Importing sketchup model into video

SketchUp
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Hi all

I have a background in Architecture, and I do a lot of drone videography for property companies, architects etc. a client has asked if I can embed sketchup models into drone footage (video, not still images) to create flyby videos for planing application and sales videos is this possible? And if so, which video editing software should I use?

Thanks in advance
Jason

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YouTube search - ‘insert 3d model into video’

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I looked into how it might be done on Windows, but didn’t find a way yet. It may be that Fredo’s Animator can export transparent image sequences, but I couldn’t see how to do that in the FFmpeg PDF. @Fredo6 may know better!

Here are steps if you have access to a Mac:

  1. Create your scene animation, either with the built in Scene feature, or some other animation extension. I haven’t checked into those, but start here: SketchUp Extension Warehouse - Fredo6 Animator can be found here: SketchUp Plugins | PluginStore | SketchUcation
  2. Either use the extension export options, or if you are using the built in features you can export an animation of the scene changes as a PNG sequence, where each PNG has a transparent background. That seems not to be possible on Windows.
  3. In your video editing software, import the fly-through video.
  4. Import the image sequence, and retime it to match the frame rate you want, and place it on top of the right part of the fly-through video.
  5. Make sure the clip that contains the image sequence is set to Straight Alpha.
  6. Export the combined video.

Here is the export dialog on Mac, where you can see that I had it set to 4k resolution, and transparent background. In the model itself I had sky and axes turned off:

image
image822×1290 99.9 KB

I didn’t have any fly-through videos handy, so I used a screen recording I had done with Apple Vision Pro. So, the balcony and the cage model are the background video, the two Thoms are the PNG export from SketchUp. I used Final Cut Pro to do the video editing steps.

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You may be answering how to track the model to match the video, and that is its own problem. It would be good to see a guide for how to do that in SketchUp rather than Blender. I was answering the part about how to get a SketchUp model into video.

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Ok, Colin!
I answered these two requests.

Once the camera tracking is solved, importing the SketchUp model is a formality.

If you want, you can use the Adobe suite instead.

or Cinema 4D

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