SketchUp 4 Film & Stage is a feature extension for SketchUp that was specifically developed for Directors, Cinematographers, Production Designers, Art Directors and other design professionals in the Film industry. The Extension facilitates a visual approach to solving complex spatial design problems and speeds the exploration of alternatives with an easy-to-use software environment. With the Film & Stage Extension SketchUp users can reduce the time and expense of filming by pre-visualizing their vision digitally first.
This preview release of SketchUp's Film & Stage extension includes an enhanced camera tool, as well as a collection of film-industry specific components.
SketchUp 4 Film & Stage expands on the standard SketchUp "camera" in a number of important ways- allowing precise camera placement and positioning that is more analogous to the way physical cinematic cameras are used.
This enhanced camera tool can be used throughout the planning phases of any film production, from loose storyboarding to shot analysis through set design and construction.
SketchUp 4 Film & Stage adds a new type of camera entity that works in concert with SketchUp's standard viewing tools rather than replacing them. Think of Film & Stage cameras as physical objects and Pages (SketchUp's standard saved view) as controlling the point of view.
The first step in any accurate cinematic visualization is to pick the camera type that you will be using. Film & Stage default cameras provide you with fixed aspect ratios in many of the most popular formats for contemporary film work. You are free to change the camera's properties at any time, but you will usually want to set a fixed aspect ratio before doing any composition.
To set a camera type, choose a camera type from the list of predefined cameras found under the "Select Camera Type" submenu of the "Camera" menu. By default, your choices will include the following camera types:
If you don't see the camera type you want to use, you can modify the camera's properties after creating it. See "Editing the camera's properties" below for more information.
note: If you have a standard camera type that you would like to add to the preset list, you can add it permanently by editing the file "cameras.txt" found in the "previs" directory of your Plugins folder.
SketchUp's standard view controls can easily emulate physical camera controls for focal length. To set the focal length for a camera use the Zoom Tool.
With the Zoom Tool active, you can type a value for focal length into the VCB. For example, to set a 50mm focal length, type "50mm" into the VCB. To experiment dynamically, hold down the "shift" key on your keyboard, then click and drag up or down with your mouse to adjust the focal length.
Once you have saved a camera into your model, you can adjust it's focal length by editing the camera's properties through the "Edit Camera..." item in the camera's context menu. See "Editing the camera's properties" below for more information.
note: If you do not hold down the "shift" key, the Zoom Tool adjusts the camera's position rather than changing the focal length.
note: The Field of View Tool works in a similar manner to the "shift" modified Zoom Tool. However, with the Field of View Tool, the camera position is adjusted proportionally to the focal length adjustment- giving you a "Vertigo Effect".
To create a camera, select "Create Camera" from the Camera menu. A dialog will appear asking you to name the camera (for future reference). Click on the "OK" button to create a camera. A new component will be added to your model representing the camera's position and type- though you will not immediately see the component because you will be looking through the camera when it is created.
Immediately after camera creation, you can tweak the camera's position using the camera positioning tools. See "Moving the camera" below for more information.
note: If you select "Show All" from the "Camera" menu, you'll see a representation of the camera at the location specified, but you will no longer be able to move it using the camera positioning tools.
There are two ways to activate, or "look through" a saved camera. The first is to right-click on the camera, and choose "Look Through Camera" to return to the selected camera's point of view.
Alternately, you can select "Look Through Camera" from the Camera menu. A dialog box with a pop-up list of saved cameras will appear. Select the camera through which you would like to look from the pop-up and click on the "OK" button to proceed.
With a camera activated, a new set of camera motion controls are available for accurate positioning and orientation of that camera.
click-drag left & right to pan
click-drag up & down to dolly
ctrl-click-drag left & right to truck (use opt in OS X)
ctrl-click-drag up & down to pedestal (use opt in OS X)
opt-click-drag up & down to tilt (use cmd in OS X)note:If you use the middle mouse button to orbit while a camera is active, you will be changing the active camera's actual position and orientation.
You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard (left, right, up and down) to move the camera instead of moving the mouse. The same modifier keys (as above) can be used to switch between motion controls.
In addition, you can set the camera's height above the ground plane by keying a distance value into the VCB.
note: To point the camera at a particular entity in your scene, you can double-click on it with your mouse when the camera is active.
You can edit a camera's properties by right clicking on the camera, and selecting "Edit Camera..." from the context menu. If you are currently "looking through" a camera, you can access the camera properties by right-clicking on any empty space in your model view.
In the Camera Properties dialog, you can set the following properties: