Re; Animation output - DOES NOT create AVI file when it's a

bikerchris

Hi Planet Earth,

I hope you can help.

I have a fairly basic 3D model (600Kb) with 37 scenes, and with a few active section planes.

If I create animation in MP4 format, the sections do not animate.

If I create animation in AVI format, it goes through the process of creating frames, finishes, but there is NO file or error reports. When I reduce the number of scenes to be animated, it correctly creates the AVI file with no problem.

I also tried using Animation ---> image sets, this did work but again would not animate section planes. I have also found that any AVI files that exceed 2GB in size, can't be imported into Windows Movie Maker.

My next workaround (which I'm sick of doing by the way), is to split the file to scenes containing no more than around 6 scenes. I've done this already and found that sections would sometimes not animate. It's like I can't win, and wouldn't it be great if I had to make a change to the model...I could go through the fun of splitting it up all over again

Computer Hardware / Software:

The computer spec:

i5 2500k, 8GB RAM, 256GB Intel SSD, etc.

Software:

Sketchup 2013, General software installed, but also AutoCAD, CS3, etc. It's a very reliable machine, no recent conflicts, all drivers and software is up to date.

I have deactivated old Ruby's in case they were causing a problem.

Really appreciate any responses.

Dave R

What version of Windows?

I think you've already hit on the problem. It's not just that Windows Movie Maker won't open large files, the operating system won't let you make files larger than 2Gb. Can you find a Win 7 machine to export the animation with?

bikerchris

Thanks for chipping in Dave, much appreciated. I'm currently running Windows 7 64-bit (sorry, didn't mention that).

It's strange because I have a friend who creates AVI's using After Effects, and he's had video sizes exceeding 6GB with no problem - moreover he can import them with ease into windows movie maker

I'm currently splitting up the model into scenes, ensuring they final AVI output does not exceed 2GB. If someone asked me to make a revision to the model right now, I would be very annoyed!

Dave R

Maybe you need a different editor then. Movie Maker is old. 2Gb was the file size limit older versions of Windows had. I used Movie Maker on my old machine to work with video files but when I moved to the Win7 machine, I bought Camtasia for screen capture and it has a much nicer editor.

bikerchris

Thanks for that Dave, I'll check Camtasia out. It is frustrating that my colleague with virtually the same spec machine as me, can import 6GB AVI files into Movie Maker.

I'm surprised if I'm the only one that finds this a bit annoying - having spent quite a while making a nice scene based animation in Sketchup, I'm unable to show anyone unless they also have sketchup

Dave R

Maybe he has a newer version of Movie Maker? I don't know what would be the cause of the difference otherwise.

bikerchris

I'm going to ring him now to find out any spec differences. He's a friend though and when I built mine, he pretty much copied my rig!

bikerchris

He didn't respond.

Incidentally, I've now found that Windows Movie Maker has a Sketchup AVI specific limit of 1GB

Dave R

Hmmmm...

Get Camtasia.

bikerchris

May have no choice - do you have the £220 studio version?

Dave R

I have Camatasia Studio version 8. I didn't want to spend the money but it was well worth it in the end. The quality of the videos and the ability to do some nice editing stuff made a big difference for me.

bikerchris

Thanks Dave, much appreciated. I've deduced that I have a problem with the sketchup install. I don't know whether a plugin is effecting it, but it's making any AVI output files that exceed 1GB, completely unusable. Also, if I try to make just one AVI output file of all the scenes, sketchup appears to be creating the slides, and then gets to the end and produces NO FILE. I have even found that if I cancel the process part way through, the file DOES appear.

I'm quite annoyed to put it mildly.

Dave R

Did you try disabling plugins to make sure it isn't a problem caused by one of them? If that doesn't change anything, try reinstalling SketchUp from a fresh download.

bikerchris

I have disabled all plugins apart from Twilight. Next up seems to be to re-install

Dave R

Do you need Twilight running?

bikerchris

Hi all,

Quick and easy question, what experiences have you had with AVI file sizes and what's the biggest you've been able to create.

Also, have you ever had the slide creation process occur without issue, only to find that at the end of it, you are not provided with an AVI file OR error messages?

Thanks!

Chris