High, I am a complete novice to Solidworks. Here are my specs:

Lenovo W540

Windows 8.1 x64

i7-4600M @2.9GHz

16 GB RAM

Quadro K2100M

SW 2014 SP 2.0

I have product files for my company that I have been asked to use to animate some videos with. I have had no problems finding out how to use SW up to the point of creating simple parts like a screw, and similar things, and changing the appearances etc. The very basics. I have exported animations or motion studies and they look fine and dandy. My problem is this... oh man, I hope there is something simple.

I either try exporting it as an AVI file using PhotoView 360, and get a slow render of the complex assembly, with appearance that have reverted back to their original white appearance. (Yes, I updated the appearance before opening the motion study.) I actually exported a couple 2 second renders to make sure that the appearances look great. They did, but the moment I exported the entire 18 second animation, most parts had reverted to white from black.

I have since found out that exporting it as an image sequence is much faster and most likely better. So I have tried doing this all day long. My problem is that if I choose to export the image sequence using the SolidWorks view, it works fine, but if I use PhotoView, I get images of the background pointed away from the model. AKA, the PhotoView option does not follow the camera view, or camera path that I animated. It will if I export it as an AVI, with the appearance issue, or if I select the SolidWorks Screen in the options. I have tried messing with the options under PhotoView, but nothing has corrected it.

As I said, I am novice to this. As in I have never used a 3D CAD program in my life. I have learned in the last couple weeks how to do what I have done, and used trial and error or Google as my guide. Thank you for any help, or direction that can be given. I will answer any questions I can. I do have an understanding of animation, and proficient in MAYA 3D animation. SW is another beast though.

-Dustin