Tip: Creating a 360-degree Turntable Animation

by Jonathan Williamson

In this quick Blender 2.5 video tip we look at how to create a basic 360 degree turntable for showing off a model. The technique we use is based on a rotated empty that the camera is pointed at. The tip also shows how to make the animation cycle.

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Discussion

15 Responses to “Tip: Creating a 360-degree Turntable Animation”
  1. Nixon
    Posts: 61

    Hey there:)

    Nice video tip: however i noticed something :D

    If u were to loop that turntable animation, like playing it back repeatedly one will notice a sudden jump in frames whenever it crosses the hundred frames. The reason for this is that frame 1 and 100 are exactly the same since the whole model rotated around 360degrees.

    For this 100 frame animation each frame represents 3.6degree turn, either only rotate it 360-3.6 degrees or just render out fewer frames so the animation runs smoothly and doesnt stop/ jump at the last/first frame.

    I think the rule of thumb is dividing the rotation by the number of frames desired. The result gives u the rotation factor per frame wich allows for precise adjustment of the keyframes.
    Blender allows for maths in fields so u can leave the numbercrunching to the computer :D

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    1
     Dec 30, 2010 at 11:23 pm
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  2. dannykneip
    Posts: 160

    great! i always track my camera to an empty, but forget the benefits of parenting it to the empty, as well. thank you! :)

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    2
     Dec 30, 2010 at 11:40 pm
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  3. Ben
    Posts: 24

    Thanks for another great tuori. Looking forward to this years list. Hopefully more like the dragon one : D

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    3
     Dec 30, 2010 at 11:43 pm
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    • wesburke
      Posts: 319

      Hey Ben, Sure and if you guys would like to see something on a specific topic. Please drop us a note using the support tab to the right or send an e-mail to support@cgcookie.zendesk.com

      Cheers, – W

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      3.1
       Dec 31, 2010 at 8:42 am
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  4. freakabcd
    Posts: 1

    Good tip for people who haven’t tried out turntable animations.

    Nixon (above) raises a very important point for continuously looping animations which the video does not cover:
    The first frame and the last frame are identical and hence when playing in a loop there will be pause (extremely short, but present nonetheless).

    His solution is good and is correct but I have an easier method to do exactly the same without resorting to calculating anything (let blender work it out for you):
    Let us assume your animation is 100 frames long and the first frame is 1. You set the last keyframe (360 rotation) not on frame 100, but frame 101. Essentially, set the last keyframe to be at 1+reallylastframe; et voila!

    Happy … turntabling? :-)

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    4
     Jan 1, 2011 at 1:49 pm
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    • gnaws999
      Posts: 9

      BRILLIANT!! Thank you & sweaty hugs!!

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      4.1
       Dec 1, 2011 at 8:43 pm
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      • gnaws999
        Posts: 9

        Oh wait. That works great for 100 frame anims. I just tried it w/ a 120-fram anim and you get a jump.

        I guess it’s all relative to the anim length so you have to do a bit of (mostly painless) math to figure it out. It’d be kewl of Blender could help us with this??

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        4.1.1
         Dec 1, 2011 at 8:50 pm
      • gnaws999
        Posts: 9

        This formula will work for ya…

        (360) / (number of frames) = x

        rotation value of last frame = (360 – x)

        I-key to re-set keyframe rotation

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        4.1.2
         Dec 1, 2011 at 9:04 pm
  5. thiagokolb
    Posts: 124

    thx great tutorial
    :D

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    5
     Jan 1, 2011 at 4:49 pm
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  6. berney
    Posts: 1

    nice tut as always jonathan, i had a question about the model did u model the hair the same way you did in the kara series, i realy like how it looks and was just curious :) hair is one of my weakest subjects :)

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    6
     Jan 2, 2011 at 5:22 pm
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  7. Ponyhome
    Posts: 1

    Thanks for the tip. Gotta remember empties when I’m trying to solve problems. I did notice that the light traveled with the camera, but it was not mentioned in the video. Did it get parented to the camera (or the empty)? If the light is moving with the camera, there’s no visible difference to leaving the camera and light(s) stationary and rotating the model 360.

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    7
     Jan 5, 2011 at 9:40 am
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  8. mirouk
    Posts: 1

    I agree with Ponyhome. Why can’t we just rotate the model 360degrees? If you rotate the camera the backdrop is going to disappear at some point, no?

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    8
     Jan 18, 2011 at 12:05 pm
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  9. Mark
    Posts: 4

    Just render frame 1 thru 99 and it’ll be seemless.

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    9
     Jan 24, 2011 at 2:00 pm
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  10. cong viec to chuc su kien
    Posts: 1

    Tuyet voi do . Sau nay tui co y dinh mo cong ty to chuc su kien se phai hoc tap thoi .Co gi sau nay lien he minh cong tac nhe .

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    10
     Mar 1, 2011 at 7:39 am
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  11. jeremiah r
    Posts: 371

    Nice tip. My only problem when I try to save a animation it always playbacks jumpy I dont get it. No matter if its 24 30 or 50 fps. I tried diff resolutions and still same jumpy on playback. It plays back on blender fine but when I try to use media player it looks bad. Any tips?

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    11
     Dec 22, 2011 at 2:05 pm
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