I would also recommend getting Chopra's book "Google Sketchup 7 for Dummies". It has become a great reference manual for me and I use whenever I can't seem to get something to work right. It usually has the answers and easy to read and understand.

Just wanted to put my 2 cents worth in...Please don't give up. No matter how stupid your question seems to you, trust me, it's been asked before (probably by me) and these guys are very patient and willing to help. I just started using sketchup several months ago as a complete virgin to this type of program. I had never done any 3D modeling before and now I'm working on some animations (simple ones but making progress ) You'll get the hang of it. My best advice, from one newbie to another, is lots of trial and error and when you get really, really stuck...ask here.

I hope you post your attempts...would love to see them! Good luck!

I don't believe that the problem lies with the recording of the screen shot. The video transitions are already choppy when played right from Sketchup or thru the Smooth Animation video. My problem lies somewhere in the basics of the animation programs I am using.

I think it is partially that I am trying to use sketchup as an animation tool when there are probably better tools out there for this purpose. I just don't have the skills to use the more advanced animators at this time.

But thanks for the heads up on FRAPS, I did check it out and it may come in handy at some point

I agree! People here are friendly, informative and patient. Thanks all!

Honolulu...wow...that's a lot for me to think about. I'll have to work on that one for a while..lol.

Martin...thanks for the kind words. I think it's just because I came to Sketchup as a complete 3D virgin, not knowing what it was supposed to be used for and what not so I've kind of made things up as I go along and perhaps see things from a different perspective than others. Either way, I've enjoyed it and plan to keep trying to improve my skills.

ok, now I'm a little confused. I've selected a fps of 24 but I'm not sure what you mean by setting scenes a certain amount of time apart? How do you do that?

I don't think I can export it that way. It will record the camera animation but not the object animation which was done thru smooth animation. I've tried exporting thru smooth animation and then putting the jpegs thru a video maker called virtualdub but that doesn't help the transitions either. The video you see here was actually done as a screen shot using CamStudio.

If anyone has any ideas for this it would be greatly appreciated. I've tried different frame rates and transition times and nothing seems to help.

I've completed a second animation with sketchup. This is another accident scene I did for work. I'm pretty happy with it except for the jumpiness of the video. No matter what I did I couldn't seem to get the smooth transition between scenes. However, it gets the point across. I used a lot of components from the warehouse, mostly the vehicles, modifying them as needed. The houses I constructed except the windows and doors were pulled from the warehouse.

Any feedback is appreciated!

Here's the link: http://vimeo.com/7573855. If is asks for a password, it's "sketchup".

thanks. I'll give it a try!

@mike lucey said:

Final clue! The guy in the picture must have asked, 'What's up Doc?'

That's funny, it doesn't look like Bugs Bunny.