Watercolor, Painterly and Rendered Effects

• Making Engraved Lettering Ross Macintosh xx [missing images]

• display issue: burning through olaf troubleshooting overlapping transparent PNGs burning-through.

• Effective Texturing of Terrains Ross Macintosh xx [missing images]

• Materials & Textures Introduction and basic advice on texture/material application from PlayUp.

• PNG or JPEG files best for textures? Some information about image compression and its affect on SKP file size.

• Photoshop CS2 Jpeg format textures mangled upon import to SU Using Save to Web to avoid problems when using a Mac-made textures on a PC.

Texturing an arch

• • Creating an arch material Gaieus

  • Texturing an Arch #2 Gaieus

  • Part 1 Gaieus

  • Part 2 Gaieus

  • How to texture an Arch in SketchUp using ThruPaint Rich O'Brian

• • 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]

    • • The Edited Watercolour Technique Thread... Ross Macintosh created a condensed version of Up for review. xx [a few images to update]

      • Dennis Technique SketchUcation tutorial authored by Dennis Nikolaev.

      • The Richard Technique PDF

• • Alex Hogrefe Tutorials on architectural rendering and illustration mainly using Phtotoshop and SketchUp

  • Ernest Burden III digital/watercolor hybrid

  • Digital Watercolour effects on SketchUp images Grant Marshall

  • Another digital watercolour... Ross Macintosh

  • Drawing Workshops Jim Leggitt Homepage | 3D Basecamp 2008 (High Quality video) and PDF handout

Photoshop

• • • SketchUp and Photoshop 3D Basecamp 2008 video.

    • Importing SketchUp Models into Photoshop 2015 video show how to use the 3D feature in Photoshop you can render with custom materials, create animations, and more.

• • 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.)

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

Animated textures

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

• • • LightUp This renderer can set up animated textures. See relevant video from link.

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

• 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.

• rps_texturewriter Al Hart - Extracts a texture file from a SketchUp texture.

• 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.

Renderers Rendering options are listed on the Resources page

• • Photo-Rendering Your SketchUp Models: Some Options High-Quality 3D Basecamp video | PDF handout

  • Rendering Workshop - Studio - still life SketchUcation thread

  • SketchUp and Piranesi 3D Basecamp video and handout | PDF Handout

• V-Ray

  • • Delete Component and Group Material A script to speed up exporting a model to V-Ray by removing materials applied to components and groups

    • Delete all textures SketchUcation discussion on how to delete textures to speed up rendering in V-Ray.

• • 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.

• • Creating Your Own Styles with SketchUp Style Builder Aidan Chopra - Basecamp 2008 presentation.

  • Wet-watercolor style This is one of several Styles posted in the old forum. xxx [dead link]

  • really nice easy to use good quality watercolor style Majid Yegane xxx [dead link]

    • Majid's latest tutorials are at SketchUpArtists (along with tutorials and advice from other artists) and commercial publications listed at SketchUcation.

  • Creating custom Sketchy Edges Manual technique before SketchUp Pro's Style Builder was released - but Free users may still be interested...

  • Creating Your Own Styles with Google SketchUp Style Builder 3D Basecamp 2008 video

  • Basic concepts of Styles Ross Macintosh

  • 2008 Sketchy-Edge Style Building Contest SU6 users can find all 10 styles by opening the Style palette and selecting In Model. Create a new library and permanently add them to the Favorites that load with SU. SU7 users already have these styles installed in a library.

  • Components, Materials & Styles Sketchucation forum that posts new styles.

  • Form Fonts Free styles to exchange members, otherwise, the site is a subscription service.

  • Rendering Favourites Trogluddite - Styles plugin with more comprehensive setting options than in the Styles browser.

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

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

• Components, Materials and Styles SketchUcation forum with stuff.

• Form Fonts Exchange

• SketchUpArtists Styles collection

• SketchUp Books SketchUcation paid offerings.