This is my entry for the weekly animation challenge at Elysiun (in the Weekend Challenge forum). The current animation theme is “Physics.”
I tried to make this a silly little documentary about Newtonian laws of motion:
Please click here for animation
Edit#2: new download link
Edit: Xvid encoded AVI, 4.3MB (scroll down page for video link)
This was done from scratch over the past three nights on and off as other unrelated animation sequences were rendering. In the spirit of the competition, which is not a modeling competition, I kept this very basic, in that sense, while focusing mostly on the action.
For this I also recorded a song I decided to call “Mischievious,” inspired by the happy little dudes in this sequence.
Summary of programs used: Blender (internal renderer), Audacity (for sound recording, editing, and processing/vocal pitch shifting), VirtualDub (to merge video + sound). Pure Blender 2.37. Music was played externally on a music keyboard.
I left my computer on overnight last night for rendering only to find that only the title rendered. Here’s what happend and how I fixed it: I have eight layers here, and each stage of the animation is on its own layer. I set Layer frames for the camera (and lights and tiny watermark) so that for specific intervals they travel to/return to certain layers.
I initially thought that, even though I started on Layer 1 (as the only active layer) that having the active camera going at a certain point to Layer 2 would then cause the animation to render from that layer and follow suit. Well that didn’t happen 
After reconsidering things, I realized the active set of layers at rendertime must take precedence over the location of the current camera, as Blender processes it. That would make sense. Re-arranging the animation wasn’t an option given the time I allocated to this project, so I used some Python to make everything work.
So here is some concocted code that saved the day:
# Active Layer Changer / Follow the Camera Script
# by RobertT
# Created June 17, 2005
import Blender
from Blender import *
s = Scene.getCurrent()
c = Object.Get("Camera")
gotoLayer = [c.layers[0]]
s.setLayers(gotoLayer)
Blender.Redraw()
To make this script work it must be set up as a World scriptlink activated on framechange.
This script assumes you have a Camera (named “Camera”) and attempts to set the current active layer to the layer the camera currently occupies. If you set Layer keys for the Camera, you can have it travel to different layers and Blender can be made to “follow the camera” wherever it goes. Just be sure to either have layer lights or to copy the Layer keys from the camera to lamps you wish to work on that layer too (if necessary).
Not much of a script, but you’re welcome to use/adapt it however you wish.
Anyway, I hope the animation makes you smile 
RobertT
