Book Image

SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization: Beginner's Guide

By : Robin de Jongh
Book Image

SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization: Beginner's Guide

By: Robin de Jongh

Overview of this book

<p>Google SketchUp, the most popular architectural software package, is used by millions of architects and visualizers throughout the world. But what you may not know is that it's also the most powerful 3D design software on the market. With this book in hand and patented technology such as the PhotoMatch, Push-Pull, and Face-me components you can produce commercial quality photo-realistic or artistic output of your designs.<br /><br />This book shows you how to master SketchUp's unique tools to create architectural visuals using professional rendering and image editing techniques in a clear and friendly way. You'll be able to get started immediately using these SketchUp tools and open-source rendering software. The book shows you how to create architectural visuals from your SketchUp models. In no time you'll be creating photo-realistic renders, animated fly-overs, and walkthroughs. You will also create composites of real and rendered images, creating digital and paper presentations to wow clients. For the impatient, a "Quickstart" tutorial is provided in the first chapter to get you rendering a photo-realistic scene immediately. The rest of the book builds on this knowledge by introducing in-depth concepts, tricks, and methods in an easy-to-follow format through quick tutorials.<br /><br />Using easy step-by-step explanations, this book opens the door to the world of architectural visualization. With no prior visualization experience you will quickly get to grips with materials, texturing, composition, photo-compositing, lighting setup, rendering, and post-processing. You'll also be able to take SketchUp's unique sketchy output and add the artistic touch to create pencil and watercolor scenes. With this book you'll be able to get started immediately using the free SketchUp download and open-source rendering software.</p>
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Preface
Suggested Basic Toolbar Layout
Index

Time for action – adding individual timing to scenes


  1. Get scenes_transition_times.rb from http://morisdov.googlepages.com.

  2. Drop the plugin into your plugins folder and restart SketchUp.

  3. Go to Plugins | Scenes Transition Times.

  4. Type values (in seconds) into the boxes (-1.0 leaves it as default).

  5. Play the animation again to see the difference.

  6. Now find the scene in which you're turning your head to look at the box. Type 4 here.

  7. Play the animation again to see the difference.

What just happened?

You installed a plugin that allows scene transitions to be adjusted individually. You then increased the scene transition time to four seconds when you turn to look at the box beside you. You may have worked out that the value goes in the box relating to the scene after the one you need to edit.

Note that the animation is still jerky. This may be good enough for your current project, especially if you stitch together different scenes into a collage of moving views in your video editing software. You just cut...