[Tutorial] Smooth Animations from Sketchup - WIP

[not registered yet]

wow, I had no idea animation from sketchup could be so intense!!!!!!!! I never even finished reading it. I had a client who wants to show a casket being put into a mosoleum animated.
thanks anyway for your efffort.
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poster-Skip

[mateo soletic]

Thanks Paul.

[kenzarch]

Thanks Paul.

[yaza]

way to go

[arvmehta]

Excellent tutorial , very similar to how are produce animations except for a twist , I don't use Premiere or After Effects but instead a piece of Free software (GNU GPL) called Mencoder . Using a commandline switch like
"d:\programs\mencoder\mencoder.exe" mf://*.jpg -mf fps=12:type=jpg -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=12000 -oac copy -o output.avi -ffourcc XVID

I have compressed about 2500 1200x900 frames to Xvid format in under five minutes . Notice the vbitrate=12000 , Jacking it up really improved the picture quality . You can get Mencoder here .

[anglaret]

Paul
could you re-establish the link with your tutorial please, I would like to see it
Thanks - Marc

[Paul Russam]

Umm, I don't seem to be able to get on the su.porta.ca site

I've set you a PM

[Gaieus]

Hi Marc, Hi Paul,

I hope you have received Coen's board PM about Kelly's server and the transfer of the content into the current SCF server. I hope everything will be available again soon.

[Paul Russam]

Thanks Guys, thought it was something along those lines.

[StarWarsKnower]

The tutorial won't work. I click on the link, and it comes up in a new tab, then says 'HTTP Coulc Not Be Found'. Everyone says it is so good, I wan't to see it!

[Gaieus]

@starwarsknower said:

...Everyone says it is so good, I wan't to see it!

True it is a great tut - be patient, please; the srever change is just being done (as you can read in your PM).

[Paul Russam]

OK, here's an updated Tut with the first part of the Premiere stuff in it.

kannonbal:
I've always used TIFF's and for some reason never really got used to using PNG's.
I actually had to look and see if Premiere actually imported PNG's and Low and behold it does!! Whether it will import them as 'Numbered Stills' (See the revised tut) is another matter.

As for the "dreaded moire" well that's the next bit I've got to do in the tut!
Here's it quickly:
Select the sequence
From the menu select CLIP/VIDEO OPTIONS/FIELD OPTIONS
Select 'Flicker Removal'
Repeat for every Sequence (Very tedious)
Drag into the time line and export.

EDIT:
Final tutorial linked here (from later post below)

[Paul Russam]

Done a bit more this lunch time and its now on a prototype SCF template.

Edit:
Opps sorry about the quality of the images in the PDF, I squidged them a bit too much.

EDIT:
Final tutorial linked here (from later post below)

[Paul Russam]

Here's the first finished version:
Tutorial
Its a 1.2mb PDF

I'm going to add more stuff in regard to adding titles, effects, editing etc. but not just yet.

Please be critical and point out anything that's not clear, misspelt etc.

[Paul Russam]

Links fixed

[Gaieus]

Thanks Paul.

[brodie]

I'm just getting into animation so this was extremely helpful. I've been looking for a program to use for exactly this sort of thing so I'll check out the Adobe program you mention. If that flicker thing works at all it'll be well worth the money!

I can't wait for your following tutorials!

-Brodie

[dolphus]

Just what i was looking for. I am just now putting my foot into the "other side" of Sketchup ie rendering & animation, will let you know how it goes thanx

[Charlie__V]

Paul,
Very well done tut,clear and concise.
Thanks Lots,

Charlie

[dylan]

Paul do you have a link to any avi you have created with this method?
I would be really interested to see a comparison of this method and standard SU animation.