that rendering animations in Autodesk VIZ and AutoCAD is quite inefficient. The future group in the design team should try to find a more efficient way of creating the animations and, if possible, of writing automated scripts with Mathcad.