Sunset at Manila Bay

manila_baywalk, a photo by Ankit_ on Flickr.

Photo of sunset/dusk taken by me during my trip to the Philippines. See more photos of Manila Trip here:

http://bit.ly/ghQGhS

Organic modeling with the Artisan plugin

SketchUp plugin wizard Dale Martens (a.k.a. Whaat) recently released an amazing and incredibly useful organic modeling toolset called Artisan. Based on Dale’s popular Subdivide & Smooth tools, Artisan is perfect for people who want to use SketchUp to model organic shapes and terrain features. Artisan includes a set of “deformation” tools that allow you to sculpt, smooth, flatten, pinch and apply textures just like you would with a brush.

The toolbar for Dale Martens' Artisan Organic Toolset for SketchUp

Eric Lay modeled Patrick Beaulieu's "Bobby Bubble" character, then rendered him (her?) with Twilight Render.

Use Artisan's Sculpt tools to "paint" 3D deformation onto surfaces.

You can add or reduce polygon complexity in your model, allowing for more or less detail. There’s also a suite of vertex tools that you can use to model based on controlling vertex points. Oh—and did I mention that it’s a ton of fun to use? Have a look at some of the features yourself...

Popout

As anyone at the office can tell you, I’m no artist or designer, but I thought I would give the Artisan tool a try over the weekend. Below is something that I whipped up; not too shabby for an hour’s worth of work.

I modeled this hamburger. Er, yum?

If slimy, unappetizing hamburgers aren’t your thing, no worries. It’s not a stretch to see how the Artisan tools might be applied to a whole range of different markets and use cases: character design, product design, environmental design, construction, civil engineering, architecture and, of course, landscape architecture.

Peter Stoppel modeled this scooter.

Peter also modeled this wedge of landscape.

Artisan is also incredibly useful for freeform terrain modeling. This model is by Daniel Tal.

For more information and video tutorials on the Artisan Organic Toolset for SketchUp, check out this website. You’ll also find a great writeup on the Artisan tools in SketchUcation’s February issue of the CatchUp news magazine.

Thank you to Dale for building this great plugin, and special thanks to Eric Lay (a.k.a. Boofredlay), Peter Stoppel (a.k.a. Solo) and Daniel Tal for your great graphics.

Via Google

RenderWeb | render animations directly within Facebook

RenderWeb is a new platform that allows friends and communities to share
computational resources to render animations directly within Facebook. Once the
projects are rendered, the animations are available for the entire community to
watch and tag.

Click HERE to Read More

the Advanced Camera Tools for Sketchup 8

The Advanced Camera Tools plugin lets you work with real-world cameras in your SketchUp Pro 8 models. Cameras you create with the ACTs provide precise controls for settings like Focal Length, Aspect Ratio and Image Width, which allows you to accurately preview real camera shots right inside SketchUp.

Here's a video showing the plugin:

here’s some of what you can do with the Advanced Camera Tools:

Place cameras in your model and look through them to preview your shots.

Choose from dozens of pre-configured camera types, or create your own.

Position and aim your ACT cameras using familiar moves like Pan, Tilt, Roll, Dolly, Truck and Pedestal.

Set the Focal Length of any camera to simulate a large number of physical lenses.

Look through your ACT cameras to preview Aspect Ratio and Safe Zones for the shots you’re planning.

Toggle on and off all of your ACT cameras’ frustums to clearly see what is—and isn’t— visible in your shots.

The Advanced Camera Tools work on both Windows and Mac computers running SketchUp Pro 8. The plugin itself is a free download; you can get it here: Windows | Mac OS X

Via Google Sketchup Blog

RENDERLights for SketchUp

3D Render Announces the Release of RENDERLights for SketchUp

RENDERLight for SketchUp is the fastest and easiest to use real-time
Radiosity and light simulation engine in the architectural industry.

Helsinki, Finland – March 8, 2011–Leveraging over a decade of
visualization and software development experience, 3D Render today
announced the release of RENDERLights for SketchUp. Building upon their
widely successful RENDERLights engine, architects, visualization
artists and designers now have access to a real-time virtual reality
engine on the popular Google SketchUp platform.

“We are very excited to get RENDERLights for SketchUp into the hands of the design community”, said Pauli Jantunen
Development Manager for 3D Render, “The speed of the design process has
changed dramatically and we’ve developed the first virtual reality
engine that will truly democratize visualization throughout the design
process.”

Boasting an incredibly powerful and simple user interface,
RENDERLights for SketchUp was designed from the ground up with the
design industry in mind. In an increasingly competitive market, it has
become critically important to quickly and easily communicate design
intent with internal stakeholders and customers. RENDERLights for
SketchUp brings real-time to the masses with unprecedented real-time
performance, radiosity lighting simulation, Google 3D Warehouse
integration and the shortest and easiest learning curve of any virtual
reality application on the market.

“For me it was ideal to see and present the architectural design and related urban planning with a portable digital model” said Ilari Schouwvlieger, Chairman of Board at BMZ Invest. “It aided us to promote the design for city officials, hotel operators and investors.”

RENDERLights for SketchUp shares many of the advanced features and
functionalities of the core RENDERLights engine including: texture
baking, realistic environments, animation systems, sun and shadow
simulations, real-time bloom water and raytraced reflections, 3d
presentations, large model handling and their one click (Click ‘N’Go)
functionality.

For more information and to get picture material on RENDERLights for SketchUp, please visit: http://www.renderlights.com/?p=802

Product Availability

RENDERLights for SketchUp is distributed as a standalone license and
is available for the limited introductory price of €299 per year.
Purchases can be made from the RENDERLights website at: http://www.renderlights.com/ and from select international resellers.

About 3DRender

3D Render is one of the leading visualization offices in
Scandinavia. Based in Helsinki, Finland, 3D Render has over a decade of
experience in visualization and software development. Their products
range from simple 3D imagery and videos, to complex virtual models and
web based applications. 3D Render specializes in the development of new
and innovative ways to help decisions makers in the design industry use
visualization tools.

Via Renderlights