sketchucation logo sketchucation
    • Login
    ℹ️ Licensed Extensions | FredoBatch, ElevationProfile, FredoSketch, LayOps, MatSim and Pic2Shape will require license from Sept 1st More Info

    The best rendering program for animations?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved SketchUp Discussions
    sketchup
    15 Posts 7 Posters 3.9k Views 7 Watching
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • M Offline
      Mary_1.0
      last edited by

      I like Twilight Render. I'm not an architect, I just do CG and flash animations as a hobby. I like Twilight because it's a plug-in, and it provides a lot of options for how the frames should be rendered, and it is fairly quick at rendering too. Here's a link to a flash animation I'm working on using my Twilight frames:
      http://www.mary-in-fl.com/twiren-room-stars-12fps.htm

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • soloS Offline
        solo
        last edited by

        @unknownuser said:

        What is the best rendering program for rendering architectural animations in high quality?

        For high quality animations one needs to also address ones hardware, I suggest either using a render farm or getting a whole bunch of slave rigs to enable you to render high quality in as little time as possible.
        A 30 second render at 720p (1280x720) would take around 10 hours to complete using 8 threads on an i7 920 (exterior) and about twice as long for interiors.

        Now depending on what kind of animation you need that also will determine the application, if it's only a walk-through then you will have many choices, if you need lights to switch on, wheels to turn, water to flow, sky to move, and any other effect, then your choices are greatly reduced.

        I like 3D Max for setting up an animation using Vray 4 max, I also like Vue for exterior renders (slow), Twilight is good (supports mover.rb and sketchy-physics) and so is Irender (easy to use)
        I hear Artlantis is pretty damn decent also with great controls and options.

        http://www.solos-art.com

        If you see a toilet in your dreams do not use it.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • C Offline
          comatose
          last edited by

          @solo said:

          @unknownuser said:

          What is the best rendering program for rendering architectural animations in high quality?

          For high quality animations one needs to also address ones hardware, I suggest either using a render farm or getting a whole bunch of slave rigs to enable you to render high quality in as little time as possible.
          A 30 second render at 720p (1280x720) would take around 10 hours to complete using 8 threads on an i7 920 (exterior) and about twice as long for interiors.

          Now depending on what kind of animation you need that also will determine the application, if it's only a walk-through then you will have many choices, if you need lights to switch on, wheels to turn, water to flow, sky to move, and any other effect, then your choices are greatly reduced.

          I like 3D Max for setting up an animation using Vray 4 max, I also like Vue for exterior renders (slow), Twilight is good (supports mover.rb and sketchy-physics) and so is Irender (easy to use)
          I hear Artlantis is pretty damn decent also with great controls and options.

          Thanks for the information! I am doing like, what do you call it- a walk around the building at birds eye and human eye. and next will be doing interior walk throughs. I am not happy with the animations i can set up in sketchup- are there good plugins i can get for that? also, i will purchase a rendering program soon so what do you recommend ?i would like the program to have good features for creating lights.

          cheers

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • D Offline
            d12dozr
            last edited by

            For creating better animations/walkthroughs, you could use the FlightPath (free) plugin or FlightPath2 ($7.00)

            For rendering, I'd recommend Twilight as it is relatively inexpensive (99 USD), super easy yet powerful to use, and support in the forum is excellent.

            Hope that helps πŸ˜„

            3D Printing with SketchUp Book
            http://goo.gl/f7ooYh

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • N Offline
              notareal
              last edited by

              @comatose said:

              Thanks for the information! I am doing like, what do you call it- a walk around the building at birds eye and human eye. and next will be doing interior walk throughs. I am not happy with the animations i can set up in sketchup- are there good plugins i can get for that? also, i will purchase a rendering program soon so what do you recommend ?i would like the program to have good features for creating lights.

              cheers

              KT should be able to do such animations, but it's a bit tricky sometimes. Thea Render has much better camera control and animation support already with keyframes and camera&target paths, but you cannot yet set animation inside SU. One needs to use build in tools of the Thea Studio, until Sketchup to Thea exporter do catch up. Also next Thea RV should have a camera lock to z-axis so camera control for walk trough animations will be even better. There is a video tutorial on general use of animation controls available, so you can get a better idea.

              Welcome to try [Thea Render](http://www.thearender.com/), Thea support | [kerkythea.net](http://www.kerkythea.net/) -team member

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • thomthomT Offline
                thomthom
                last edited by

                @solo said:

                A 30 second render at 720p (1280x720) would take around 10 hours to complete using 8 threads on an i7 920 (exterior) and about twice as long for interiors.

                At what frame-rate? I'm curious to what average render time per frame you estimate.

                Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • soloS Offline
                  solo
                  last edited by

                  25 fps.

                  http://www.solos-art.com

                  If you see a toilet in your dreams do not use it.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • shuraS Offline
                    shura
                    last edited by

                    @unknownuser said:

                    would like the program to have good features for creating lights

                    Have a look at the lights in Twilight - I for one use lights a lot and am really happy with TWL.
                    (don't know much about Thea or Vray though)

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • C Offline
                      comatose
                      last edited by

                      @notareal said:

                      @comatose said:

                      Thanks for the information! I am doing like, what do you call it- a walk around the building at birds eye and human eye. and next will be doing interior walk throughs. I am not happy with the animations i can set up in sketchup- are there good plugins i can get for that? also, i will purchase a rendering program soon so what do you recommend ?i would like the program to have good features for creating lights.

                      cheers

                      KT should be able to do such animations, but it's a bit tricky sometimes. Thea Render has much better camera control and animation support already with keyframes and camera&target paths, but you cannot yet set animation inside SU. One needs to use build in tools of the Thea Studio, until Sketchup to Thea exporter do catch up. Also next Thea RV should have a camera lock to z-axis so camera control for walk trough animations will be even better. There is a video tutorial on general use of animation controls available, so you can get a better idea.

                      thanks- i will check it out.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • C Offline
                        comatose
                        last edited by

                        @d12dozr said:

                        For creating better animations/walkthroughs, you could use the FlightPath (free) plugin or FlightPath2 ($7.00)

                        For rendering, I'd recommend Twilight as it is relatively inexpensive (99 USD), super easy yet powerful to use, and support in the forum is excellent.

                        Hope that helps πŸ˜„

                        Is the $7 plugin much better than the free one?

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • D Offline
                          d12dozr
                          last edited by

                          @comatose said:

                          Is the $7 plugin much better than the free one?

                          I've never used either of them so I can only go by the description on each plugin's page, but it appears the $7 one has more options for focusing the camera. Why not just try the free one to see if it does what you need, and upgrade if necessary?

                          Maybe somebody that has used the scripts could answer better?

                          3D Printing with SketchUp Book
                          http://goo.gl/f7ooYh

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • C Offline
                            comatose
                            last edited by

                            @d12dozr said:

                            @comatose said:

                            Is the $7 plugin much better than the free one?

                            I've never used either of them so I can only go by the description on each plugin's page, but it appears the $7 one has more options for focusing the camera. Why not just try the free one to see if it does what you need, and upgrade if necessary?

                            Maybe somebody that has used the scripts could answer better?

                            Yeah, a bit lazy on my part for not reading the details 😳 . the free plugin is very limited but better than just creating scenes in sketchup.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • N Offline
                              notareal
                              last edited by

                              @d12dozr said:

                              @comatose said:

                              Is the $7 plugin much better than the free one?

                              I've never used either of them so I can only go by the description on each plugin's page, but it appears the $7 one has more options for focusing the camera. Why not just try the free one to see if it does what you need, and upgrade if necessary?

                              Maybe somebody that has used the scripts could answer better?

                              It's already a while when I used one of free camera patch scripts (sorry cannot remember the script). There was some hard (or impossible) to control accelerations - so I finally did gave up (Kerkythea produced better results). Never tested FlightPath2, but it seems to have crucial camera target options. I think Ecuadorian have played a lot with these... maybe search his posts.

                              Welcome to try [Thea Render](http://www.thearender.com/), Thea support | [kerkythea.net](http://www.kerkythea.net/) -team member

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • 1 / 1
                              • First post
                                Last post
                              Buy SketchPlus
                              Buy SUbD
                              Buy WrapR
                              Buy eBook
                              Buy Modelur
                              Buy Vertex Tools
                              Buy SketchCuisine
                              Buy FormFonts

                              Advertisement