Render a sketchup Programme?

W0LFMAN

Hi All,

I'm quite a noob here...Please be understanding...

Ive Used an AutoCAD OS tile to produce a small section of road layout. imported it into Sketch-up and make it more 3D like.

Ive used Camstudio to capture visual animation rotation around the certian area for a project im working on...(10 scenes 20 Sec camra journey Compressed time using Sony Vages, into a nice smooth 45 second journey)

Theres a limit to sketch-up with the amount you can do before the camra movment becomes jagged and unprofessional.

I what this to look as professional as possible and belive that rendering screenshots/images of the work stationary will maybe have good results...

I'm not clue'd up in rendering...and was wondering if there were any free/easy/trial programmes that would work well with a Sketch-up.skp file..I will buy but would like to practice and make a few examples first.

Questions:

1) Do i have to change the materials on everything for better rendering than the sketch-up provides?...

2) renders take along time i understand that..Can you preview them before putting in the over to bake.

3) is it possible to render an animated file...be it avi.mov.

4) If not, Do i have to animate in the render programme. and is that as simple as uploading the skp file and then using the internal programme animation tools.

5) I need to add cars driving around Been playing with Antics but the programme is soon to close down... Moviestorm won't take uploads(It does but very hard and lots of file making) havn't used iClone. doesn't need to be spot on realism, but enough to direct traffic where i want them to go

the tools i have at the moment are ..autoCAD 2009 LT /Sony Vagas/Sketch-up6/Camstudio/VirtualDub and a decent Workstation Rig,...

Sorry about quality of pic didn't have the origional files with me at the time of writing, had to take a nasty screenshot..

Any help or advice would greatly be appricheated...

regards..

Danbo!

Ok.. Sketchup cannot handle high poly models too well in the program itself, so when you create camera scenes and preview animation it'll be very jumpy unless you view it in wire-frame which is no use for presentation.

So, go to Window-> Model Info and click animation. Enable scene transitions -> Tick the box. If you have lets say 10 camera positions (scenes) and you want your movie to be 20 seconds long, put in 2 for scene transitions. I always set my 'scene delay' to 0 to give a smoother run, unless you want to stop the camera at each position. If you do, stick in 1 or 2.

Make sure each camera scene has the same settings, i.e. shadows on or off in all scenes, materials on or off. If it is the case you have 10 scenes and scene- lets say 6- is wireframe, your animation will jump to wire frame for the 2 seconds you are 'passing' that camera, wont look great. If you do need to change a scene setting, like in the example I gave. Go to scene 6 and set it up like you would the rest of them, and don't forget to right-click the scene tab and click update before you change to a different scene.

Once all your scenes are ready click File-> Export-> Animation. A save as dialogue will appear, click options in the bottom right hand corner. Theres really no point in going above 640 pixels wide with a video so set it to 640 and the height will be calculated automatically. 15 frames per second will do, 30 if you've the time to render it (it will look a little smoother, but 15 will do).

Tick/untick loop to start when finished, depending on whether you want to watch the animation once or repeated. If you tick it, it will render an extra transition from the last to first scene to create a seamlessly looping video, good for presentations. And lastly, tick the anti-alias button to remove the jagged edges. Click OK.

Choose where to save it and hit export and it will begin to render each frame. Best to leave the computer alone and let it run. Hey presto - an avi file, and its much smoother than viewing it in sketchup itself.

Questions:

1) Do i have to change the materials on everything for better rendering than the sketch-up provides?...

2) renders take along time i understand that..Can you preview them before putting in the over to bake.

3) is it possible to render an animated file...be it avi.mov.

4) If not, Do i have to animate in the render programme. and is that as simple as uploading the skp file and then using the internal programme animation tools.

5) I need to add cars driving around Been playing with Antics but the programme is soon to close down... Moviestorm won't take uploads(It does but very hard and lots of file making) havn't used iClone. doesn't need to be spot on realism, but enough to direct traffic where i want them to go

As for your questions,

1) If you're exporting a movie as described above, the materials in sketchup are fine.

2) Technically, what you did with sketchup was previewing the render, hence the jumpiness. If you use an external rendering program like 3ds max, you can preview in wireframe to check your camera path, or render random scenes to jpeg to check materials

3) As described above

4) -

5) Sketchup will only provide camera animation. you cannot move objects about in the scene, excluding cameras and section planes.

If you really need to animate objects, or get that real-life feel, you need to export your sketchup model into a rendering program. Unfortunately, its not a matter of file -> export and file -> import, there is a lot of work involved and a steep learning curve with most rendering programs. Personally, I sometimes export to 3DS Max, but the method involved is tedious. V-Ray is available for sketchup but I do not have any experience with it, well, not enough to give advice anyway.

If you have any trouble with the above let me know and ill try and help

p

Check out Kerkythea, it can render sketchup movies.
http://www.alexschreyer.net/cad/rendering-sketchup-models-with-kerkythea/

Also, there are plenty of commercial renders for sketchup.
http://asgvis.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=15&Itemid=203