Broadcast HD production and SU

film842

Hey - I just stumbled across this thread. Chris already mentioned, but we were the ones that created that Volkswagen commercial that was initially referenced in this thread. I'd be glad to help in any way that I can on what we've learned about SketchUp in a motion graphics workflow.

For the Volkswagen commercial, we used SketchUp as a central planning and final graphics tool, but we also mashed together a number of other programs including:

-Adobe Illustrator
-Adobe Photoshop
-Adobe AfterEffects
-Video footage
-Still photography
-All edited with Final Cut Pro (Premiere would be fine for PC users)

So while SketchUp would not readily be considered a fit for high-end motion graphics, I do believe that it can provide a fresh aesthetic, and when combined with other programs, one can work around the flickering from SketchUp Animation renders.

Anyhow, we've since completed a few other animations, films, and motion graphics projects. My favorite one that we most recently finished (although pretty simple) was for Google.org: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0FsSN7YWHc&feature=channel_page. Be sure to watch in high quality.

Let me know what specs, if any, would be most helpful to share.

Alex,

Thanks for your offer of help. Very much appreciated. My first question is whether any of the work you've done has ended up on an interlaced broadcast format? It would be helpful to know whether you designed for interlaced output or stayed with progressive for final and what your opinion is about it.
From that point, our questions fall in the area of workflow such as whether or not you rendered out your animations in Sketchup or did you take them to another program for rendering? And did you design your own styles and if so, do you have any guidance there?
The last question has to do with exporting an animation out with an alpha background. Do you know if that is possible or not?
Like yourself we'll be combining with After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator and then Premiere Pro.

Chris Fullmer

My understanding is that if you export a .png on a Mac, the background comes out transparent. It does not a PC. So perhaps you could export your animation as a series of .pngs from a Mac and then you could put the pngs together into a video, therby getting your video with transparent background.

Chris