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SketchUp 2014 for Architectural Visualization
SketchUp 2014 for Architectural Visualization

SketchUp 2014 for Architectural Visualization: Create stunning photorealistic and artistic visuals of your SketchUp models

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SketchUp 2014 for Architectural Visualization

Chapter 2. Collecting a Toolset

 

"As an artist, all I need is my paints and brushes - and someone to drag me away when the canvas is done."

 
 -- Pablo Picasso

SketchUp is a great tool for editing 3D content. It has a simple interface, is easy to understand, and very powerful for architectural modeling. No wonder it became one of the standard tools that you can find in every design studio.

Part of its success is the focus on simple modeling tasks and the fact that it was available for free, while it was owned by Google. However, this means that we have to look for other programs and utilities to assist us in the creation of rich and realistic architectural visuals and use a number of tools to manipulate and postprocess the generated images.

In this chapter, you will learn to perform the following tasks:

  • Select the right SketchUp 2014 edition for you

  • Discover plugins to improve the SketchUp workflow

  • Set up a postprocessing studio for our renderings

  • Install Thea Render and integrate it into SketchUp...

Free, libre, or what?


One of the biggest changes for the end user that came out of the acquisition of SketchUp by Trimble affects the licensing of SketchUp. Google saw SketchUp as a tool to enable everyone to produce content for Google Earth, and Google being Google, they could also afford to give it away for free to everyone.

Unfortunately, Trimble had other ideas, and one of the first changes was to discontinue the free SketchUp edition for professional users. You can still download and use a free version (since 2013, it is called SketchUp Make), but you are not allowed to use it for commercial projects. This is good because it still allows everyone access to a fantastic tool to realize their dream projects and to learn and test the software without the need to pay for a license. It also pushes SketchUp as a professional tool back among all the other commercial software that promises quality and efficiency for a price.

In the previous edition of this book, good arguments were made for the...

Trimble SketchUp


Before you can go off and download SketchUp, you have to choose the type of work you are going to do with it. The following three options are available:

  • Professional Work will lead you to SketchUp Pro 2014.

  • Personal Projects will lead you to download SketchUp Make.

  • Educational Use lets you decide which one you want. You will get discounts if you choose SketchUp Pro.

The following screenshot shows the options that you can select as per your requirement when you go on to http://www.sketchup.com/download:

SketchUp Pro, LayOut, and Style Builder

Every download also includes LayOut and Style Builder, but these will stop working after a trial period of 8 hours, unless you buy and register a license. In these 8 hours, you can explore if the features it offers are really what you are looking for and decide if SketchUp is the right tool for you. Since you are reading this book, you obviously have made the right decision. A word of warning: SketchUp Pro will stop working altogether after...

Thea Render


There are an incredible number of rendering applications and plugins out there that range from professional high-end renderers to small experimental one-man projects. Technologies range from physically based radiosity engines to gaming platforms, and then, you have to decide how tightly you want your renderer integrated into SketchUp. A strong integration usually means sacrifices in render options or quality.

To help you choose the perfect renderer for your requirements, we have prepared a short and noncomprehensive list of the currently available renderers at the end of the book. By the time you have read the rendering chapters in this book, the entire technobabble will make complete sense; we promise.

Why use Thea Render?

Although it is relatively new among the SketchUp render extensions, we have chosen Thea Render for this book for several reasons:

  • It is a mid-priced product but also has a free trial version available. If you decide to buy it (after testing), you won't have to...

Image-processing studio with GIMP


If you already have Photoshop (the commercial equivalent of GIMP), lucky you! All of the instructions for GIMP in this book should work for Photoshop too, so you don't need to install GIMP (unless you have trouble following the GIMP instructions in this book). Photoshop Elements or similar software won't do, because they don't have layer masks.

Why do I need a professional-level image processor?

Creating great architectural visuals in SketchUp requires a large amount of digital image processing. This is a good thing, because it makes our lives easy, as we will see later. Every digital image we use greatly diminishes the need for creating complex geometry in SketchUp. So, we need to have tools at our disposal that will quickly and easily manipulate all the different photos and textures that will go into SketchUp, and all the images that come out. We will also be combining the output from SketchUp with rendered images later on.

Tip

Should I buy a pen tablet?...

Becoming a movie-making genius...almost!


Alright, we're not going to turn you into a fully clued-up movie producer just yet. However, you don't have to be one with the following video-editing tools. One of the most painful experiences we had while researching this book was navigating through the maze of compression codecs, frame rates, aspect ratios, and other thorny issues that make digital moving-image production such a nightmare.

In this book, we will produce animations that are suitable for upload to popular video streaming sites such as YouTube or Vimeo. For this, we will use the following two dedicated tools:

  • VirtualDub (Windows) to create an animation out of our rendered images

  • HandBrake (Windows and Mac) to convert the video into a streaming version with H.264 compression

We will look at the details of the process of making a movie in Chapter 10, Animations, and also introduce a few other tools to make our lives as movie producers easier.

Why can't I just use the output from SketchUp...

Summary


So now, you're all set! In this chapter, you were introduced to the following concepts that will be at the core of your arch-viz activities:

  • How to find and install unlimited 3D content from the 3D Warehouse

  • Upgrade and extend SketchUp via the extension system

  • Why a professional-level graphics tool like GIMP is so important

  • Becoming a movie-making genius (almost) overnight

  • Using a fully functional pro renderer integrated with SketchUp

Congratulations! You now have a fully functional visualization studio. This setup will save you an enormous amount of time later. It sets you up with a seamless workflow that works and works.

Now, go to the next chapter to get started with visualization in SketchUp, or return to Chapter 1, Quick Start Tutorial, if you were skipping ahead for the software!

Left arrow icon Right arrow icon

What you will learn

  • Produce a photorealistic rendering of a scene modeled in SketchUp
  • Render ultrarealistic soft shadows from multiple light sources
  • Master the low polygon modeling techniques that you need to adopt for visualizations
  • Work with texturing techniques utilizing PhotoMatch and your own digital photos
  • Enhance your models by adding depth of field and other postprocessing tricks in GIMP
  • Devise movieset scenes to digitally photograph your projects
  • Enhance your SketchUp scenes by adding lamps, sun, and sky lighting
  • Add smooth camera paths for airborne and walkthrough animations
  • Learn all of the simple tricks to ensure you get greatlooking models when rendered

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : May 26, 2014
Length: 448 pages
Edition :
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783558414
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Publication date : May 26, 2014
Length: 448 pages
Edition :
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783558414
Tools :

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Table of Contents

12 Chapters
Quick Start Tutorial Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Collecting a Toolset Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Composing the Scene Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Modeling for Visualization Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Applying Textures and Materials for Photorealistic Rendering Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Entourage the SketchUp Way Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Non-photoreal Visuals with SketchUp Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Photorealistic Rendering Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Postproduction in GIMP Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Animations Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Presenting Visuals in LayOut Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Interactive Visualization Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
(3 Ratings)
5 star 100%
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Rick Mujica Jun 01, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is a terrific book! I found the instructions really well written and very easy to follow. I passed my copy of the book to my little brother who has never used any kind of 3d software before and he was up and running with sketchup in no time.Not only does the author get you up and running quickly, but there is a ton of good advice on how to expand on your use of sketchup. There is advice on integrating sketchup with other open source software such as renderers, image editors, and compositors for texturing and post production.I really enjoyed the chapter on using GIMP for post-production, and my brother made a terrific little movie of one his scenes which he textured and rendered beautifully using the free/open source software that the advanced chapters in this book deal with.I highly recommend this book and for the price, you would be hard pressed to find something better!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Carson Lattimore Sep 01, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Good book. It pointed out a lot of things that weren't very discoverable and pointed me to web pages that had things like short-cut keys.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Leo Breault Jul 14, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is a must have for anyone in or looking to get into architectural visualization. Everything was very clearly written and concise. I will be looking for other books from this author.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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