The Workbench User Interface

Animation Plan

• Render Modes (1): These determine the behaviour and type of animation
• Sphere: The coordinate reference system (CRS) will be manipulated to create a spinning globe effect. Like Google Earth might do, but with your own data and cartography.
• Planar: The coordinate reference system (CRS) will not be altered, but the camera will pan and zoom to each point. It lets you move from feature to feature on a flat map, pausing at each if you want to.

• Fixed extent: The frame of reference stays the same and you can animate the symbology within that scene.

• Animation Layer (2):

• Dropdown menu: This allows you to select which map layer you want the animation to follow.

• Loop from final feature back to first feature: allows for a seamlessly looping output GIF or movie(MP4).

• Zoom Range (3): The scale range that the animation should move through.

• Minimum (exclusive): The zenith (highest point) of the animation when it zooms out while travelling between points, i.e. the most "zoomed out".

• Maximum (inclusive): The scale (zoom level) used when we arrive at each point, i.e. the most "zoomed in".

• Data defined settings (4)

• Scale

  • Minimum: User-defined minimum scale
  • Maximum: User-defined maximum scale

• Animation Frames (5)

• Frame rate per second (fps): When writing to video or gif, how many frames per second to use.
• Travel Duration: This is the number of seconds that the animation will take during animation from one feature to the next.
• Feature Hover duration: This is the number of seconds that the animation will hover over each feature.

• Extent (6):
• Can be manually entered using North, East, South, and West coordinates as limits.
• Can be calculated from a map layer, the layout map, or a bookmark.
• Can be set to match the Map Canvas Extent

• Can be set as a rectangular extent using the Draw on Canvas feature.

• Pan and Zoom Easings (7)

• What are Easings: Easings are transitions from one state to another along a smooth curve. A user can specify the shape of the curve used.
• Pan Easings (XY): The pan easing will determine the motion characteristics of the camera on the X and Y axis as it flies across the scene (i.e. how it accelerates or decelerates between points)

• Zoom Easing (Z): The pan easing will determine the motion characteristics of the camera on the Z axis as it flies across the scene (i.e. how the camera zooms in and out of the points)

• Frame previews (8): A preview of what each frame of the animation will look like. A user can decide which Frame to view.

Intro Tab

Edit the intro section of the generated movie here.

• Media: List of the various images or movies selected for the intro section. You can drag and drop items in the list to change the play order.
• Add Media (Plus sign) (1): Add images or movies

• Remove Media (Minus sign) (2): Remove images or movies

• Duration (3): For images, you can set a duration for each image (in seconds).

• Preview Frame (4): This shows what the media will look like.

• Details: Provides details about where the media is stored on your computer.

Outro Tab

Edit the outro section of the generated movie here.

• Media: List of the various images or movies selected for the outro section. You can drag and drop items in the list to change the play order.
• Add Media (Plus sign) (1): Add images or movies

• Remove Media (Minus sign) (2): Remove images or movies

• Duration (3): For images, you can set a duration for each image (in seconds).

• Preview Frame (4): This shows what the media will look like.

• Details: Provides details about where the media is stored on your computer.

Soundtrack Tab

• Media: List of the various sound files (.mp3 or .wav) to play during the generated movie. You can drag and drop items in the list to change the play order.
• Add Media (Plus sign) (1): Add sound files (.mp3 or .wav) to play during the generated movie.

• Remove Media (Minus sign) (2): Remove sound files (.mp3 or .wav)

• Duration (3): The cumulative length of your soundtracks should be as long, or longer, than your movie, including the intro/outro sections. If the soundtrack is longer than the movie it will be truncated (shortened) when the movie ends.

• Details: Provides details about where the media is stored on your computer.

Output

• Output Options: Select which output format you would like. Regardless of the format chosen, a folder of images will be created, one image per frame.
• Re-use cached Images (1): This will not erase cached images on disk and will resume processing from the last cached image.
• Animated GIF (2): For this export to work, you need to have the ImageMagick 'convert' application available on your system.
• Movie (MP4) (3): For this option to work, you need to have the 'ffmpeg' application on your system.
• Output Resolution (4): Allows a user to specify one of four image resolutions for the output animation. The numbers in brackets for the first three options represent the width and height of the output in pixels (i.e. width x height), and the fourth option matches the output's size to the size of the Map Canvas on the screen.
• File selection (ellipsis) (5): This lets a user select the location where the output will be stored.

Progress

• Frame Preview (1): A preview of what each frame of the animation will look like. It changes automatically as the workbench runs.
• Progress (2): This provides a detailed look at what is happening while the workbench runs.
• Total Tasks: This number represents the total number of frames that will be generated by the workbench.
• Completed Tasks: The number of tasks that have completed being processed.
• Remaining Features: The number of features from your animation layer that still need to be processed.
• Active Tasks: The number of tasks (threads) currently being run by the workbench
• Features Complete: The number of tasks that have been processed by the workbench.
• Logs (3): A detailed list of what steps the workbench is doing (a record of processing)
• Progress Bar (4): A visual representation of the workbench's progression as a percentage.

Other Buttons

• Run: Starts the process of getting an output from the workbench. It is greyed out until a user provides a destination for the output file.
• Close: Closes the workbench.
• Cancel: Ends the workbench processing at whatever point it has reached when the button is pressed.
• Help: Opens a link to the Animation Workbench documentation.