Sketchup Renderers: A Quick Glance at Three

Sketchup renders(top/bottom): Sketchup, IRender nXt, Podium, Hypershot.

Google Sketchup is one of the easier 3d modeling software packages out there to use with easy to load models from the web and single click application of materials. Where a lot of people feel a void comes in the final render. The program itself offers a variety of linear, sketchy options for final output but for that semi-realistic, shaded effect you really need to invest in a separate render engine. There are a wide variety of packages out there, most noted being Vray, but with this sophistication of a top notch renderer like Vray comes a semi-steep learning curve. There are a lot of sites out there dedicated to learning Vray, materials for Vray....invest some time to use this one, but if what you want is a fairly nice job of ambient light, shading, shadows without a lot of hassle, take a look at one of these three plugins for Sketchup:

Irender nXt

IRender allows quick setup for a nice looking render. Options for settings include usage of artificial light (with downloads for various lights off the web that automatically adjust to your scene or let you change the settings), natural light, override Sketchup sun settings, limited variables of materials (reflective quality of material, course or smooth setting for bump maps), adjustment of background colors for your render (or image as background), finished size of output option with a fairly quick render time. Where it might fall short for some is it's inability to handle alpha channel images well so trying to place a tree image (i.e. imagecel foliage) is next to impossible. A bonus to this render engine is it's recognition of Sketchup shadow settings in the render.

 Podium

SU Podium for Sketchup is another fantastic photo-realistic renderer that is easy to operate and offers a variety of variables for you to set. The interface comes with a couple different settings and seems to react very nice in the Sketchup environment, materials can be adjusted for reflection and lighting attributes, great for outdoor architectural shots. Creating lights takes a little bit of patience but the final outcome is worth the effort. A bonus for it's ability to recognize alpha images so realistic looking people, trees, etc. that are masked can be interpreted. Preset lights can be downloaded form certain sites so Podium ranks very high in my book.

Hypershot

Hypershot is one of the best looking renders from the least amount of effort. This plugin opens in a new window allowing rich looking textures to be dragged and applied on screen, slower render time that IRender or Podium but very satisfying results that carry ambient occlusion similar to that you see from Vray. Excellent render for interior shots-I agree with Bunkspeed Hypershot's analysis of their product that touts "not like any typical or standard rendering software packages'-simple, fast and accurate. Only part that takes some getting used to is the camera adjustment but with simplistic adjustment of variables I find Hypershot to be a reliable asset for Sketchup.

TVP Animation 9 Pro

the dashboard of TVP Animation 9 Pro

TVP Animation is not for the weak of heart. This software packages encompasses almost every tool you could imagine needing to create fantastic animations. The downside is, it encompasses almost every tool you could imagine needing to create fantastic animations. The learning curve on this one is somewhat steep, but once you get the hang of it, the versatility redeems the product and opens your imagination to hundreds of techniques to use for your next animation. This is not a beginner’s program and documentation on it takes some hunting (great tutorials on this one can be found here or here) but I feel the creators of TVP Animation 9 Pro  wanted to cover all the possibilities when it come to an animator’s needs for versatility.

using the blue pencil tool to rough in images

One of the best key features I found with TVP is the ability to use a blue pencil to sketch in your work, then drawing on top of that with a black pencil and with one command, erase all the blue pencil rough marks you made to clean up your images. In addition to this great still image tool, TVP offers light box mode, allowing you to view your series of images in an onion skin fashion with great control over opacity and color of the skinned images. To list all the tools of this complete animating software program would take a booklet, which may leave some frustrated, however since the earliest concept of this program in 1991 (with the release of TVPaint!), this French software package continues to polish it’s product. This is by far one of the best animating software programs I’ve seen to date.  If you go to their website you can download a trial copy of TVP but be prepared to dedicate a little time to learning it’s features.

Videohive

screenshot from website VIDEOHIVE

There are dozens upon dozens of royalty free image websites varying in price depending on what size image you purchase, usage and these can be a great time-saver to a designer. Thumbnail sized images from IstockPhoto run you about $3, which is easy enough to pass along to the client. But what if your needs are for stock footage video? Pricing on that can get costly and your project budget may not be able to afford background video to dress it up-that is, unless you go to Videohive. Video file pricing starts at $1 with a variety of animated stock footage, motion graphics DVD menus and project files-even free video files for those who sign up for their blog. Loopable backgrounds and working files for AE users to tweak a project to include their personal editing in a motion graphic title, this site is a time-saver as well as a money-saver. Bookmark this site as a great reference for stock video.

ZBrush 3.5

Pixologic continues to refine one of the most valuable tools for sculpting, painting and rendering in 3d with the release of Zbrush version 3.5. The earlier version of Zbrush were leaders in the field of modeling with the usage of Zspheres, often imitated with other programs (i.e. 3D Studio Max's metaballs) as well as the 2.5D process for creating work.

2.5D can be described as the bridge between 2D and 3D art, allowing the artist to create work with 3D characteristics like lighting, textures and shadows while maintaining a base model which can be accessed to change the model pose, structure, etc. Output can be used to create stunning images from Zbrush, or mesh models and maps can be exported for use in other 3d animating/rendering programs. I utilize Zbrush to create figures and organic shapes to be taken into programs like Bryce or 3D Studio Max for final work. The thing I appreciate the most about Zbrush is it's ease of use. The interface takes very little time to get used to and you find yourself doodling for hours in this program while being fascinated with its abilities. The learning curve on this program grows with your interest in it being the perfect match to drive you to want to learn it. So often I try various modeling programs that leave me frustrated and telling myself I can do this or that process easier in another program. Zbrush just leaves me wanting more from it-and it delivers!

Elefont

Elefont - Simplistic 3d text

Elefont is a small little app that does what it does quite easily, however, most people will find it's usage somewhat limited. The nice thing about it is it takes up very little space, and works quick. The downside to it is you really need to use it in conjunction with another program to view the text as 3d with shading, color, etc.-best used with Bryce or POVRay, it can also be used with Sketchup, however the triangulation of most fonts will leave you clicking a bunch of faces in order to get the coloring you want.
I made the example to the left in a matter of minutes. The top portion of the image shows the dashboard of Elefont-very basic. You type your text in (another downside to this app...no allowance for multiple line entries), choose the font you wish to use, then adjust it using any or all of the buttons (font, curve quality, extrusion length, bevel type and bevel scale) then save it as a DXF or Moray/POV (UNO/INC) to be used in another program. I took the text into Bryce, un-grouped it and put different materials to each letter (recognizes each letter as an individual element). If you need titling in your Bryce renderings, this is a nice little utility but most people will probably have the same capabilities in another 3d modeling program.

Flax

What the Flax?

There are dozens upon dozens of programs out there, and I'm sure still more being created as I speak, whose main purpose is to create little Flash snippets for your website with little know-how. One of the more useful and versatile ones I've come across is Flax, not just because of it's ease of use, creative options for effects and predefined titling effects, but because the interface consists of 5 small boxes (highlighted in red -see image) which you can lay directly over a presentation, website or what ever you're working with on screen and see how it looks. The realtime display will show you your work and update as you change font, color, effect, timing, measurement....just a great little application that spits out a finished Flash file (.swf) to use in presentations, webwork. You can get lost just playing around with the settings for 100's of variations.

My Graphic Arts blog

First Foot Forward...
Greetings to any and all visiting this site. I continue to highlight my own work on my website, however I intend for this blog to be a resource of information regarding graphic art programs and various resources on the web for visual media production. Initially I started this blog to review graphic programs as well as animated movies. I have decided to split these two blogs up, so if you would like to see my other blog on animation, go here. Please feel free to contact me with requests or feedback.