I've been playing with Peter Sharkey's 3D model of the White House again and trying to create a nice video from it, but I've been having poor luck. Google Sketch-Up is a little tricky to export from and Microsoft Movie Maker is even trickier to import into.
I've uploaded the raw Sketch-Up animation to YouTube, where it looks fairly terrible.
I've also uploaded the Movie Maker video to this site (it's about 35 MB). It looks better than the Flash-converted YouTube version, but Movie Maker does weird things like freezing on the frame after the frame the source video froze on, which sometimes puts a tree branch in the way of the view. But it's got titles and narration so it seems more polished.
I'll continue experimenting and perhaps try a different video software. I welcome any suggestions.
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I played with this idea a few years ago too. The problem for me was that I was already running my CPU at 100% using the tour feature to move around the model. And now I was trying to also use motion capture software at the same time to make a movie . . . a real pig on CPU resources.
ReplyDeleteI believe the version of Sketchup you can pay for as and exportable video feature that allows you to record a video and export it.
I think this is cool. It's like flying over the grounds and puts everything in perspective.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I've been on vacation and when I returned I found the WH Museum had great new pictures! Thanks for those!
I see what you meant about the software sometimes stopping but having a branch in the way. Does it still do this when you're not recording the movie?
ReplyDeleteI also think the "view from the Truman Balcony" set itself in the wrong spot which hovers too far in the air above the White House.
LOL. At one point I remember placing my Marine One model on the south lawn. Way too much memory usage on that try.
Terrific try Derek. Thank you. Very humbling.
The Youtube version definitely compresses the video too much. You start to lose window detail where the textures barely show up.
ReplyDeleteThe views look fine in SketchUp and even when I export from SketchUp (File > Export > Animation). It's Movie Maker that screws things up.
ReplyDeleteI've found how you can upload a high-quality file to YouTube and have it stay HQ, so when I get a satisfactory result out of Movie Maker, I'll do a 1280x720 HD version and send that to YouTube.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the newer file limit with Youtube then? Because if it's compression that's the issue and your Sketchup animation looks great, then we could just use VirtualDub (free) to set the compression rate.
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