Airshow - A SketchUp Movie
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Attached is a .zip that contains a bunch of files that let you play a three-minute Sketchup movie. Biplane, playing himself (in 3D), flys around doing some aerobatics while Sang (2D) photographs the show. The idea is to demonstrate SketchUp's power as a 4D (3D + time) platform.
Required: 2+GHz CPU. Desired: Large monitor. This is slick on my 2.8GHz machine; a slug on an older XP Home machine.
How to View
Choose a convenient directory. I recommend making a subdirectory called "airshow" (to keep the files together). Extract everything to this subdir. In SketchUp, File/New. Close all dialogs. Window/Ruby Console. Maximize SketchUp and put the RC in the lower-left if you are short on space. In the Ruby Console (white input bar)
load '/where/you/chose/airshow.rb'. If you want to watch again, File/New and No, you don't want to save changes, before you load.What to View
Close the Title window to start the show. Watch Biplane move. As the camera focuses on Sang, focus on the camera. It pans and moves simultaneously. That would be walkthroughs for all you architects. When Sang gets to the top of the platform you'll see a second where the camera is moving and rotating onto the top of the tripod and Sang is moving into position behind the camera.
Biplane comes in for a fake landing after one circuit. He hits hard. He squishes, then rebounds if you watch closely (animated scaling). He does aerobatics. See if you can figure out the multiple simultaneous rotations in the death spiral.
Do-It-Yourself Movies
See Chapters 15 and 16 of my tutorial, as soon as I post them. If you know no coding, start with Chapters 11-14, which are available now.
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Cool Martin, that worked quite smoothly!
Chris
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Hey! That was fun! Great Job. I mean. . it wasn't exactly "The Great Waldo Pepper" , but that was pretty terrific!!!!
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Great job indeed!
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Thanks Martin. I think something useful could be made out of some of this later. After all: "the future always comes too fast and in the wrong order"*
*A Toffler
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What am I doing wrong? I left the file, which unzipped into a folder named "airshow," in my downloads folder. I copied the ruby console direction you listed, "load '/where/you/choose/airshow.rb' "and changed the 'where/you/choose' part to the file heirarchy for my downloads folder with airshow in it. I hit return and the Ruby Console says " Error: #<LoadError: (eval):2533:in `load': no such file to load "
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@jim57 said:
What am I doing wrong? I left the file, which unzipped into a folder named "airshow," in my downloads folder. I copied the ruby console direction you listed, "load '/where/you/choose/airshow.rb' "and changed the 'where/you/choose' part to the file heirarchy for my downloads folder with airshow in it. I hit return and the Ruby Console says " Error: #<LoadError: (eval):2533:in `load': no such file to load "
Did you add "airshow.rb" after 'where/you/choose'? It worked fine for me.
Very neat Martin, I had no clue that you could do that in SU...I watched that like a little kid watches cartoons
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@jim57 said:
changed the 'where/you/choose' part to the file heirarchy for my downloads folder with airshow in it.
You got the idea 100% right. The "no such file" error means just what it says. There's a path typo or omission. Ruby likes forward slashes as file separators. Try opening one of the HTML files with your favorite browser to be sure the path is the one you think it is. Firefox is nice about about displaying a list of choices after you type a letter or two, though it likes backward slashes on Windows.
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@d12dozr said:
...I watched that like a little kid watches cartoons
Thanks all. You guys are great movie critics!
I tried to have some fun with this one, but I hope that doesn't hide the serious and wide open possibilities. Architects: walk throughs. Interior designers: room makeovers. Gardeners: 3-season progressions (four in warmer parts). Cabinet makers: doors that open, drawers that slide out. Buildings being built. Parking lot traffic.
Of course a roller coaster ride might be awesome.
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Still not getting it. I checked the file heirarchy from a HTML file like you suggested and I opened airshow.skp and worked from there. Now the Ruby Console says
Error: #<SyntaxError: (eval):591: compile error
(eval):591: unknown regexp options - jb>
(eval):591Should I be moving these rubies into Plugins Folder, or is that instruction in the Console sufficient?
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@jim57 said:
Should I be moving these rubies into Plugins Folder, or is that instruction in the Console sufficient?
Actually there's about two pages of discussion over in the Developers' Forum re how to keep all the files in a single folder, not related to Plugins. The basic idea, that you just put all the files in whatever place you like, was novel.
Your error message says to me "damaged file!". Back up. Make a folder called "airshow" (or anything else you like), anywhere you like. DL again. Use your archive utility to put all the files into the "airshow" (or whatever else you liked). On my machine it's
\models\airshow. Then follow the original prescription.If you ever meet that guy Murphy, tell him exactly what you think of his stupid law!
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Martin,
that fantastic, there are so many threads on this forum some really good stuff is easily missed..BTW. Mac users, if you don't know already you can just type load' ' drag'n'drop your folder out of downloads or docs, whatever into rudy console between the brackets and hit return.
john
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@martinrinehart said:
I tried to have some fun with this one, but I hope that doesn't hide the serious and wide open possibilities.
Yes , this is what I think Toffler meant ... the frivolous is taken up first and quickly. Unfortunately it seems to me nowadays pursuit of the seriously useful is forever being pushed back.
@unknownuser said:
... Buildings being built ...
Yes I very much like the idea of animating in Sketchup rather than making videos, simply because it can react to actual events or mind changes.
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