Twilight Animation Program?

[billygo]

Is there a free version of Twilight for sketchup animations for windows 7, 64 bit with sketchup 2014?

I've been using the lite 32 bit version and need something for animation rendering in Sketchup.

Thank you,
Billy G

[Chris]

Twilight Render can render animations. http://www.twilightrender.com/index.php ... animations
It does not animate geometry (or lights, sky, settings, etc.) and you will need a different plugin for that. But Twilight Render (both Pro & Hobby) can render animations.

[billygo]

Thanks, that confirms my findings as well. Guess I'll have to bite the bullet I guess $99 is for the cheaper Pro version?

[Chris]

The Hobby version is free. The Pro version is $99. There is no "cheaper Pro" version...

[billygo]

I think it says that Hobby is only available on Sketchup 2015? I have 2014?

[billygo]

The Hobby version is free. The Pro version is $99. There is no "cheaper Pro" version...

OK I see Hobby for 2014 only for 32 bit.

[billygo]

Twilight Render can render animations. http://www.twilightrender.com/index.php ... animations
It does not animate geometry (or lights, sky, settings, etc.) and you will need a different plugin for that. But Twilight Render (both Pro & Hobby) can render animations.

It does not render lights or sky settings but will it render SU shadows?

Do you know of another program that does? for free?
thanks, Billy

[Fletch]

I think there has been a misunderstanding.
there are two very different words here:
"render" and "animate"

Twilight is a "Render" program, not an "animate" program. So, in SketchUp, if you can animate something, whether it be the sun movement, or the movement of an object, say a car for instance, Twilight Render will RENDER the animation as a series of image files, but Twilight, within itself as a plugin, does not animate anything. For this you need another plugin such as sketchy physics - to render hundreds of falling objects or one of the many other object animation plugins available for SketchUp.
Animating the SUN/Shadows in SketchUp is done natively using the Scene Tabs.
Make sure the Scene manager is open, and create two scenes. Make sure in Scene manager that both scenes are set to remember the sun/shadows. In scene 1 set sun to morning, in scene 2 set sun to evening.
Now, when you render this animation with Twilight Render, whether you are using Hobby or Pro, doesn't matter - the sun/sky animation will be rendered with Twilight. But Twilight is not animating anything, SketchUp is doing this. It will be important to choose the correct animation render settings in the Twilight Render Animation Render Dialog.
1 CONTENT to update: choose "Camera and Lights" - for sun/sky animation or choose "All" for rendering animation of objects in the scene.
2: do not check "reuse lighting information"
3: start testing with very low quality render setting and low resolution rendering like "400x300" and "Prelim" rendering setting.

Subject: V2 Tutorials Animated Snippets #sunsky #environment

Sun, Shadow, Time of Day, Time of Year #sunshadow #environment

Subject: V2 Tutorials Animated Snippets: #Animations

Animation of SketchUp Scenes #animatingscenes

NOTE: when animating SU scene camera only, be sure to check the box "Reuse Lighting Information" it will render many times faster and higher quality. #fastanimation #reuselighting

[billygo]

Thanks Fletch,
I have key frame animation for SU. Would that work with Twilight?
I only have the Twilight free version / not hobby
also have windows 7 64 bit. Thanks, Billy

[Fletch]

The Hobby version is free.