3-D Model Fly Throughs

MichaelS wrote on 7/3/2005, 9:39 PM
I just bet one of you can help me on this one.

I need to create a short "fly thru" animation of a building for a fund raising project. About 30 seconds of "360" around the building and maybe peak in the front door.

The building and landscaping are quite simple. I've downloaded the Punch Home Design demo and easily built the project I need. The problem is finding a program that will allow me to animate and save the "tour" of the building.

Is there an affordable, easy to use program that will do this?

Thanks!

Comments

farss wrote on 7/3/2005, 11:37 PM
Can the program you've already got let you take snapshots from a camera position?
If so you could just keep moving the camera and building up a stop motion sequence, tedious but no extra cost. If that will not do it then as you've already built the 3D models you need something else that can open the file(s) that it's created, that's going to be the most important part otherwise you'll have to build your city all over again.
For the money Truespace can do this, I think you can still buy the previous latest release pretty cheaply but be warned any 3D animation program has a steep learning curve.
Bob.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 7/4/2005, 7:02 AM
I use Cinema 4D for my 3D work and fly-throughs are very easy to do. Just draw a path (spline) through the scene and then attach a camera to the path. Done! The hard part is all of the scenery. You know, all that stuff in the background as you circle the building like sky and trees and the rest of the city. How are you going to model all that?

~jr
rdolishny wrote on 7/4/2005, 8:12 AM
I've done a tonne of those for set designs and new buildings.

www.dolish.com if you decide to farm that off.

- Rick
Xander wrote on 7/4/2005, 9:32 AM
I use anim8or from www.anim8or.com. It is free. As long as you can export the house to a 3ds, lwo, type model, it can be imported as an object. You then set up the scene and can render to an uncompressed avi. The cool thing is the camera can follow a path. It takes a little while to get used to, but not that long - it the easist 3d program I have used.
Chanimal wrote on 7/4/2005, 10:33 AM
Virtus Walkthrough Pro was specifically designed for this effort, and for the film industry (used by Jame Cameron and others to block shots for the Abyss, etc.).

You can set a path or turn on "record" and move through the location manually (turning, etc.).

By the way, they also have a program called 3D Website Builder which was the leader when VRML was a hot item. It contains almost the same capabilities as Walthrough Pro, but the main thing is that it contains most of all the virtual libraries (worth much more than the entire program). Don't let the "website" name confuse you, this is the EXACT same program as Virtus VR with most of the features of Walkthrough.

The only problem is that it may be hard to find. They used to be a major player, now their technology has move on (they became Red Storm Entertainment (with Tom Clancy)). Their website, www.virtus.com is old. I have several copies, but you may be able to find it on e-bay for inexpensive.

***************
Ted Finch
Chanimal.com

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