3D Walkthrough - The Basics

Impress your clients by creating a simple walk through or walk aroundor the project.

Here I'll show you the basics of how to create a walkthrough, you can improve you walkthroughs by manipulating the settings.

Start by going to the plan view, either the top view of a 3D View or a floor plan view. For this example I'm going to work in a 3D view.

On the View drop down select the Walkthrough icon.

This will then bring you into the Modify/Walkthrough ribbon.

Start by looking at the Option bar for camera options, here you'll be able to make your camera views a Perspective or not, set the offset from your level and also select the level.

I typically choose 5'-10" Offset which is close to my eye height. sometimes I make it really high (like over 25') which gives you the impression of looking down onto your model.

Then picking camera points along the path you want to take.

Then select the Edit Walkthrough icon to activate access to the cameras, the little red icon in front of the camera controls the direction of the camera and the blue circle controls the depth of the camera.

Go through each Key Frameand adjust the camera depth and angle, you don't have to do this for each frame just the Key Frames.

Select the Open Walkthrough icon to open the camera view.

Here you can change the Visual Style to either Shaded or Realistic and turn off the crop region box.

You can also play the video and make any changes required. click anywhere on the screen to exit the walkthrough editor and to reopen the walkthrough editor right click on the Walkthroughtitle in the Project Browser and select Camera. With the editor open you can switch from camera view to plan view etc.

To create a path that moves the camera up or down Edit the Walkthrough and change the controls on the Option Bar to Path, now you can go into a elevation or 3D view and manipulate the camera key frame points either up or down.

When your done and ready to export your Walkthrough you need to have your walkthrough view open then go to the Exportoption under the Application Icon as shown...

Pick Walkthrough, this will then open up a dialog box where you can manipulate the length, Visual Style and dimensions of the video.

Then another dialog box will pop on Video compression, I typically select Uncompressed to get the best results but you can play with this to reduce your file size and type.

There you go!

You've created a walkthrough video....

Next look at some of the options like Slowing down sections of Frames under the camera properties, altering the length of the video or un-checking Perspective on the Options Bar.