I'm just not getting this....

[mogogirl]

Sorry guys, here's another question. I'm trying to save my render and animation. I got the background white (thanks) now it appears as if all my buildings and objects are in dark shadow. I have shadowing turned off in Sketchup and I have sunlight set to 0 on light editor and I've tried rendering in low, medium and high.

I'm so frustrated, I just don't understand all of this stuff I guess. I just want to save my animation so that it looks like it does on the sketchup screen but it's not happening. Any ideas?

Thanks again.

[Ecuadorian]

Mmmm... if that's all you want, I have another idea to save it directly from SketchUp, give me a couple of minutes.

[Frederik]

Hi monogirl,

Sorry to hear that you're struggeling the way you seem to be...
Once you learn it, I'm sure you'll have a good laugh about these beginners difficulties...

Can you please give us a little more information about what you've done...
I.e. could be really useful to know what render preset you've used for making the renders...

And as a closing message, I want to give you this advice, which is a quote from another bright guy...

What steps have you taken to better your skills?

How badly do you want to render well?

Are you willing to invest the time and energy in order to learn those skills?

And finally you must realize having the tools does not make one a carpenter, meaning that there is a level of artistic talent and desire needed in order to set up a scene, composition, lighting, texturing, modeling, and so forth that requires one to have a genuine interest and find much enjoyment in what one is doing in order to succeed.

[mogogirl]

I'm doing everything I know how to learn these skills. I've spent several months on Sketchup just trying to learn the basics and teaching myself. I now want to advance to where I can make and save animations. I really am trying, the main problem being is that all of this is very foreign to me and I have no one that can help me in person. What I am learning, I am doing solely on my own. I have had no training and no one to guide me as I attempt to learn these techniques. I'm not an engineer or drafter and have never been mechanically inclined so this is definitely an uphill battle (I have an English Lit degree for gosh sakes...lol). I tend to be a visual learner so trying to learn all of this from manuals and the internet has been very challenging.

I'm not trying to make excuses, just letting you know where I am coming from. I keep trying...I pretty much have been working at this for 8 hours a day for the last several weeks. I will keep at it until I can get to a point I'm happy with. I don't need to make photo realistic renderings...just want to make acceptable looking models with some animation. I guess the frustration is just setting in....I don't like it when I can't figure something out!!!!

Thanks for the encouragement.

[Ecuadorian]

Ok, if all you want is to be able to export your animation exactly as it looks in SketchUp, without the photorealistic results attainable with Twilight, do this:

Download the "Smoothstep Animation" plug-in:
http://www.forums.sketchucation.com/vie ... +animation

Copy the file you downloaded in the folder:
C:\Program files\Google\Google SketchUp 7\Plugins

Close and open SketchUp again.

When you have your animation ready for exporting and you can see all objects move when switching from one scene to another (refer to the video I posted a few days ago), instead of opening Twilight, go to the SketchUp Plug-ins drop-down menu and look for the option "View smooth animation". This is exactly how your animation will look once exported.

To actually export it, choose the option "Export Smooth Animation". In "Width" and "Height" enter 640 and 480 and press OK.

Now you are asked to enter a name for the image sequence.

That's all. After that, you can use Fletch's tip on how to convert that sequence to a video. If you want nicer-looking video, enter 1280 and 720 in "Width" and "Height" when exporting.

[mogogirl]

thanks so much...I'll give it a try!

[Ecuadorian]

If you need any extra help, just let us know. We understand that, as a lawyer, you want clear, basic videos for legal purposes and not to wow potential buyers of luxury apartments. If you need it, I can do a video explaining the Smoothstep animation plug-in.

I do understand how it feels to be completely foreign to a new field and everyone assuming one has the basics right. That's what happened to me when I tried to learn to write Ruby scripts for SketchUp. I eventually gave up.

[mogogirl]

This looks exactly like what I have been searching for!!!!! Thanks so much. I will download tonight and try to load it into video dub tomorrow. I will certainly let you know how it all works out!

[Chris]

I guess the frustration is just setting in....I don't like it when I can't figure something out!!!!

I know exactly what you mean. We'll do our best to help.

[Fletch]

I got the background white ...

This is the problem,
You do not want a white background, you want a white SKY
Please read Page 24 of the manual, this is explained how the "Background" is not going to contribute to lighting your scene. only a "Sky" type will.

Change your Sky type pulldown menu from "Background Color" to "Sky Color".... all will be ok in Twilight.