Help, Tips, and Support for Podium Walker
Click above to watch an embedded video on how to create a Walker animation.
This video illustrates Podium 1.0.3’s support for Hidden LEMs of SU Podium. The street light fixtures come from Podium Browser’s free street lights and employ hidden LEMs. This version features Browser Paid content 3D trees as well as 3D cars. Choose the 720 resolution for better quality.
Modeling by Jeremy Justice, with animation by David Wayne. Created in Podium Walker 1.2.0 Beta.
This video combines the Walker animations from three models, created by Nat Ellis. Several key frame animations were created from each model, using a variety of camera speeds. animating each model using mutliple keyframes with various camera speeds. Each keyframe from each model was outputed to MPEG format at 1280 X 720 resolution. Bit rate used was 8000. The outputed .mp4 video files were then stitched together using Camtasia 8 to create one .mp4 file. Music layer was added as well. The original models created by Nat Ellis were modeled in SketchUp with a variety of Podium Browser items and rendered in SU Podium V2+. Look at the home page to see a slide show of the SU Podium V2+ rendered images.
John Aikin (Aikin Design) is a skilled SU Podium V2 users and currently the most prolific Podium Walker end-user. Check these five video presentations out!! John’s original SketchUp models are also full of components from Podium Browser.
Click above to watch an embedded video on how to create a Walker animation. Make sure you click HD
The original video was created at 1920 X 1080 pixel resolution using MPEG output. However, resoluton is degraded on YouTube. If you would like to download the original .mp4, download it from here. (This is a very large file so make sure the entire .mp4 is downloaded before playing it.)
This video illustrates the use of 4 keyframe paths combined together. House on a hill in Seattle in Christmas is a a recreation of house in brione but on a fictitious hill near Seattle during Christmas. The Christmas tree and fire place use SU Podium LEM lighting. Much of the components such as the trees, chairs, Christmas tree, car, and ofcourse light fixtures came from Podium Browser
Models rendered by Cadalog, Inc.
This video illustrates Podium 1.0.3’s support for Hidden LEMs of SU Podium. The street light fixtures come from Podium Browser’s free street lights and employ hidden LEMs. This version features Browser Paid content 3D trees as well as 3D cars. Choose the 720 resolution for better quality.
This inspiring video demonstrates how combining Podium Walker animations with SU Podium V2 images, can be a compelling presentation to your clients.
Animation and images created by Nicolas Harvey. Click on the below image to watch the video in You Tube.
If you haven’t already done so, please head over to the Podium Walker download page to download the latest version of the software.
Podium Walker will work on both Windows and Mac, and is compatible with SketchUp 2015, 2014, 2013 as well as SketchUp 8.
The Podium Walker Windows install is an .rbz installation file, which can be downloaded as either a standalone or zipped .rbz file from the download page. You may download the .rbz file to any folder on your computer.
Note: Internet Explorer 8 may automatically unpack .rbz files so we recommend you use IE 9 or higher, FireFox or Chrome to download .rbz files.
Do not attempt to install the Podium Walker .rbz file from outside of SketchUp.
Remember, the Windows .rbz file will only work with the Windows versions of SketchUp.
Do not use the Podium Walker .rbz Windows version on a Mac, and vise versa.
The easiest way to uninstall an .rbz file is to simply uncheck the the Podium Walker extension in SketchUp’s Preference/ Extensions interface:
You can also remove the entire PodiumWalker folder and the load PodiumWalker.rbs file from the following location:
c:\program files (x86)\sketchup\sketchup (8 or 2013)\plugins\
For SketchUp 2014/ 2015, Podium Walker is installed here:
C:\Users\YourComputerName\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp\SketchUp 201x\SketchUp\Plugins\
Remove the PodiumWalker folder and the loadPodiumWalker.rbs file
Podium Walker for Mac uses an .rbz installation file, which can be downloaded in zipped or unzipped format from the PW downloads page. Podium Walker will install without any issues for Maverick, Mountain Lion and Lion, and will work in SketchUp 8, SketchUp 2013, SketchUp 2014 and SketchUp 2015. Safari may automatically unpack .rbz files so it’s recommended you use FireFox or Chrome to download SketchUp extensions.
Note: Podium Walker will only work on Maverick or Yosemite.
Downlaod the .rbz file to a folder of your choice.
Do not attempt to install the .rbz file from outside of SketchUp.
Remember, the Mac .rbz file will only work with the Mac versions of SketchUp.
Do not use the Podium Walker Mac .rbz file on a Windows Machine, and vise versa.
If your Mac does not have read and write privileges on the SketchUp plugins folder, SketchUp will be unable to install the Extension.
SketchUp 2014 Users: Although SketchUp 8 and SketchUp 2013/2014/ 2015 all use the same .rbz installation file, the location where the Podium Walker plug-in gets installed is different. If you want to remove Podium Walker, you will need to be aware where Podium Walker is installed.
- Go to your Application folder and navigate to the \User (your computer name)Library\Application Support\Google SketchUp X\SketchUp\Plugins\ folder.
- Remove the loadPodiumWalker.rbs file and the PodiumWalker folder.
- The Macintosh HD folder is often referred to as the Global directory. It will be listed as one of your devices in Finder. If it is not listed in Finder, go to Finder Preferences, Sidebar and check Hard disks under Devices. You may need to go to the General icon in Finder Preferences and make sure Macintosh HD is listed in New Finder windows show:
- Go to your \user (user name)\Library\Application Support\SketchUp 201x\SketchUp\Plugins\ folder.
- Remove both PodiumWalker.rbs and the PodiumWalker folder.
- The user folder is the Home folder. It will be listed as one of your favorites in Finder If it is not listed in Finder, go to Finder Preferences, Sidebar and check the Home icon.
All Users:
Podium Walker integrates nicely with both SU Podium V2 and Podium Browser, however here are a few things to keep in mind.
If you’re curious about Browser and SU Podium integration, our Pavilion test scene is available to download, and includes both Podium Browser components and various Podium V2 properties. This model has a light fixture, 3D tree, glass material, blurred reflections, direct reflections and furnishing from Podium Browser.
Podium Walker supports most light and material properties in V2 and V2+, including the following:
Note: LEM materials are processor intensive and can lead to substantially longer render times. These are best used with a relatively high-spec workstation.
In this four part video series, we first design a model primarily with render-ready components from Podium Browser, and then visualize the design with both SU Podium V2 and Podium Walker. Material covering Podium Walker begins with Video 3, so if you’re already comfortable with Podium Browser and SU Podium, feel free to skip ahead.
Click on the image to link to the Podium Browser with Podium Walker Video series page
So you’ve set your keyframes, created an animation path, previewed it in the viewport to make sure you like the result. To create a usable animation that can be shared, posted online, etc., we need to export a video file from Podium Walker.
In order to export a video file from Podium Walker, you must open the Preset Menu (orange arrow in the main menu), and select the animation path you’d like to save out.
With a path selected, the export icon (which was previously grayed out) will now be available to you. Click the filmstrip icon to launch the “Movie Settings Dialog.”
Camera Speed: With the camera speed multiplier you have one final chance to increase or decrease the movie’s camera speed in relation to the speed of your animation path.
Preview – Preview is off by default. If it is on, you will be able to create a movie in less time but it will not be a photo-realistic movie. Preview’s only intention is for you to create a non-photo-realistic movie so you can see if the animation’s path is what you want.
Resolution, frame rate, and other considerations:
This will require you to know something about the Bit Rate and Frame Rate of the particular Codec you choose. Please note that some Codecs require a particular video viewer.
Once you create an animation with Podium Walker and like the way it looks, you will want to export or output the animation to a video (movie) format. We typically recommend common web-friendly file-types such as .mp4 or .mov (for Mac users), however lossless options like .avi are available to you as well.
Remember, the most time consuming part of creating a Podium Walker animation is the exporting or outputting to a video format. At a resolution size 1920 X 1080 and a Frame Rate of 30, a thirty second video may take several hours or more. The speed and number of cores of your CPU is the most important determining factor in render speed.
When you’re ready to export, click OK in the “Movie Settings” dialog, and Podium Walker will begin rendering out your video.
To view the movie you create, you will need a media player. Both Windows and Mac come with bundled media players: Windows 7 provides a free video player called Live Movie Maker but some people have reported that it is not compatible with certain video formats, and Apple provides users with QuickTime.
Note: If you choose a codec like .AVI you may need to experiment with video players to make sure the movie format you export to can be played. VLC is a recommended, lightweight player with a wide range of codec support.
If you need to experiment with media players, here is a list of free, recommended options:
It’s likely that you will need a video editor to add audio and other effects to your Podium Walker animations. In fact, in many cases, it will be wise to create several paths and equivalent number of videos and stitch these together in a video editor. This is something to consider if you lack the RAM to create a long video. With multiple paths, you can have different camera speeds for each path and corresponding video and you can combine these videos together effectively.
Some well known video editors are Adobe’s Premier, Tech Smith’s Camtasia, Pinnacle Studio, even iMovie and Windows MovieMaker.