Google sketchup
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hi everyone i'm a newbie!
i haven't used sketchup yet( i just heard of it and this is probably a stupud question)but can i use google sketchup to create a background for my 2d animation? i use photoshop and i am learning blender but i want to make a anime webseries and use google sketchup for my backgrounds and sets because i suck at them and i want to save time. also can you render sketchup to make it look hand drawn like actual anime/manga? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq6W0A79GYw&feature=related is a good example of 2d anime and 3d...so will sketchup save me time on my anime if i want to use it for my background, sets etc?sorry for my bad english
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thank you..but i wanted to know if sketchup can be used for animations? like for the background because I want to cut down production time, combine both 2d and 3d, and I know perspective but i am too lazy to draw buildings for every frame XD...so can the free version export to photoshop?
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Yeah, you would export an image from SketchUp that Photoshop would use.
Where does the actual "animation" come in to play? Do you do that with flash?, or by hand in photoshop?
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By hand in photoshop. I can draw characters and people well but not buildings, cars etc. that's why i ask if sketchup can fill in the blanks for my lack of skills in those areas
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OK, and in photoshop you manage all the animation there inside the animation panel?
You can test this quickly to get a feel for the workflow.
Make a quick model of a building - mostly basic boxes and boxy doors and windows; just something that would be a typical background type element. Then you "animate" movement through it by creating "scenes" for key camera locations. So move around until you are looking at the left side of your model. Make a new Scene (open the sceneds dialog box from the "Window" menu). Then pan to the right of the model and add another scene. Now you have a basic animation in SketchUp. Click on the scene tabs that were created, just about the model viewing window. And it would animate between the two scenes. You can adjust the time it takes to move from scene to scene in the Window > Model Info > Animation dialog box. While you're in that dialog, you will probably also want to set the "Scene delay" to 0.
Once you have the transition time set so that the movement from scene to scene feels comfortable, it is time to export the animation.
I would guess that you will want to export a series of jpg images, so they can easily be read into Photoshop as an animation. Go to Menu > Export > Animation. Change the filetype to jpg (or png, but make sure you choose an image type, not a movie type). Then set how many frames per second. If you set your animation to be 3 seconds between scenes, and you just have those 2 scenes, your animation will be 3 seconds long. 30 frames per second will be 90 frames exported. I'm guessing if you know animation, most of this is basic stuff.
But there you go, you now have a simple 2d animated moving background that Photoshop can import and you can hand animate over the top of.
Let me know how it goes. I could make a really quick test file for you if you need.
Chris
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Thank you soo much!
you cleared up alot of confusion for me..if you want to you could do a test file so i could actually see how to do it because i'm still learning sketchup..again thank you -
ok, here is a fairly simple model. Its a warehouse facade, with some boxy buildings in the background. Click from scene 1 to scene 2 to see what the exported animation will be.
Then export the animation as a series of jpgs from sketchup. You can easily import those into photoshop. I do not know what you will want to do with them from there. They will come in as movie frames, I dont know if you want to turn them all into layers or what. That is up to I guess
Chris
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thank you
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