Rendering in SketchUp- From Modeling to Presentation (PME0020)

Rendering in SketchUp- From Modeling to Presentation

Contents

Part 1 Overview and Concepts

Chapter 1: Introduction to Rendering in SketchUp

Integrated Rendering Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Studio Rendering Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Digital Rendering and Photorealism . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Using This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Chapter 2: Contents and Extended

Features 14

Companion IRP Chapters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Method and Reference Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Chapter 3: The Rendering Process 23

Create the SketchUp Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

The Iterative Rendering Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

The Post-Rendering Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter 4: How Rendering Works 35

IRP Render Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Computer Hardware and Rendering. . . . . . . . . . . 37

Other Rendering Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Computer Specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Chapter 5: Learning to Look 45

Rendering as an Art Form. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Becoming a Student of Light and Color . . . . . . . . 53

Part 2 Textures

Chapter 6: Textures Overview 56

Textures in SketchUp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

The Texturing Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

General Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Texture Image Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Chapter 7: The Texture Library 69

SketchUp Native Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Web Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Choosing and Downloading Textures . . . . . . . . . 72

Saving a Texture Library. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Searching CG Textures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Linking the Texture Library. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Chapter 8: The SketchUp Texture Tools . 81

Macintosh Texture Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

PC Texture Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

The Paint Bucket Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

The Styles Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

The Right-Click Texture Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Chapter 9: Apply, Assess, and Adjust . 109

The Three As . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Apply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Assess and Adjust. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Texture Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Chapter 10: Editing Textures in an

External Photo Editor . 146

Linking an Editor to SketchUp . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Launching, Editing, and Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Typical Alterations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Part 3 Modeling Detail

Chapter 11: An Overview of Modeling Detail . 168

What Is Detail Modeling?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Chapter 12: The Detailing Tools . 176

The Component Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

The Component Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Using Layers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

SketchUp Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

The Camera Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Chapter 13: Component Details 193

What Is Component Detail?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Premade Components and Textures. . . . . . . . . 197

Premade Component Websites . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Chapter 14: Organizing the Model . 219

What Is a Large Model?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Layering Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Layer Conventions by Model Typology . . . . . . 226

Cleaning Up Layers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Controlling Layers with Scenes. . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Toggling Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Warning!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Chapter 15: Camera Scenes, Composition, and Backdrops 242

Camera Scenes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Composition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Backdrops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Chapter 16: Advanced Detailing . 261

Texture Modeling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Ruby Scripts for Detailing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Part 4 Setting Light with Shadows

Chapter 17: The Shadow Menu . . . . . . . . . 290

The SketchUp Shadow Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Solar North. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Working with Shadows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Troubleshooting Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Chapter 18: Composing Light . 300

Composing Light Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Composing Light Strategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Composing the Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Part 5 The Iterative Rendering Process

Chapter 19: A Rendering Overview 320

IRP Universal Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Custom Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Chapter 20: Steps of the Iterative

Rendering Process 331

Add Initial Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Draft to Final Render . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Simulated Light Drafts-to-Final Process. . . . . 343

Chapter 21: Texture Values . 351

IRPs and Texture Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Bump Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Surface Condition and Surface Reflection. . . . 358

Transparency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Texture Categories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Troubleshooting Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Chapter 22: Image Resolution 368

What Is Resolution?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Determining DPI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Large Resolutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Chapter 23: Exterior Light . 375

First Lighting Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

SketchUp Shadows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Image-Based Lighting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Exposure/Gamma/Intensity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Chapter 24: Simulated Lighting 383

Types of Lighting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Placing and Editing Lights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Render Times. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

General Simulated Light Strategies . . . . . . . . . 399

Part 6 Shaderlight by ArtVPS

Chapter 25: Introduction to Shaderlight 412

Menu Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

Secondary Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Special Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Chapter 26: Shaderlight Iterative Rendering Settings 418

The Render Settings Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

Dynamic Preview and Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

Draft-to-Final Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Chapter 27: Shaderlight

Texture Settings . 430

Apply Texture Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Texture Value Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

Texture Settings Categories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Glass and Water Material Values. . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Chapter 28: Shaderlight Exterior Lighting and Backdrops . 449

SketchUp Dark Slider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Physical Sky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

HDRI Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Background and Backdrops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458

Chapter 29: Shaderlight

Simulated Lighting 461

Shaderlight Lighting Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

Light Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Shaderlight Render Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

Quality Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

Lighting Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

Postproduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478

Chapter 30: Shaderlight

Special Features . 481

Batch Rendering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

ReplaceMe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

Chalk Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490

Part 7 The Photoshop Postproduction Process

Chapter 31: Postproduction Effects 496

Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

Light and Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500

Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

Chapter 32: Detailed Postproduction

Realistic Vegetation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

Architecture Photo Placement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

Backgrounds/Backdrops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

Part 8 Anatomy of a Rendering

Chapter 33: Building the Base Model . 536

Chapter Relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

The Base Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

Solid Color to Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

Base Model Extrusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

Solid Colors Swapped with Textures. . . . . . . . . 542

Chapter 34: Building Detail . 545

Chapter 35: Interior Detail 552

Interior Base Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

Interior Detailing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

Chapter 36: Site Detail

Chapter 37: Scenes

Cleaning Up the Layer List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

Off/On Scenes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574

Specific Control Scenes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

Camera View Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578

Chapter 38: Setting Light with Shadows . 581

Chapter 39: The Iterative Rendering

Process for Exterior Scenes 587

Chapter 40: The Iterative Rendering Process for Interior Scenes 605

Chapter 41: Postproduction of Exterior Scene 620

Rendering in SketchUp