Wednesday
Jan172007
Revenge of SketchUp
Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 4:03PM
Zane Rutledge has posted some of his early experiments with creating storyboards using Google SketchUp and an older version of Poser. This is exactly what I was talking about Zane, nice work!
Zane has nicely articulated the strengths and limitations of SketchUp as a ‘boarding tool. It rocks for creating architecture and blocking scenes, but it has no tools for creating and posing “actors,” and limited and confusing ideas about what a camera is. If Google could tackle these minor omissions, they’d have a tool that every filmmaker would embrace.
Reader Comments (5)
There seem to be a few Google tools that with minor improvements could become really handy.
Google Calendar, for instance, can be a really easy to use free, 'guerilla' alternative to Microsoft Project or similar programs. (it just needs event dependencies)
I've implemented it here where i work. Calendars become people and Events become tasks. It works well though the only difficulty is I have to manually push everything forward if something takes longer than expected.
Dependencies would be really handy for this. (they would also be handy for travel and event planning). Being able to click on an event and go to a particular URL would be handy as well.
You can just send everyone the share link to their google calendar and they make it their homepage. (if they don't want a google account then you can send them a read-only url) And then they always know what they need to do and when to do it. And I have a schedule I can easily look at and edit no matter where I am. And its free. Yay. :)
Can all that be done with the free version of Google SketchUp? If so, then I agree that it's awesome. But if you need to upgrade to the $500 version, then my advice would be to put your money into FrameForge ($400) which is a truly awesome program. And yes, Stu, you can have it render in a "sketchy" mode. :)
I've been using FF for about a year and never regretted a penny. Combined with something like Celtx (free!), I've been able to really prepare myself for my Rebel shoot.
Nothing I've done so far has required any more than the free version of Google SketchUp. I think you get more input and export options with the Pro (paid) version, plus the possibility of the new LayOut feature, which *might* be an option for better printing of your frames...but no, so far, the free version works well. (Importing from 3DS format appears to be free.)
Of course to build custom characters as I did, you do have to buy Poser (or you could have back when it was on special for $99).
Jason, I'd love to read more about your positive experience with FrameForge. I downloaded the demo and tried desperatly to like it, but I could not get over how clunky the controls felt. Just lining up a simple shot seemed so click-intensive and counterintuitive that I gave up real quick.
I want so badly for FrameForge or something like it to just ROCK, but when it comes to software I'm a huge usability/discoverbility stickler. This is where SketchUp shines—you don't "learn" SketchUp, you just start using it, and later you get better at using it.
Please post more. If I even suspected that I'd like FrameForge half as much as you do, I'd buy it in a heartbeat!
Speaking from a place of complete ignorance, I haven't used it or know that much about it, but would http://www.dedalo-3d.com/index.php'>MakeHuman be a possible alternative to Poser here (bearing in mind it doesn't do clothing yet.)?