Watercolor, Painterly and Rendered Effects

Collection of assorted stuff...

Textures


Texturing an arch

Post-modeling pretty stuff

    • Up for review The genesis of what is known as the 'Dennis Technique' - Dennis Nikolaev's architectural visualization style. This is definitely worth studying for how exported images from SketchUp and Photoshop layers can be used to quickly produce an attractive non-photorealistic render. Dennis did create a nice PDF manual, but creative energy coming from all the thread's participants is still electric and the thread also is the inspiration for the Richard Technique (attachment below). xx [a few images to update]


Photoshop

    • Rendering in SketchUp Daniel Tal's webinar-styled overview on rendering in SketchUp.

    • SketchUp Artists Post production tutorials and tips website - the techiques page.

    • SketchUp and Photoshop 3D Basecamp 2008 video

    • Skydome/Globe tutorials Doubles as a tutorial on replacing a texture, mapped image in SketchUp through the Materials browser. If you want to start from scratch and texture map a globe or dome, knock your socks off. But you also can download one of the SKP dome or globe samples (the link opens on a skydome tutorial, but follow another link on that page to get to the globe tutorial) and 'just' replace the image through SketchUp (the tutorial link open to a skydome tutorial. The existing mapping will remain intact. (Relevant plugin - UVTools, a SketchUp plugin for simple image mapping - as needed for a skydome and globe. See UV Toolkit² and SketchUV, too. (To get the SketchUcation-hosted plugins, join the forum for free to see images and download stuff.)

Plugins and Programs

Note: To download plugins from SketchUcation, join the forum and logon.

Animated textures

      • Animatex Renderiza - Plugin to set up animated texture effect.


  • Blackout thomthom - Plugin to make a material mask for post-processing by turning all materials black, except the selected face(s).

  • Canvas Renderiza - Plugin to interactively paint groups and components in spray type manner.

  • Export 2d with Alpha thomthom - Plugin to export the current view with transparent background option in SketchUp 8.

  • FixAspectRatio Rick Wilson - Removes the gray bars added through plug-ins like tt_vray_Toys linked above.

  • FredoTools:ThroughPaint Fredo6 - Plugin which extends the native paint tools, like not needing to open a group/component to paint the inner geometry.

  • Import ALL from Folder TIG - Mass import supported image file types.

  • JS Background color Plugin which adds a horizon color to the sky.

  • massmaterialimporter A. Beazley - Create a materials library starting from a folder with JPG images. It creates materials that use images as textures. All textures will come in at a standard scale and must be edited later.

  • NightSky Smustard - Adds sunrise and sunset effects to the Shadow Info slider.

  • Rain Renderiza - Creates animated rain effect.

  • Rendering Favourites Trogluddite - Plugin creating a toolbox and to store and recall parameters of a model appearance.

  • RpImageFilters Render Plus - Apply Photoshop-like filters to SketchUp image exports from inside SketchUp.

  • RpTools Render Plus - The Alpha Images wizard will convert a color to an alpha channel AND export an image with the background transparent. NprTools will create non-photorealistic renders. Fee - Windows

  • RpTreeMaker Render Plus - Plugin to create custom, 2D face-me trees inside SketchUp. Standard tree library in the 3D Warehouse which can be loaded in RpTreeMaker and customized.

  • Sizer Windows utility program which will resize your window to match 2D output. Windows

  • SKMtools,MaterialTools,ImageTools TIG - Plugin can create animated textures.

  • [SU]Ch Renderizia - Exports several rendering channels for photo-editing post-processing.

  • ThruPaint Fredo6 - Extends native Paint tools, includes several UV options. Bundled with FredoTools.


UV Mapping

      • Probes thomthom - Tools for inspecting normals and UV mapping.

      • SketchUV Dale Martens (Whaat) - The Pro version of UVTools - Fee

        • Blender 3D program with UV mapping program for complex forms supported by SketchUV. Free

        • Roadkill UV Tool UV mapping program for more complex forms supported by SketchUV. Free

        • Ultimate Unwrap 3D Pro UV mapping program for more complex forms supported by SketchUV. Fee - Windows

      • UV Toolkit² thomthom - Suite of UV mapping tools.

      • UVTools Dale Martens (Whaat) - A SketchUp plugin for simple image mapping (use a projected texture.) Free


  • Video Texture Plugin for SketchUp Marc S. - Play videos (most common file formats supported) on textured surfaces.

  • V-Ray_Tools thomthom - Despite the name, the plugin has several tools for people who do not have V-ray like adding gray bars which frame out the SketchUp workspace to match your 2D exports and alpha exporter more advanced than his earlier plugin, Export 2d with Alpha.

Tip: Photoshop CS4 can import a KMZ file from SketchUp. The model surface can be painted in Photoshop, then returned to SketchUp as a KMZ import. In Photoshop CS4, export the file through 3D > Export 3D Layer.

Is there a way to COLOR lines to make them appear softer?In SketchUp, Click ... Window (PC) > Styles > In Model > Edit > Edge Settings > Color: By Material

Then use the Paint Bucket tool to paint the Edges.

Note: Textured materials can be painted on in addition to solid colors. But to help avoid blotting the SKP file size, make sure the materials you use have a small file size. Also, if you purge your SKP file of 'unused' materials and wonder why some materials cannot be deleted from the home menu, those materials may still be painted on some edges.

Renderers

Renderers Rendering options are listed on the Resources page

    • V-Ray_Tools thomthom - Despite the name, the plugin has several tools for people who do not have V-ray like adding gray bars which frame out the SketchUp workspace to match your 2D exports and alpha exporter more advanced than his earlier plugin, Export 2d with Alpha.

SketchUp Styles

Sky

Note: Some of the techniques listed below, using skydomes and cylinders mapped with a sky image, became a bit dated since SketchUp introduced image watermark styles in version 6. But the techniques may still be useful in the right context.

    • Cloudy Sky Using a transparent PNG cloud image.

    • NightSky Smustard - Plugin to add sunrise and sunset effects to the Shadow Info slider.

    • SketchUp Skydome How-to neatly map a sky image on a dome and making a textured globe - off-site tutorials

    • Ultimate Unwrap 3D Image mapping program - Fee - Windows

Quick and Dirty

Sites with styles ready to go - but you still need to find what you want... There's no such thing as a free lunch...