Use Reflective Surfaces for a more Realistic Image

Interior image with reflective surfaces
SketchUp model rendered with IRender nXt

When making your first renderings you will probably think of adding mirrors and lights, but you may ignore the value of adding reflective properties to other surfaces.

One of the best things that you can do to improve a rendering is to focus on the details. It’s the details that can increase realism of a rendering and one detail that many users over look is adding reflection to all the materials in a model that need it. Not only that, but you must also apply the correct kind and the correct intensity of a reflection to a material.

A reflective floor can make the difference between a flat image and a realistic look image. The same is true of metal, wood, plastic and other surfaces.

Items to make reflective:

• Wood or tile floor
• Table top
• Door knobs and handles

other accessories.

Spending time on these details can make the difference between a boring, flat image and an engaging, realistic one.

Tip submitted by: Al Hart – Render Plus Systems

How to create a sketchy shadow using SketchUp + Photoshop

A nice and easy way of getting shadows with a hand-made hatched look for your SketchUp presentation.

In SketchUp:

1. Choose a Sketchy Edges style that you like;
2. Turn off shadows and export an image (Fig. 1);

   

   Fig. 1: Sketchy Edges style image

3. Now turn on shadows and under the Edit tab of  the  Styles panel, turn off the edges and export a second image (Fig. 2);

   

   Fig. 2: Shadows image

In Photoshop:

1. Open the first (edges only) image;
2. Add the second (shadows only) image to a new Layer;
3. Use Levels on the shadows only layer to make it dark enough to get good contrast with the white background (Fig. 3);

   

   Fig. 3: Levels applied to the shadows only layer

4. On this same shadows only layer,  use Color Range to select the shadow areas;
5. Apply Feather (Shift+F6)  with a 3 px setting (or more, depending on your image size, this example was 400px wide);
6. Hide the shadows only layer and create a new one, while keeping your selection in place;
7. Find a Brush similar to your SketchUp edge style and fill the canvas with it, your selection will keep the strokes inside the shadow areas. Use Ctrl+H if you want to hide the selection border as you do it (we used a tablet to get a more natural looking hatch);
8. Combine your shadow hatch layer with the edges as you see fit.

   

   Fig. 4:  Final

To get SketchUp edges looking simmilar to those from your Photoshop Brush, you might want to have a look at the Style Builder, available with Google SketchUp Pro. Take a thin Photoshop Brush (less than 4 px), create some straight strokes and import them on Style Builder where you can create a new SketchUp sketchy edge style. Exporting the edge only image using this style and then using the same brush on Photoshop will create a more consistent look.

How to use more than one Section Plane simultaneously

The Section Plane is a powerful SketchUp feature. You can cut your model anywhere in realtime. You can create as many section planes as you like, but SketchUp will only allow one single active section plane at a time (in the same context, as we will see). To use simultaneously active planes, the trick is to group your model with a section plane and create another one outside the group.

A model without Section Planes.

A model using two section planes simultaneously

Create the first section plane, and place it at the desired position.

longitudinal section

To avoid letting any part of the model out, double-click the first section plane to de-activate it. Select the model parts and the section plane and create a group. Now create a new section plane. Edit the group to activate the first section plane.

Now you have a model with two simultaneously active section planes.

both section planes on

This can be used as a presentation tool, to explain internal features of your model.

Create an “open riser” stair!

On an earlier post you saw how to create a stair using multiple copies of a thread component. On this post you’ll see how to improve on that model.

To draw the stair stringers, pick the Line tool and draw the edges as shown below.

Now use  Push/Pull to extrude the face and make it into a Component. Then use Move (press and release Ctrl) to copy it to the other side.

Now let’s make the thread so as to make the “open riser”. Enter the thread component edit context by double-clicking one of the threads. Then use Push/Pull pushing up the bottom face to get the desired thickness.

To conclude, select all the parts to create a single stair component.

Draw a stair using the “multiple copies” feature!

Something every SketchUp user should know, as it’s a huge modeling time-saver, is how to create multiple copies of an object with the move tool. This is sometimes called a “linear array” on other software.

We think it’s a cool way of creating a stair:

Draw a rectangle and make it into a volume using Push/Pull; Select your newly created stair thread element and press G to make it into a component.

Pick the  Move Tool, press and release Ctrl on your keyboard and use the mouse to create a copy as shown.

Just after clicking to finish the first copy, type the number of copies you want followed by  X or * and press Enter.

Done, a basic stair using multiple copies.

DuPont Corian collor pallete and edge details for SketchUp

Following many big industry players, DuPont now shares with the huge SketchUp community two object libraries promoting its materials:

1 – DuPont Corian Color Pallete: DuPont Corian textures, the synthetic solid surface material used on sinks, washbasins and countertops.

2 – DuPont Corian Edge Treatments: Nice stuff, this file contains modeled details compatible with Corian use, so designers can see the best ways to apply it.

Do not miss!

Using profile on your edge style

SketchUp has many visual style features and settings but sometimes simplicity is best to bring on clarity on a design presentation. At the face style options, “Hidden lines” might be just what you need to achieve that.

But if your model has curved surfaces with edges that won’t show on Hidden Line, you might want to activate “Profile” and set a pixel value of 1.

Go to the Window menu > Styles > Edit tab and under the Edge Settings (first cube)  you’ll find the Profile checkbox and pixel width value setting.

On the model below, the background was set to white, and both ground and sky were turned off. Now let’s see a comparison:

Hidden Line only. Notice the curved wall edge is missing, and one can’t see the sofa details inside the building.

Hidden Line, with Profile on and set to 1,  so as to keep the same line width of the other edges. Notice the curved wall edge is visible, as well as the sofa details.