Hello, I asked this same questions in some CG discussion forums in the past few weeks. However it seems that nobody knows the answer. Hopes that some experts here can help me. I am totally new to 3D animation. I can master Macromedia Flash. I am now learning 3D Studio Max and Google SketchUp. My project is: 1. I need to create some 3D layout of a production floor. I can do this in Google SketchUp or 3D Studio Max. 2. I need to prepare a general 3D virtual tour of the production floor. Since the virtual tour will be put in the website, the final file may be export to swf file or other file format. I have no idea how to make the 3D animation virtual tour. I have some experience in 2D animation in Flash but not 3D. Any softwares can do that easily? How about 3DS Max? 3. The visitors can do a virtual tour by themselves. That is, they can use some keys to move forward, move left, look around, etc... just like playing some flash games. I am totally lost in this part. Could you please provide some guidelines for me? Thanks and best regards

1. It seems you've already found the answer.
2. You pretty much move your camera around (animate it), set keyframes and all that, and then render. I don't know how to do that in sketchup but in Max you just move the camera, set key, move it to the next position, set key...
3. I don't have the slightlest idea how to do that... I am clueless.

alex, what yer tryinta do is not gonna be easy for a 3d newbie. this may be why they didn't have an answer. it requires the complete reading of several software manuals IMVHO. I have used sketchup pro, but I didn't see any way to do a fly-thru like that, nor to export a flash- controlled animation. but the first step is to do the fly-thru animation in 2-5-second cuts. once ya do that, and learn how to use flash to turn it into an user-controlled website .... unfortunately the flash animations I've seen are very limited - rotation, reverse/forward, zoom. what yer tryinta do is more like a video game.

Try to do it in Carrara.
Prolly easier and more fun

As this is a forum and people always disagree with each other, I'm going to disagree with staigermanus - you are already learning one software package (wasn't ever aware sketchup was an animation package lol) and that is an industry standard peice of software. 

Learning a whole new software for each difficult new technique is not the best use of time I.M.O. Stick with the one you're learning until you decide it doesn;t do what you need then learn something new.

Actually isn't this something that either would work as an .swf file (and Max exports .swf format I believe) OR if you are going to do this regularly and professionally - Director (yes, the grandaddy to Flash and .swf) does naturally?

Most people creating flythroughs that users can navigate create polygon models of the environment (in software of choice) and then export to Director MX2003. They are currently working on the new version but there's no shipping date yet.

Director is HUGE and will swallow more learning time than any 3D software so you have to be serious and need to do this exercise repeatedly AND commercially to pay back the time put in.

I don't know how well he/she knows the tools he/wh's already using and how much more time there will be needed to learn it to the point where doing this kind of trivial thing would be a matter of minutes. I'm just saying that if there's another tool that's

• easy to learn
• fast to render
• cheap to own
• fun to use

you should consider it. Heck, people spend years learning the big guns, and buying plugins on top, to do the same. It's a free country.

Hi staigermanus, I was editing and adding to my post when you replied. I'm not aware of other software that would do what it sounds like this guy wants to do. 

Interesting if we argue over the finer points if he never comes back to read or add to his one post.....

EDIT: Here's macromedia Director 3D info over at adobe (remember adobe bought Macromedia) and if you scroll down to Authoring tools you get the companies who have signed up (any poly application will do though) but further down you will find 3D content developers.

List:-
http://www.dreamtheater.com/index_H.html
http://www.candomultimedia.com/games.htm
http://www.forgefx.com/

etc etc etc

Here were some points that were mentioned:

1. I need to create some 3D layout of a production floor. ...
2. I need to prepare a general 3D virtual tour of the production floor. ...
3. The visitors can do a virtual tour by themselves. ...

oh and it's a total newbie for 3D.

So I thought it would help to use a program that doesn't take months to learn. And that is also affordable. And Sketchup sure can be used to make the models quickly. So can the vertex modeler and Spline modeler in Carrara. It's all a matter of personal likes and dislikes as to which tool is ultimately the right one for you. You've gotta try a few if you've never done 3D, in order to see what fits your needs.

Uhm, I wasn't aware we're fighting. I thought that was a priviledge reserved to some idiots in Washington  LOL

And yes, Macromedia Director would work for the ineractive aprts. Carrara can do that too.
And Flash output too. But if you don't want flash in vector format, instead you want realistic shaded content, just render an anim to AVI or Quicktime with your favorite codec for good compression, and then stuff it into a Flash Video. There are plenty of very affordable tools that can take a movie clip and embed it into a Flash MX or Flash video stream. Such as SoThink Flash Video Converter. Or Xtivity. I have pointers to both in www.thebest3d.com under the Flash section, if you're interested. Just in case there's no time for this project to also learn all the ins and outs of Macromedia Flash. Many roads lead to Rome.

Peace on Earth.... or some other planet anyway

Quote - Uhm, I wasn't aware we're fighting. I thought that was a priviledge reserved to some idiots in Washington  LOL

No, I don't want a fight. A disagreement is all. 

Peace.