[Paraview] Control over camera movement for animations

[Rupert Gladstone]

Hi all, I am making progress learning to make animations with Paraview.
The animation capabilities in Paraview are very good.  There appear to be a
couple of limitations, but I am not sure whether these are limitations in
my understanding or in Paraview itself.  Details below.  Thanks!

When I use the "follow path" option it does not seem to be possible to
adjust the "up direction" within a path.  I can have a different "up
direction" in subsequent paths within one animation, but the jump between
up directions is abrupt.  Are there any plans to allow up direction to
change as a path is followed?  Is there a way to smooth the jump between
subsequent paths with a different up direction?

With the "follow path" option there doesn't seem to be any way of using the
current camera view like in the "Interpolate camera locations" option.  Is
this possible?  Is it likely to be implemented in the future?  Even if the
"up direction" information for the current camera view is lost I would
still find such a functionality useful.

If I want a new path to start or finish at the same place as a previous
path then I have to open the window for the previous path, copy one of the
coords, close the window, open the window for the new path, paste the
coord, then repeat for all other coords.  This is a lot of
point-and-clicking.  Is there a way to short cut this?  For example having
2 path windows open concurrently would be a help, or being able to create a
new path as a copy of a previous path would be even better.

When I use "Interpolate camera locations" there seems to be quite a long
slow overshoot.  I guess Paraview is doing some kind of spline
interpolation.  Is there a way to stop it doing this?  Simple linear
interpolation between locations would be just fine for my purposes.  My
current approach to minimise this overshoot is to copy my target location
several times in close temporal proximity.  e.g. if I want to move from
position A at the start to position B after 10 seconds, then stay at
position B, my current approach is to repeat position B at 10, 10.5 and 11
seconds.  This isn't perfect but it is a manageable workaround.

I REALLY like the ability to use the current camera view when setting up
camera locations for interpolation.

BTW I am making animations for a public lecture on Antarctic ice sheet
modelling.  If you want to see what I come up with let me know, I'll be
happy to share.

Regards,
Rupert

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Rupert Gladstone, PhD
Antarctic Ice Sheet researcher, University of Lapland
https://groups.google.com/d/forum/fisoc
https://lacris.ulapland.fi/en/persons/rupert-gladstone(
21a10f7f-3ea9-4c06-b9a4-320eb4ca8e29).html
https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=FNgAsPkAAAAJ
http://www.researcherid.com/rid/C-1086-2013
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