Here is my idea quickly scrawled in the back of my Moleskine. Even though I never looked at this again while modeling, the fact that I had worked out what components need to me made and how they’d be Skattered, etc, it really helped provide a clear direction that kept me moving at a fast pace at the end of the day.
And here is the beach model we were all asked to start with. I wanted to leave it untouched so I copied the sand front face and pasted it outside the model and grouped it. Original Model here: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/9148cee4-7a3e-4ad2-b87e-ce03b5861123/3D-Modeling-Challenge-1-Beach
I then extruded the face to give me some new sand area to work with.
I then added a grid over the new terrain.
Draped the grid using sandbox tools.
Used Artisan sculpt brush to add rolling undulations to the seafloor…as if waves had created the patten in the sand.
I then copied and stretched the seafloor terrain to show a steep drop off.
I then further manipulated the very deepest part of the seafloor using Artisan again.
Here is the finished seafloor.
Next was to extend the water out to cover the new seafloor.
I then brought the water down to encapsulate the area I was working with.
And then intersected it with the seafloor and trimmed bottom off….which I realize now I didn’t need to do as I used Fog to create the water effect and ended up turning this water group off.
Onto the rocks…Here I used freehand draw tool to create some various shapes.
I then extruded each a bit.
Then used Eneroth’s Erode to fracture them and found some seamless textures to apply.
Finally I get to Skatter some components. I used the bottom floor bed only as the Skatter surface and randomized the rocks to cover most of the sand.
Here they are scattered and generated as full geometry in model. Normally I’d keep as proxies but since I was uploading to 3D Warehouse I needed everything fully loaded.
I had to do some manual adjustments as Skatter overlapped a bunch and I wanted to reduce model geometry and fill in some gaps.
Next for the seaweed. I used Bezier Curve extension to draw a few reverse curves.
Then used PipeAlongPath extension to give diameter to lines…which will become the seaweed stems.
Now to make the seaweed leaves. I started with cutting out a texture and then later switched to PNG as I needed to reduce polygon count.
Then to make the little air bubble end of the leaf where it attaches to the stem. Here I used FollowMe tool to make a sphere.
Sphere made.
Then used FollowMe tool again to make the tapered end.
Then painted it a color similar to the leaf itself and made it a component with the axis at the tip of the bubble taper as that’s where I want it base the Skatter distribution from.
Here I used the stem as the Skatter mesh and arranged the leaves randomly and adjusted the density till it looked ok.
Then I generated the leaves in the model…adding way too much geometry but again, I normally export to Proxy and let the render engine do the work…The leaves pointed down for some reason so I just flipped the whole thing along it’s Blue Axis.
Then I Skattered multiple stems randomly to create a seaweed massing component.
Here you can see a section slice though the whole thing with seaweed groups placed around rocks.
Now for the house. Repeated FollowMe trick to create large sphere this time.
Cut into the sphere so I could work inside of it. Create some floors with hole cut out to allow access between floors.
Added tube from the top as way to get in from surface. And ladder down tube.
Added boat as you need to get to the tube hatch somehow. I know the boat looks like it’s filling with water but I also know I’m capturing a view from below so didn’t worry about it.
Here’s a progress shot of potential view looking back towards beach. I’ve added blue fog and a blue transparent watermark in SU to simulate underwater effect.
First test pass in VRAY. This time using VRAY’s Volumetric Environment to achieve the same murky water look.
Next I wanted to add some bubbles coming up from rock fissures. Here I made, yet anther sphere component, and this time Skattered it across a tapered mesh. This is because I wanted narrower bubbles at the source and wider as they rise/spread out.
Simple clear glass material assigned to bubbles.
Now to add fish! I used to see the amazingly orange Garibaldi swimming around the coves and rocks in Laguna Beach so figured they’d play nicely off the cool tones of the water.
Imported fish image and traced–separating out the fin from the body as I knew the fin should be a separate group so it can project at an angle.
Then I extruded slightly and ran Artisan’s ‘subdivide and smooth’ tool. I know it’s a little flat and could have worked harder to taper it out more but was pressed for time.
Here’s nearly completed shot from within SU with fish and bubbles added.
Another pass looking the opposite way with material override on so I can focus just on lighting. Added simple spot light in foreground to hopefully create look of when dappled sun rays filter in from surface.
I wanted to use the water texture at the surface to create a rippling effect shimmering from above as you’d see if the surface was foamy and active.
So this water texture is a png and the white was information that was removed in Photoshop to allow light to pass through it. Looking back, even though I lightened the image from what it was before, it renders a bit dark and could be lightened more.
Here I applied the PNG to a large surface texture to cover everything that shows up in the view.
Same thing but looking up at it from below.
Here is same view but now with rocks and fog in SU to show how the surface ripple texture really adds a lot to the scene.
Quick pass at rendering the surface texture to confirm that it works ok.
Final rendered view with fish and all! Definitely needs work but as an experiment and half a days work, I’d say it was a success.
Introduction
This tutorial covers the steps to quickly turn a basic SketchUp/VRAY view into a watercolor-style drawing. While there is no substitute for the real thing, the effect can be easily applied to give a drawing a softer and more conceptual or artistic feeling in contrast to the clean and perfect renderings that are now commonplace in our industry.
The example below uses a SU model that I created for the Los Angeles Civic Center Master Plan project in case you recognize LA City Hall.
Inspiration
Before getting started with your 3D model, it’s important to find an inspirational image to help guide the process along the way.
Here’s an aerial from a traditional watercolor artist I’ve had the pleasure of working with named Martin Kyle-Milward from Portland, OR. Traditional watercolor renderings share common traits that we can try to replicate in the computer. In this example, we’ll look at 4 key features for inspiration:
- background color wash
- landscape/tree variation
- level of architectural detail
- line weights
Getting started
The layers and files used for post are listed below and are available for download to follow along:
- Watercolor paper texture
- Color wash (created w/ Photoshop)
- Watercolor tree PNGS (found online, used as components in SU)
Here is what the model looks like with watercolor trees and illustrative plan used as ground plane prior to rendering:
Export a VRAY render with default lights and settings.
Turn the tree layers off and export a clay render.
Export PNG of view as “hidden line” style from SU. (NOTE: Match VRAY view dimensions though some distorting may be necessary to get everything to line up) exactly.
Open all exports and source files in Photoshop and layer together.
Set gradient wash layer to overlay blend mode. Play around with transparency. Depending on how saturated you want your wash to be, anything between 30 and 70% could work. (NOTE: If you want to boost a particular color, do your gradients on separate layers so you can control transparency separately).
Select the VRAY clay render layer and adjust the levels to blow out the model detail leaving just colored shadows remaining.
Adjust the hue-saturation to give shadows a purple-blueish tone. This will give added color contrast to our shadows that would otherwise be lacking in just a VRAY render.
Set opacity around 40%.
Notice below how the shadows pop compared to without this layer.
Add any additional shadow details you want at this point. Since my trees were 2D in SU, the sun angle did not provide a nice shadow so I just stamped a few using a tree brush and set layer style to multiply.
Image above is starting to come together.
Turn on your lines layer and set layer style to multiply.
Adjust transparency or lighten lines till they fade and are just barely noticeable.
View with lines overlaid.
Turn on your paper texture layer. Set layer style to Multiply.
Adjust transparency to 60%.
This is sort of an optional step but if your view is still looking too crisp to feel like a convincing watercolor, duplicate your VRAY color layer and go to Filter/Artistic/Drybrush. Set size and detail to 10 and texture to 1. This blurs the image a bit and gives it a more painterly feel. (NOTE: Careful not to use too much as it begins to negate the effort of creating a nice VRAY render).
Adjust transparency to taste. I set mine at 20% so it just begins to soften the crisp VRAY edges and colors.
Last step is to any final clean up or edits like adjusting brightness and contrast. I also boosted the green grass a bit so it pops better. I also added a border around the view as if I just peeled the drafting tape off my recently painted masterpiece.
Here’s a detailed view of the final render. Total time from start to finish = less than 30 mins.
Feel free to try this method out. I would love to see any examples of someone trying this out on their own work so please send me samples if you have them.
This tutorial covers adding organic textures such as shrubs and groundcover over your base layers in order to achieve a loose and soft effect. Use of repeating textures works for ground planes but not plant material. Custom and special effect brushes also work well for other ‘organic’ content such as water, rocks, flowers, etc…
This tutorial covers adding pattern images and textures to your drawing in order to create a sense of depth and detail it would otherwise lack. Different methods include non-seamless patterning using ‘paste into’ or layer masking, and seamless patterning using the ‘pattern overlay’ layer style. Tutorial also covers how to create custom pattern presets using seamless texture images that can be saved and reused over and over again.
This tutorial looks at creating shadows for different objects using different methods, including: drop shadow, custom shadow brush, and shadow offset using layer copies. Other features covered include blend mode, blur, and dodge and burn tools.
This tutorial covers adding and manipulating entourage from outside sources to add to your drawing. Techniques include: background eraser, select by color range, transform (scale & rotate), multiple copy, and transparency.
This tutorial cover the basic features of getting a drawing open and ready to color in Photoshop. It covers importing PDFs, layer set up, naming, and grouping, selection tools including lasso and magic wand, and finally filling with solid gradients.
This tutorial covers the process for loading custom CTB (color dependent plot style) files which give line thickness and color attributes to your CAD linework. After loading CTB files, tutorial covers the basics of plotting to PDF (*note: there are some, mostly visual, differences between CAD for Mac and PC so if you have trouble locating a button or setting, search for your specific question online and solve before continuing on).
This tutorial covers several important drafting techniques in AutoCAD, including: drafting methodology, layers, blocks, UCS, ortho, grips, match properties, distance/measure, offset, trim, extend, poly lines, explode, fillet.
This tutorial looks at the process of exporting GIS shapefile linework from various sources from QGIS to Illustrator. Once in Illustrator, this tutorial covers layer management, stroke and fill settings, and editing linework. This process is used to quickly create detailed and accurate vector base maps for analysis and context mapping and diagramming.
This tutorial covers export options from QGIS to DXF format. Troubleshoots potential problems and provides work around in case export fails. This process comes in handy when needing to edit or manipulate linework in a program outside of GIS. Once in DXF format, data can be plotted to PDF or saved as DWG which can be read by other programs such as SketchUp.
This tutorial provides an overview of the Color by Slope Plugin by Chris Fulmer. This tool comes in hand for creating simple slope analysis in SU.
Download plugin her: extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/clf-color-slope
This tutorial looks at the method for creating quick contour lines in SU from imported Google Earth terrain. This feature comes in handy when no topo or survey data is available for a site. Contours can then be flattened and exported to Illustrator or CAD for further refinement and integration into other drawings.
This tutorial covers the basic methodology for approaching entourage, texture and color edits to an exported SketchUp view using Photoshop. The tutorial looks at three different examples of views that need post production edits in order to be more technically accurate and visually appealing. These view are: 1. ground-level perspective view, 2. section cut, 3. plan view shadow study.
Some of the post production techniques covered here include: distorting textures to match perspective, adding people and shadows, adding and manipulating background sky textures, using brush presets for shrubs and clouds, adding atmosphere to give sense of distance, and much more.