Learn about exporting animations using SketchUp, including adjusting frame rates, dimensions, resolution, and line scale multiplier. Discover how SketchUp allows you to have control over adjusting each animation clip, styles, shadow settings, and more for a customized end product.
Key Insights
- The article provides a detailed guide on exporting animations in SketchUp, including options for exporting as an mp4 video file or jpeg, png, tiff image sets, and adjusting settings such as frame rate and file dimensions.
- With SketchUp, users can modify each animation individually, adjusting aspects such as the shadows, styles, and settings for each clip, giving the user full control over the animation process and end product.
- In addition to animation capabilities, the article highlights the various other features and tools in SketchUp such as building structures, using guides, and customizing components which make it an extremely useful tool for architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
Welcome back to the final video of the SketchUp 101 Course. If you would like to export the animation to send to friends, family, or even a client, I can go to File > Export > Animation. You can see that there are multiple export file type options.
There’s an MP4 video file or there are JPEG, PNG, and TIFF image sets. If I click an image set and go to Options, you can see that there’s a frame rate option, where I can set it to 30 frames per second or 10 frames per second. I can also adjust the dimensions of my file.
The larger the file size, the longer it will take to export. With frame rate, if I use an image set and set each transition to be four seconds, that means if I use 30 frames per second, 30 times 4 will give me 120 frames. So, this will export 120 frames between each scene. That’s a lot of images, so it could take a couple of hours, depending on the size you select.
It could even take several hours. A video will export exactly what you see on the screen at the frame rate and dimensions you select. With a video, you can still adjust your resolution to be fairly high, but there is a warning that the maximum exportable width is 4096 pixels.
If I change it to 496, you can see that this is the maximum size. With an image set, I also have the same options, and I’m not able to set anything higher than 4096.
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The Line Scale Multiplier shows the thicknesses of your edges and lines, and you can adjust it to achieve the desired effect. I am not going to export a video or animation right now, as that would take too long, but feel free to do so on your own. So, that’s one quick way to create an animation in SketchUp.
You can also modify each of these animations and make each one unique. For example, if you want Animation 3 to have a different type of shadows… You want the shadows to be further into the evening, right? I can update this, and for Animation 4, I want the shadows to be further into the night, right? And then, as it gets even darker, like it's becoming evening, I can update this.
Then, if I transition from Animation 2 and play this animation, you'll see that SketchUp will adjust the shadows accordingly between each clip automatically, and it’ll fill in the gaps and create a nice, gradual scene.
You have a lot more control over adjusting not only what each animation clip does but also the styles and shadow settings you’ve provided for each one. Well, there you have it. I think we covered a lot in this SketchUp 101 Course.
We learned how to build a picnic table. We learned about using guides and all the tools in our Large Tool Set. We built a carousel.
We built a fountain using the Follow Me Tool. We used 3D Text. We learned about topography using the Drape Tool.
We also learned about using components, how to customize components, how to make components 'Face Me, ' and how to modify the way the component snaps and glues to certain faces. I hope you enjoyed this course.
I use SketchUp almost every day in my professional setting, and it’s an extremely useful tool for Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Interior Design.
The sky’s the limit with this program, as we can see from all the extensions you can install and fully customize to meet your exact needs. I love this program, and I hope you’ve developed a new kind of appreciation for it.
Thank you for your time, and I’ll see you next time.
