Some Sketch up Renderings, Really Cool!
Russell
| Posted in Project Plans/CAD Software on
Well after slaving away all day yesterday and having to wait all night for the rendering I finally have a couple of preliminary renderings of a house that I drew to display my furniture designs. Keep checking this post as I will be posing new pictures every day. Cheers.
Russ.
Edited 1/13/2008 7:09 pm ET by Russell
Replies
Very Frank (Lloyd Wright)!
In fact I think I've been in the actual rooms those drawing were based on. If not, I've surely seen them in books
Thanks for the post. Nice to see what the potential of software is.
4D
Hey 4D,Yeah I think the room's based on one of the rooms in Falling Water, haven't been there yet myself, I'm planing a pilgrimage this summer, hopefully!!! Here's the picture I based my design off of. Cheers.Russ.
Edited 1/13/2008 7:59 pm ET by Russell
Where did you get that photo? Unless they added a room since my visit last year, I don't think it's from Fallingwater. ;-)
It looks like one of Wright's Chicago-area houses.
-Steve
You know you might be right Steve?!? I was just taking a wild stab in the dark on that one, it just looked like a room from falling water, what with the beautiful trees, and the furniture looks a lot like something out of falling water, but like I said, I've never been (I'm canadian eh!) so you would know better than I would : ) Cheers.Russ.
Very nice Russ. I like the atmosphere in those. Looks like you got more done than I did. I worked on this one most of the weekend. Well, I did get a couple of tutorials done, spoke to several people getting started with SU and built a ski rack. Still, you did better than I did. ;)
Hey thanks Dave,I kind of pulled a howard hughes yesterday and stayed indoors in my pajamas working on my sketch up stuff. Normally my wife wouldn't let me get away with that but she's in Antigua, so I felt relatively safe that she wasn't going to come home unexpectedly. Imagine that a grown man afraid of a woman ;-) These were actually done using indigo. I finally figured out how to use the lighting. Not too bad results. Do you ever get your grain patterns on your render looking totally different than in your SU model? I was having a heck of a time getting the grain pattern on the dining chairs to work. Even now the front and back of the rear legs aren't what they should be. Oh well, work in progress. Cheers Dave.Russ.
Edited 1/15/2008 9:23 am ET by Russell
Russell, and all,
I recently read the article in one of the old FWW on using sketchup to draw furniture. I thought I was interested in the process, til the author(ity?) mentioned that he spent 10 hours generating the drawing of the simple side table in the article. Seems a bit slow to me, in that he began by importing a photo of the table to begin with, and the construction is straightforward. So, my question is, what possible advantage is there to spending over a day drawing a simple table on sketchup, when you could do a working drawing on a drafting table in an hour or less?
Ray
As with a pencil and paper, you can spend as little or as much time refining a SketchUp model as you want. My experience is that it makes working out the details of complicated joinery easier, with less likelihood of realizing after the fact that things just aren't going to go together the way you had planned. Here's a fairly complicated interlocking mortise and tenon joint as assembled:
View Image
And here are the individual parts:
View Image
Once again, in "x-ray" view:
View Image
-Steve
Hey Ray,Typically it takes me about one to two hour to create a design, fully completed with wood grain etc. Mind you I don't get right into the construction details on a piece when I draw it, I just use SU as a design tool, not for working drawings. But the difference is once you've drawn it, you have something that looks very realistic and you can rotate the piece to whatever angle you want and export that view. So yeah it takes time to draw it but you can then take as many "pictures" of it as you want in a matter of seconds. Once you get used to it you'll never go back to a pencil and piece of paper again. Cheers Ray.Russ.http://www.jensenfinefurniture.com
Thanks guys. That makes more sense.
Ray
And just to babble a little more about using SketchUp, think of it as a communication tool as well as a development tool. If you can more clearly communicate the details of a project to your client (even if that client is you), there's likely a chance of a costly error. If you use proper methods when drawing, it is a simple matter to make modifications if needed until you and the client agree on what is to be built.
Once you've gotten to the stage, if you spend the time working out details about joinery, building the project in wood isn't going to present any surprises. I find that while building in SketchUp I end up working out my cutting order and other production details. Things like cutting the mortises before cutting away the reference faces on the legs.
The amount of detail you add to the drawing can vary from one project tothe next. Yesterday I built a rack for my wife to hang her skis on. I had a few odd dimensions related to the space it was to go and the number of hooks. Laying out a few lines in SketchUp and adding some dimensions made it almost a no brainer in the shop. The drawing I made didn't look anything like the project but it gave me what I wanted to know without picking up a calculator or doing any math. And because I could see a graphic representation, I knew the dimensions would work out.
On the other hand, the cabinet I rendered with the vases in it has very single part drawn with joinery down to the NK drawers. The model can be disaasembled and dimensioned. I could give those dimensioned drawings to you and you could build it. I could also generate a cutlist if I wanted and I could make a sheet goods layout if I needed to so I could figure out how much plywood you'd need to buy.
Give it a try and see what you think. Check out the Design. Click. Build. blog here on Fine Woodworking. Tim Killen and I are working to show woodworkers how to use the program. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Send me an e-mail if you want.
Dave
Thanks Dave,
Will do.
Ray
Here's the latest rendering of the living room, more coming later tonight. Cheers.
Russ.
Schweet!
And another...
Russel,The realism is great. What program are you using to do the rendering?Rich
Hey Rich,I use a program called Indigo to do my rendering
( http://www.indigorenderer.com ), but there is another one out there called Kerkythea, which according to Dave is an easier program to use than Indigo. Indigo was a bit of a challenge to install and get used to using, but they have some tutorials on the web site and after you get used to it it's actually quite easy to operate. Cheers Rich.Russ.http://www.jensenfinefurniture.com
Thanks!
Ok, I think I'm getting carried away now, I drew in this staircase last night, where does it end?!?! Maybe I'll draw the kitchen next???
You should apply for a job in Second Life. ;-)
-Steve
At the risk of sounding stupid...What's Second Life??? Russ.
Second Life is a virtual world: http://secondlife.com/. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_life.
It is a truly amazing phenomenon. Some people are making their (real world) living by doing business there, with businesses that exist solely in Second Life (trading virtual real estate, for example). Reuters has a news bureau there; a couple of countries have set up diplomatic missions.
The reason that I thought of it in connection with your SketchUp models is that a lot of people are doing a brisk business designing and selling models (furniture, buildings, whatever) to use within Second Life.
-Steve
Sounds cool!!! I've always wanted to be a virtual real estate agent. I'll go check it out. Russ.
Steve,
What are you doing!? Now we've lost another one! He'll just be a virtual woodworker selling non-existent real estate from now on. I'm going to have to report this.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Hey, the way I see it, it just means there's more wood left for me. ;-)
-Steve
Steve,
Got a great idea!
You teach frenchy how to be a virtual wood hoarder and then we go and raid his woodpile!
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 1/16/2008 2:06 pm ET by KiddervilleAcres
We don't need anything that sophisticated to get frenchy's wood. All we need are:
The two young women running the Home Depot scam.
An 18-wheeler.
Mel's schultermesser.
We get the two scammers to drive out frenchy's way, with a big sign on the side of the semi:
Walnut Lumber - Clear, All Heartwood - 20" wide planks - 23¢/bd ft!
When frenchy stops by to investigate, one of the women distracts him while the other one sneaks up behind him and knocks him out with the butt end of the schultermesser. They then tie him up, put a bag over his head, and stash him in the back of the cab. They go to his place, load the truck up with lumber, then drive it back our way to make the delivery.
They then drive frenchy to a Home Depot in Monterrey, Mexico (I've been there), where they untie him, but speak to him only in Spanish.
-Steve
You're insane!
If you keep this up I'll have to go to the hospital to get the near permanent laugh relaxed from my face and I'll need extra medication for the jaw pain!
When I calm down, (read tsop laughing) in a month or three, I'm sure your plan will make sense to me. Oh, and it will take me a while to convince my boss that I'm not crazy.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
"You're insane!"
I've never claimed otherwise.
-Steve
I don't know Steve, I was taking a closer look and it seems kind of risky. I wouldn't want to loose my virtual fortune. I might then have to start a life of virtual crime and have the virtual cops throw my virtual a$$ in jail. Doesn't seem worth it, I'll just stick with woodworking.Russ.
2nd last one.
Very, very nice. May I ask, what are the woodgrain textures you're using?
And a thought. The woodgrain pattern on the center back panel on the chairs is nice but there's a dark u-shaped area near the top. If you make one of the panels a unique component--I'm assuming it is a component--then you could rotate the material on one of them 180° so it doesn't appear identical. It's a nit picky thing of course but just a suggestion.
Hey thanks very much Dave. I'll do you one better, I'll post some of my ones that I use in SU. I've found that the longer the image the better, less need to stretch the image and whatnot. I got most of them from certainly wood, they have some great pics. As far as the chair goes the grain direction was deliberate, I kind of wanted to make it look like a waterfall down the center back splat, I should have maneuvered the grain on the second chair, oh well, hind sight. I'm don't think I'll re-rendering that one though, I let that one cook for 30+ hours, the detail turned out great though, much crisper than the others. On average the others only cooked for about 8-10 hours. l8ter Dave.Russ.
Okay. Now render the person who can sit proportionally in the chair. So, inseam 30 inches torso 72 inches, head and shoulders above the chair top another 15 inches.
I know it's A&C authentic. Just had a mental image of what the person who really fit the chair would look like. Like one's image in one of those carnival mirrors that gives you really short legs.
;-)
Ken
Hey Russell,
Nice work! Very impressive. I have been trying to get better at sketchup and have been working towards more polished drawings. I'd love to try a couple renderings, but thought I should ask for a couple pointers first.
What do you keep in mind when you make your drawings? How do you do the lighting? Can you put a gloss finish on material surfaces?
Also, are there any good threads here on knots or elsewhere that are a big help?
Thanks,
Justin
Hey Justin,The main thing I think you need to remember when doing a drawing that you intend to render is to make sure all the surfaces you have drawn are the right side out. If you notice in sketchup that there is a blue face and a white face when you draw say a simple rectangle, on all of your surfaces of your project you need to make sure that the white face is facing out, otherwise even if you've painted that surface, and it sketchup it looks fine, it will show up as white when you render it. Another important thing is grain and grain direction. Use good quality wood scans like the ones I've posted in this thread. As far as the lighting goes, you can either draw lights or download some from the sketchup warehouse. To make the light light up you need to right click on the part of the light that lights up, ie. the glass usually, and go down to where it says apply preset to, and then choose what wattage you want the light to be. I've found putting more lights with lower wattage looks better than fewer using 100w or 60w. Accent lights and things like fires I attach a 7w power to. There are a couple of tutorials on the indigo website that will teach you pretty much everything about the program though. To change a surface to glossy you right click on said surface and once again go down to the apply preset and there you can either edit the material of choose one of the different materials they have listed. There is a forum sight affiliated with indigo I thing that has all sorts of threads on rendering, so try checking that out. I think it's http://www.sketchucation.com or something like that. Anyways, hope this was helpful, cheers for now.Russ.
Thanks Russ,All of that was a big help. I didn't know about the wattage or the inside/out problem. That will come in handy I'm sure. I just knew that if spent the better part of a day making a drawing and then let it render all night, and didn't get good results, I would be frustrated. And I've had enough of that learning sketchup. Thanks for getting me going in the right direction. By the way, the furniture looked great too. I especially like that sideboard. Cheers,
Justin
Last three I'm going to do. Cheers everybody.Russ.
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