Good looking image but I am not sure if I would call this a tutorial though ...
You just mention what you added, not how you did it and what programs/software you used

thanks Dave

Okiedokie, been dorking around with this thing in my spare time and I think I have some decent results now.
I tried to follow Solo's suggestion on exporting it in .avi format, unfortunately I could not get this to work. The result looked all messed up with goofy colors, 4-split screens and it didn't even start where it was supposed to. Even after breaking the file down in 4 segments and try to save as individual .avi files so I could glue them together afterwards was not a solution. I suspect It has something to do with the animation plugin I used to where I can set each scene transition time individually. Plan B was to go back to saving it in .png frames wich took about 10 hours to process. I used virtualdub to save it into an uncompressed .avi file. Solo advised purchasing the following program: http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector/overview_en_US.html?fileName=overview&r=1 a user friendly program in wich I was able to convert the uncompressed .avi file to the various formats I needed. Here is the you tube link, in case anyone is interested how it turned out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8doRqSRnu08

Baby steps .... I know this is nothing compared to what some of the guys here put out but concidering the timeframe I had I'm pretty tickled with the result so far(thanks again Solo).

Again, I am a first time Sketchup movie maker so I am still pretty clueless. The reason I did not do .avi is because 2 responded with the .npg solution. It's not that I need a .wmv file, it's just what was available for free to try it out. Granted I do not know how to work moviemaker just yet but so far I am not very impressed, there appears to be no "save as" option to save it in any other format but .wmv. Virtualdub accepts just about any file format but .wmv.
What editing application/3rd party video editior should I use? Is there a step by step tutorial somwhere on how to do this maybe?
Solo, I noticed your "I am for hire", out of curiosity, how much would you charge for turning this into a mp4 presentation?

Got it converted to .png and used moviemaker to create the movie. It plays it superslow though and increasing the speed does not seem to make any difference. Was I supposed to leave the image at 7min? (I changed it to 1 min). Videodub does not take .wmv files so I need to convert it ot a mp4 now? What is a good file converter?

ok, found the .png option, but what frame rate should I use?
The client wants to show it on a digital screen with a resolution of 1280x768, so I'll set resolution at 1280x720 as solo suggested.

babysteps, but I'm confident I'll get there
thanks for helping me out guys :0)

so far I have been reducing the frame rate in Sketchup export to make the file small enough to where I can play it on you tube but the qulaity is pretty bad. I have a feeling the solution of reducing file size comes from other programs. Do I just export it as big as possible and then use something else to make it internet worthy? Just haven't had to use videos just yet.

Hey all,
I have created a pretty elaborate file for a client that shows a light rail track along a stretch of road.
The client has been showing this model to several people in small meetings to make their case for where its locations should be and now are interested in posting it on the web for the general public to view. The problem is the quality: the file is about 50,000 KB and when I make a video straight out of SketchUp I have to reduce the size so much that the quality becomes pretty bad. I am not familiar with video software enough to know where to start but very willing to learn how to make a better video and what to use.
Is anybody able to give me advice ... thanks

Esther

Hey thanks Frederik, I checked out the thread, and of course new questions arise. Why exactly is there a need for 2 meshes; one emitter (low poly) and one fake emitter (high poly)? Doesn't the 2nd layer add lots of triangles again to the model? Also, the question still remains why this model is composed of all groups, shouldn't it be all components since there are lots of repeating parts to this cube lamp?

DutchEsse

OK, so after visiting this site for a couple of months and admiring all the pro's work, I thought I'd take the plunge and give these challenges a try, first time
I am soso in getting around in Sketchup and have been making some architectural models for work, but I'm very new to this whole rendering happening and from the getgo get overwhelmed by all the abreviations people are using, anyway ....I guess I'll have to make a list :0)

How does one go about starting this thing? I am using twilight and understand I have to assign materials from the Twilight library ... so I started to take on that task, but in disecting this model, I noticed something odd ... This is a wicked detailed table lamp but it appears that it is made out of all .... "groups". The only component is the table. I was under the understanding that in Sketchup, it is best to make components out of repeating items. Did I download it wrong? Is part of the challenge that I make it into groups? This model is reacting superslow and I haven't even applied anything fancy yet. (What I envision for this lamp is to be all rusty and damaged, but still working here and there, like it has been an old artifact dug up, o say, a 100 years from now).

I would really appreciate the feedback and guidance as I take the dive into render world :0)
thanks, DutchEsse