[Tutorial] Smooth Animations from Sketchup - WIP

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.

chango70

Wow if there was an award for the most detailed tutorial this should be it. Great tutorial, thank you.