And to remind our faithful readers, I said that because a fly-thru almost certainly doesn't tell the story of a design. And fly-thrus are EXPENSIVE! They take a long time to set up, ArchiCAD's camera tool is rudimentary, and the computer runs a long time to generate the product. I advocate a cheaper solution that speaks better for your design work.
Countless clients have this fly-thru kid-stuff foisted on them because of an adolescent fantasy and the production effort is wasted because the producer wasn't careful about:
-- being inclusive - addressing the needs of non-visual clients, with notes and diagrams as a part of the presentation. Especially those who are queasy when moving.
-- editing to make a point rather than aimlessly move through space ( like down halls of a hotel - always hideous)
-- delivering serenity and detail - like the space is REMEMBERED rather than as it swooshes by.
Even real Hollywood movies are mostly static shots - altho lately, with the advent of the programmed crane, we are seeing a lot more dynamic camera shifts than edits - but this doesn't mean that you can do a "First person shooter" kind of forward-moving dolly shot and make the audience comfortable.
The audience wonders: "The door to the church is opening…when does he pull out his ArchiCAD shotgun object and murder everyone in the chapel?"
My point is that a design presentation on a screen is ALWAYS a slide show - an essay with outline points - that should have all the important spaces in the best quality lighting and detail, and helpful notes, sort of like:
"twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us." (Alice's Restaurant lyrics)
With the Ken Burns effect and cross dissolving slides, dynamic movement can be implied with greater satisfaction and more client serenity that any fly-thru can on its own.
You might start with a fly-thru as an approach shot, like they did for the establishing shot to Dolores Claiborne where the camera flies through the air above the seaside town, through the forest and into the grand house just as the madam falls down the stairs to begin the story arc. But after that, only stills, text and cross-fades.
Powerpoint and Keynote do this inexpensively.
Think story telling. Read Robert McKee's "Story." He's the screen writer instructor who is parodied in "Adaptation."
Dwight Atkinson
