My environments based on SketchUp models

[Tonic]

First of all, glad to see such subforum. I'm sure it will expand in no time and prove it's one of the greatest software for fast modelling, setting camera view and overpainting! :) I only hope they won't turn it into paid version, as (if I'm not mistaken), the Pro version costs a lot!

Anyway, there are my works:

1).
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/tutorials/rocket_garage/wip_01.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/finals/EOW100_Tonic_rocket_garage.jpg

WIPs:

Video:
2556718

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/rocket_garage/wip4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/rocket_garage/wip5.jpg

2).
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/tutorials/dychtons_forest/wip_01.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/finals/EOW100_Tonic_forest.jpg

WIPs:

Video:
2557536

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip06.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip07.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip08.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip09.jpg

3).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow101_mountain_castle/castle_3d_sketch.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow101_mountain_castle/EOW101_Tonic.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow101_mountain_castle/sketch.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow101_mountain_castle/wip1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow101_mountain_castle/wip2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow101_mountain_castle/wip3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow101_mountain_castle/wip4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow101_mountain_castle/wip5.jpg

[MattGamer]

very cool usage of sketchup. ;]

[dorian]

sweet! thanks for sharing!

[THUNDERCOCK]

outstanding sir!! very excellent example on how modeling in sketchup can aid in painting. Rock on!!

[Tyson]

It's fantastic that you create pretty simple models but in your painting you add great details and life. Thanks for sharing.

[Trimmer82]

oh lordy I am loving what you are doing with that. This is the first Ive heard of sketchup before, it looks very cool!

[Brashen]

Great work, if a little too saturated for my taste. But excellent.

[Tonic]

Thanks to you for such kind comments :)

Great work, if a little too saturated for my taste. But excellent.

Yeah, the second work is over saturated, but it's nothing weird as I didn't made any serious values/colours studies, it's just faking :)

Not long time ago I've took a few days of experimenting and reading tuorials/manual for Kerkythea renderer. I'm liking it very much. I was afraid that being a zero in 3D terms will make learning a tedious, but it wasn't that hard. And it paid :) There are few renderers, nothing so special, but in future I should give more complex and interesting models.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/kerkythea/test_renderers/test_01.jpg

This one was done with Depth Render rendering profile. Interesting effect.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/kerkythea/test_renderers/test_02.jpg

15 minutes of over painting for fun:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/kerkythea/test_renderers/test_02_overpainted.jpg

There I've found how to make intersecting lines between irregular shapes - just select objects (or everything with Ctrl+A shortcut), click the right mouse button, then Intersect > Intersect with Model). With that, the model is much clearer and it avoids the risk of bad lightning in renderer
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/kerkythea/test_renderers/test_03.jpg

And there I've tested Photoshop's Lens Correction (or something) to obtain this effect. It may come handy in illustrating or comics:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/kerkythea/test_renderers/test_04.jpg

[Thujon]

Really nice!!!!!!

Keep on posting!

[Tesla]

Woow, i didn't know that program, but is wonderfull what you can do :)

[shade1012]

very cool man I gotta check out sketchup

[nakirush]

Wow. Just wow.

I really have to give SketchUp a try.

[Tonic]

Wow, five stars, I'm flattered. Now my ego is going to burst out. Just kidding :P

Thujon, Tesla, shade1012, nakirush, thanks so much!

Now I feel so stupid with only few update images. Sorry, guys, next time I promise to make much bigger update!

Two renderers, made for fun:

Copper thingy - a bit badly rendered because you can see white dots, which aren't allowed to exist:
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/renders/test_05_copper.jpg

UFO thingy:
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/renders/test_7_ufo.jpg

And few of my roundabout projects. First, the 3D SketchUp model with enabled pen style:

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/roundabout/sketchup_roundbout_model.png

Overpainted:
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/roundabout/sketchup_roundbout_model_overpainted.jpg

And projects of roundabout islands:

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/roundabout/project1_day.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/roundabout/project1_night.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/roundabout/project3.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/roundabout/project4.jpg

[rattus]

really cool stuff, loving the roundabout islands!!

[Tonic]

Thanks, rattus!

I've spent a lot of time on SketchUp education using video/text tutorials, example models, plugins, my own experiments and sketchucation.com forum. I can't believe that SketchUp is much more greater software with simpler interface than I thought previously. And I found few disadvantages, but it can't be helped as there are no any perfect softwares and SU is free ;) Anyway, after this education, I wanted to make a rough 3D model for over paint, but I thought I'd reuse what I've learned and make a more serious model. Since it takes quite time (much more than I could in 2D), I will post WIPs there. The theme is a science fiction geek's room :)

The whole hall:

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/hall_01_xray.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/hall_02.jpg

Kerkythea's quick render
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/hall_03_render.jpg

The column:

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/column_01_bottom.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/column_02_top.jpg

As the rough hall was done, I've started creating components for interior, such as lamps, cases, flowers, toys, machines. As so far, I did a halogen lamp and electric box:

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/electric_box_01.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/electric_box_02_xray.jpg

Again, Kerkythea
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/electric_box_03_render.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/lamp_01.jpg

[grid_gunner]

Great way of using Sketchup!! I like the mecha hanger scene especially. :D

[Tonic]

Great way of using Sketchup!! I like the mecha hanger scene especially. :D

To be honest, it hadn't to be a mecha hangar, but nonetheless it's interesting idea. We will see :)

Little update - storage case (right word?) :

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/storage_case_01_top.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/storage_case_02_bottom.jpg

I need to work on presentation.. meaning I need to tweak lighting so model could be read easily. In first render there was too much of white and I couldn't difference forms. Enabling Normal outlining in Kerkythea (right mouse button click on material name (if all materials are same, it should be named as FrontFace and you will have Outline option there)) helps a lot, but there are stray lines as well on coplanar areas :( They could be erased in Photoshop with Healing brush, though.

After this, I've added new elements to hall. It was done randomly, just to get the glimpse of feeling of hall. Now it looks much more alive :) And messy :D

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/hall_04_render.jpg

Unfortunately, this render has few errors and I've marked them with transparent grey circles. I thought my rendering settings were quite high (Fuzzy Tracing on High, Soft Shadows on High, 300 000 Photons, enabled Specularities and 1600 Rays). Do you think these settings must be higher? I will ask at Kerkythea forum, too.

And SketchUp laggy, too. 150 000 of edges and 60 000 of faces in total as so far. Any ideas how to optimize performance?

[Chirp Chirp]

I don't have any help for you on Kerkythea since I've never used it. But at its current resolution, I can't even see the mistakes you are talking about. Its looking good though!

SketchUp performance and scene management.... There is one area you could get a HUGE performance boon but its more of a personal choice. I would recommend reducing the excessive faces on tiny little objects. I've been following your thread and kept asking myself "what the hell is he making and what for?" =D

For example, the storage shelf. Those mounting holes, they could probably be smoothed hexagons and at the distance you are rendering everything nobody would notice the difference. All the bevels on your electric box thing? I am betting you could gotten away with 3 to 4 segments instead and it would have looked the same in your render. If your final composition is going to be a close up of the electric box then yours kicks ass! But if its just going to be on the wall in a giant warehouse with lots of other stuff around, is it really worth the extra faces? Try to keep in mind a face number to size ratio. Instead of putting the faces in the mounting bolt put them in the big details. Like you could ding up the metal in the light, puts some gashes in the shelves, bend some pipes. Its fun to put detail in things and sketchup makes it super easy, especially with the offset tool and components but it comes at a cost.

Its tempting to model everything as realistic as possible but most of the time its not necessary. Always take into consideration the final product you are putting together and its final medium. I am usually extremely conscious of this since most of my stuff makes it into a game engine but you should also be aware. I don't know about you but I've never had a computer I didn't choke at some point and I never have enough money to upgrade. So something has to give. That being said, only you can decide whats too much.

In case you didn't know the sketchup defaults for circles is 24 segments and 12 for arcs. Most of the time for circles 8 to 16 does the trick but don't rule out using 3.

Some other general performance tips:
* Use Layers - Always leave raw geometry on layer 0 (just trust me on this) organize the scene by moving components and groups to various layers and flip them on and off to remove objects in the scene.
* Run a simple style, and under styles, edit, turn off profiles. Don't turn on shadows but that should be obvious
* Bind the hide / unhide to good keys
* Bind view / component edit / hide rest of model and similar components to keys
* If you are using textures flip to the mode that turns them off.
* Make new objects in its own file and import them to your scene as a component. This will help with making new things. Although this can be a pain later on when updating.
* Turn off Anti Aliasing - I can't make myself do this though..
* Faster vid card / cpu. (note sketchup is not multithreaded so high speed cpu = better) I have a 2.4 quad at home with 8800 gts, 4 gigs ram, at work I have 2.1 dual core with 9800 gtx with 2 gigs of crap ram. At home I chug, at work my files are really smooth and fast. Video card seems to make the biggest difference.

Hope this helps.

[Tonic]

Wow, thanks so much for such reply! I've learned few things. You're right with details on details, they're not practical, but since I'm refining what I've learned, I'm doing it. Also, I'm going to do few zooms and over paint, so these little details might be useful. And I enjoy it a bit :D

Anyway, I've started modeling a spider robot. It's a long way to end, but nonetheless it's going nicely :) I've tested a new way of rendering and it looks great. In Kerkythea, I've applied a Dark Mirror to ground, set background to Sky Colour with gray (about 50% of brightness), decreased the brightness of sun and finally rendered it at 1500x1500px with Ambient Occlusion preset. After that, I've resized to 1000x1000px and sharpened image a little.

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/spider_robot_01_render.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/spider_robot_02_model.jpg

Yep, few elements have too much of faces, I will redo it :P

[Tonic]

A little update. Modeled spider legs. Still not finished and the bottom part (that rotates horizontally) looks ugly, so I'm going to remodel it a bit. And feet are missing, too.

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/spider_robot_03_render.jpg

[Tonic]

Sorry for so long break. Just yesterday and today I've returned to S-F hall project. I'm willing to work on it for next one month as a part of another project. Anyway, two little renders. Played in Photoshop as well. I like these styles, I must explore it.

Spider robot feet:
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/spider_robot_feet_01_render.jpg

Robot's pilot seat:
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/spider_robot_seat_01_render.jpg

[Dr_Rendesvous]

very nice chair. good curves, the little tufts and imperfections in the upholstery of the seat. well done.

[Tonic]

Thanks, I'm digging this seat, too :D Especially when it was rendered in one minute and colours were quickly adjusted in Photoshop.

Anyway, I've attached these new parts to robot and started modelling pilot cabin and few little things. Still, a lot of work is waiting, including proportions. And this is only a part of S-F room!

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/spider_robot_05_render.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/spider_robot_06_render.jpg

[Chirp Chirp]

Thats one wacky looking robot. You've totally changed my expectations based on your earlier posts.

Something I am not sure if you have considered. Right now I noticed you have a flat plain below your bot. Have you thought about doing a curved surface instead to remove the edge of the world horizon line effect?

[Tonic]

Curved surface - I didn't consider, since it's supposed to be placed in this S-F hall on flat floor. But maybe adding small boxes? We will see :) Right now, I'm thinking how to rotate leg parts. The whole leg is a component that contains other component parts. Any ideas how to rotate them separately from other legs, keeping the possibility to modify their structure? I hate the static pose - no feeling of mass and it's symmetric.

[Chirp Chirp]

Well I didn't mean the robot is standing on a curved surface. More like if you extend the surface out kinda far then arc it up at the end. The hard edge doesn't become part of the composition and it gives you better control over the light behind the object of focus.

I would explain it but this guy has a good write up and a downloadable example. Posing hack tutorial can be found here http://www.giantmonster.tv/giant/?p=110

[Chirp Chirp]

Not sure why I was thinking of this post on the way home but another way to create a posing rig you might be interested in trying is using sketchy physics.

Check out these video examples and I think you will see the potential:
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyH0bkfn5cY&feature=related
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxGdfwv2NdE
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRsx97EpDM4&NR=1
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiUQCrT_9Fs

The hand video I posted looks pretty complicated but keep in mind with sketchy physics 3.0 you can duplicate physics components and nest controllers inside of other controllers. That can make things look more complicated than they really are.

I've done tests making vehicles with controllers then hooking them up to a joystick. It was easy to do and worked pretty damn good. The catch is that your design will have to physically work and it might be harder to hide or fake design flaws. Also it can start to have its own performance impact especially with the outliner open. On the other hand it seems like your robot here might be a good trial candidate for sketchyphysics.

You can find sketchy physics 3.0 here http://code.google.com/p/sketchyphysics/wiki/LatestVersion

And most importantly its addictively fun and FREE!

[Tonic]

Incredible plugin. I'm going to try it once I get my PC back withn few days. Not only for my robot, but for other models as well. Thanks for help!

[orgelf]

speedpainting is a mistery for me ...so when I see your paintings from sketchup views ! :x

Did you post any tutorial ? :teeth:

is there any photoshop works in your rendering of the robot ?


very imspiring work .

[StreetBehemoth]

I Love how you overpainted that basic model of the turnaround! amazing use of the program.

[Jalc]

awsome use of sketch up ill definatley try and start to work my way into the programme.

[Tonic]

I Love how you overpainted that basic model of the turnaround! amazing use of the program.

Thanks! :)

speedpainting is a mistery for me ...so when I see your paintings from sketchup views ! :x

Did you post any tutorial ? :teeth:

is there any photoshop works in your rendering of the robot ?

very imspiring work .

I don't know why it wasn't there, but just now I've added WIPs and videos to first post. Check it if you want to see how works were developed :)

About robot, beside these slightly edited in Photoshop, there aren't any real over paintings. I will do it once I'm finished with modeling my sci-fi hall.

I'm glad you like it :)

awsome use of sketch up ill definatley try and start to work my way into the programme.

Good luck! Combining two such different fields, 2D and 3D can be hard because usually people stick to one field. But knowing second field, even if it's little, can give much more possibilities. At this moment I'm working on 3D to make 2D/3D balance better.

[StreetBehemoth]

clean this up and make it a sticky! I'm bookmarking it for sure. I use Maya, but I think it still applies.

[Tonic]

Today I've played with SketchyPhysics. It's a really powerful plugin with endless possibilities. As so far, I've played with one leg - there's video:

6729373

(if it's still being uploaded, download the original video file 6.7MB from there (http://vimeo.com/download/video:10166558?v=2&e=1253759583&h=d8e2b6f0872cc01774b2b473bfb8fabe&uh=85c6916a7f956739136aec8b04fc2add))

Now I need to work on hydraulic actuator to make it "stretchable". Next thing would be assembling everything and make spider robot a bit wonky to get feeling of machine and his mass ;-)

[Celtic Spirit]

No comments.. just Awesome and a very good point of view and creative mind !!

[StreetBehemoth]

oddly enough I kinda wish that sketchup would spend their time developing more illustrator friendly addons, and leave the rigging to 3d programs. But that's just me and obviously you have made great use out of it :D

[Pigeonkill]

Nice!

[Inversion]

Inspiring.

[grid_gunner]

Nice work on the mechanical leg Tonic! Looks like fun! Where can one get SketchyPhysics?

[Tonic]

Thanks to you for kind words! :) I haven't touched my robot since I was joining all hinges, springs and servos in all six legs. It was tedious as you can't simply copy the leg and its' SketchyPhysics additions. I had to do legs separately. After I was done with all legs and launched SketchyPhysics mode, the robot was tilted for some reason.. I guess I need to work more :) But that's for later as I'm quite busy with other projects :(

@grid_gunner - newest version of plugin is as so far 3 RC1 - downloadable there http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=17877&sid=700ea33e10aa5b7b8e2a71a186dd0414

And forum section devoted to this plugin - http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewforum.php?f=61 (you will find there very useful unformations - like the FAQ or tutorial topics)

Oh, and by the way, the new version of SU2KT was released - 3.1 (a exporter between SketchUp and Kerkythea) and according to this line of change log:

- Animation export with FULL model per frame (supports proper_animation plugin, haven't tested it with Sketchy Physics)

It sounds like animations done by SketchyPhysics could be rendered in Kerkythea. Though, it wasn't tested, so there's no certainty it will work.

[nick1987]

thanks for the amazing works. Collaboration SU & PS impressive

[Demo]

Wonderfully Sketchup works!! That leg is much more impressive after seeing it in Sketchy Physics. Im defiantly going to look into that for future pieces
Hope to see more real soon

[RedPen]

Brilliant. I may be inspired to learn Sketch Up now. Dang... :-O

[Tonic]

nick1987, Demo and RedPen - thank you very much :)

Recently I've focused a lot on 3D rendering. The kerkythea, despite being a free renderer, can do renders with a really good level of realism. Good lighting
and materials are key to go. Unfortunately, I don't have much saved renders - at this moment I can show only this badly composed thing. Sorry :(

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/3d/kerkythea2008/fotel_mlt2.jpg

Annnnnd the best part - a design presentation how it would look in 2084 year, 100 years after first Apple computer was produced. Sorry for Polish
language, but perhaps I'll translate it later. It was a contest work - results should be announced in 6th Janury. Keep fingers for me! :)

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/life2084_presentation.jpg

And WIP's or bigger versions of final fenders. Everything was rendered in VRay (with exception of one photoshopped town render). It's just that I wanted to
try this renderer and learn more about 3D rendering. I think VRay has a really powerful engine that gives many possibilities with rendering and material
settings. And it's quite fast, too. But the renderer's interface was, to be honest, crappy for me. It requires some patience and time to adjust/re-adjust/test/repeat.
And it's expensive as well :( Trial version was used.

I'm currently waiting for Thea renderer. It's a commercial renderer of Kerkythea's developer that's currently being beta-tested. Check the beta
renders - http://www.thearender.com/forum/index.php in Gallery sections. You have to be registered to see renders, unfortunately.

I'm seriously thinking of buying it for three reasons. It will be much cheaper than VRay/Maxwell or mental ray because there's discount for first buyers -
50%, with it, the price is 195 euro. Second reason, the quality of renders are very high. And it's quite fast, in addiction. Third reason, this is a standalone
renderer, which means that I don't have to pay for whole renderer for specific 3D modellers (like 3DS Max, Rhino 3D or SketchUp), only for plugins
that allows to export to renderer. They costs not much - about 20 euro. In other words, it's much more economical, especially if you want to use various
3D modellers, like me. I like to use modeller best for specific task. Architectural/modular/organic models and like this.

Just see the Thea forum - especially gallery section :)

Town or models unrelated to anything :

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/town/blocks1.jpg


These are public computers that calculates everything and works with mobile interfaces (interfaces are a combination of monitor and interface, like
keyboard, voice commands or gestures) wirelessly. This way, interfaces, are like laptops, but without calculating units. Cheper, less power draw, longer
battery life and less weight.)

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/town/hdds2.jpg

Bench
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/town/lawk1.jpg

Playing with forms
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/town/rectangles2.jpg

Kerkythea + Photoshop
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/town/town1.jpg

VRay (with crappy material settings) + Photoshop
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/town/town2.jpg

Travel simulator (a room, where you can feel all external stimulus (spacial images - not flat screen, temperature, moisture, wind, odour, sound etc. -
they're needed to gets closer to feeling like you're on real travel).

WIPs:

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/travel_simulator/room1.jpg

Very quick over paint - it often helps to get ideas for developing 3D model.
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/travel_simulator/room1_photoshopped.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/travel_simulator/wip01.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/travel_simulator/wip06.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/travel_simulator/wip12_photoshopped.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/travel_simulator/wip13.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/travel_simulator/wip26_resized.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/travel_simulator/wip29.jpg

Holographic projector (not only it gives a 3D projected image, but you can model it with your hands in air - the projector catches movements of your
arms and converts them to holographic 3D model sculpting software). The idea I'm proud of and wish it'd existed :-D). The size is comparable to the cup for tea.

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/holographic_projector/idea1_2.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/holographic_projector/iholo_06_2.jpg

iRubik (a small computer that computes all tasks for holographic projector and tablet wirelessly. You could put in backpack easily and travel with the whole digital artist set)

WIPs:

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/irubik/icube_01.jpg

Playing with saturation and depth of field using Z-depth render in Photoshop.
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/irubik/icube_01_photoshopped.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/irubik/icube_02.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/irubik/icube_03.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/irubik/icube_07.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/irubik/icube_09.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/irubik/icube_10.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/contests/life2084/renders/irubik/icube_13_3.jpg

[Tonic]

A very little update to my Sci-fi hall project - boxes:

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/box_01.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/box_02.jpg

[Tonic]

Update for Sci-Fi hall. The module of high power resistors

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/large_resistors_01.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/large_resistors_02.jpg

[Tonic]

Inspired by Demo's turnaround animation, I thought I'd upload it since I have it as well :)

7uACkVU5Ul0
(sorry for crappy start - somehow Youtube didn't success with conversion fully.. and camera isn't smooth - that's just SketchUp having limited options. Perhaps there are plugins for smoother and better controlled camera movements)

Modeled in SketchUp, normal render was done in VRay, z-depth renders in Kerkythea, frames were sticked together in Virtualdub and DOF effect was done in After Effects (whoa, so many software.. actually, I must find way to simplify workflow, right now I'm checking 3DSMax. For some reason, VRay 1.5 for SketchUp doesn't allow to render z-depth images :/)

[Tonic]

Okay, lately I'd to commit a presentation for my school. There's a fragment with animation. Also, I've added few renders after post-processing in Photoshop.

9085421

The animation production work flow: modelling in SketchUp, camera and renders (both normal and z-depth frames) were done in 3DSMax, depth of field and little post-processing in After Effects. For merging frames, I've used VirtualDub. It was hectic to make presentation with only one day, but I've learned a lot about 3DSMax and After Effects (and there's a lot more to learn :P). 3DSMax was scary with interface, but I'm getting somehow used to it.

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/animation/wapw/render1-idealizacja.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/animation/wapw/render2-idealizacja.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/animation/wapw/render3-idealizacja.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/animation/wapw/render4-idealizacja.jpg

[ultimatez]

Hi Tonic,
can you please share the clay material you used in this image?
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/sketchup/sf_hall/hall_03_render.jpg
thanks

[Tonic]

Hi Tonic,
can you please share the clay material you used in this image?

thanks

Actually that's a default Kerkythea material - I haven't touched materials in Sketchup/Kerkythea ;)

[Tonic]

Okay, basically three things to mention.

1). I've started to learn 3DS Max. That's some monster with countless buttons, sliders and hidden options and I feel like monkey sitting there. But despite it, I find material editor very comfortable. And Vray plugin is nicely integrated with program - you work with both seamlessly, without exporting model to standalone renderer. Oh, and I started liking camera animations. I don't have to show yet, but soon I should post some flythrough animation.

2). I've taken a break from sci-fi hall and started another project - mainly for learning 3DS Max + Vray and I was strongly inspired by Alex Roman's animation "The Third & The Seventh" (http://vimeo.com/7809605) - you must see it! And switch to full screen mode!

3). After experimenting, I've decided I would expand the project to more complex (like adding foliage, moving clouds and sun rays - just anything to give "life" to scenery). For that reason, I've decided to leave it for some time and work on something simpler - for sake of learning most of 3D aspects, such as modeling, texturing, setting lighting, compositing, rendering and post producing - check Ad 3).

Ad 2). There are some peaks:

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/3d/stone_cheese/renders/render_01.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/3d/stone_cheese/renders/render_02.jpg


Ad 3). That's project I'm actually working on. Time clock and atmosphere pressure meter for boat that my dad bought on internet auction. I thought it looks cool and it would be a excellent exercise in 3D field because of forms, details and variety of materials/textures.

Sketchup model:
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/3d/boat_clocks/renders/sketchup1_photoshopped.jpg

Exported to 3DS Max, applied a wireframe texture - very cool, it clearly shows forms and details. Also, I've enabled global illumination, which gives a cool lighting - hitting everywhere and smoothly.
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/3d/boat_clocks/renders/render_01.jpg

There I disassembled the real clocks, removed round parts with numbers (how it is called?), scanned and edited in Photoshop. And tada, materials are ready for applying to models:
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/3d/boat_clocks/renders/render_02.jpg

Added sun light - yeah, it improves realism:
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/3d/boat_clocks/renders/render_03.jpg

My favourite part of 3D - post producing :-D Applied depth of field, edited colour and brightness curves, added chromatic aberration and a little of grain. I think these were biggest edits. They were done in After Effects.
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/3d/boat_clocks/renders/render_03_postproduced.jpg

Applied wood material. It's not the same as in real model, but I couldn't find correct texture in internet, so I went with temporary solution. The surface looks quite nice, but it's segmented.
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/3d/boat_clocks/renders/render_04.jpg

Applied brass material. They need some tweaks and differencies - the real model has at least 4 various brass that differ with reflections, colours and level of dirtiness. Notice reflections - I had to add the image of surrounding (found it on internet, it was a photo of room interior). Without it, it was hardly looking like metallic surface.
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/3d/boat_clocks/renders/render_05.jpg

Again, playing with post production :-D Now the wood looks a bit fleshy, but I think it adds nicely to creepiness factory ]:->
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/3d/boat_clocks/renders/render_05_postproduced.jpg

That's all for today. Right now I'm rendering flythrough animation frames. The estimated amount of frames is around 800-1000. This animation is for testing/learning purposes, so the rendering settings are quite low and thanks to that, it renders much quickier - 1 to 2 minutes per frame. With high quality, it would be 8-10 minutes per frames! I wish I had a farm of computers for distributed rendering ;)

[Tonic]

Finished "sketch" 50 second animation. Bigger resolution can be found there (http://vimeo.com/10745926).

10745926

[Chirp Chirp]

Looks like you've been busy dude. :) Your 3d skills and materials have come a long way. Although I think I prefer the mix media versus the pure renders.

The clock / animation thing. Very nice materials and a cool design. Few things to point out:

I noticed the clocks are missing a glass cover over the hands. Kinda bugs me because those hands are typically very flimsy. Everything about the design feel solid and designed except for that. If you did put a class casing over it, I would love to see some sort of stylish etched glass work. It could really add to the design as well as create some interesting light & shadows on the face of the clock.

During the animation of the clock the opening with the old school flicker pop I found a bit distracting and the fact it goes away after the opening makes me think you should just pull it out entirely.

Around the 21-22 time mark looks like the face of the clock pops and reorients itself. Kinda weird.

Then from around the 25 to 35 mark there are some harsh camera speed transitions as well as a fade in and out jerk. The jerks/pops I would try to smooth out and remove from the animation.

Your definitely a brave man for taking on Max! It is truly an evil program but sadly sketchup is missing some features max has and there is no other way around it.

Overall though great work. I would love to see some more :)

[Tonic]

Looks like you've been busy dude. :) Your 3d skills and materials have come a long way. Although I think I prefer the mix media versus the pure renders.

Yeah, 3D for me, who primarily works in 2D field, was a pain in the ass and monster time eater at the beginning, but it's getting smoother as so far. Until I'll have to learn new 3D features, such as instances (for example, grass or leaves) :P


I noticed the clocks are missing a glass cover over the hands. Kinda bugs me because those hands are typically very flimsy. Everything about the design feel solid and designed except for that. If you did put a class casing over it, I would love to see some sort of stylish etched glass work. It could really add to the design as well as create some interesting light & shadows on the face of the clock.
Good point with robustness of clocks, thanks for pointing it. Originally, the clocks had plastic covers and I was wondering whether to put them on 3D model. But due to issues with refractions, I hidden them. Now thinking about robustness - I think a non-robustness can be a good thing, because it evoked in you a feeling of clock hands's delicateness. It could be similar to looking at leaning tower of Pisa's - it still holds ground, but the fact that it is leaning, might cause anxiety. Another example would be one of Calatrava's bridge - there's image (http://www.compadre.org/Informal/images/features/CalatravaAlamillo-large5-15.jpg). From technical point of view, it will hold fine, but from visual view of point, it might be totally different - few threads that holds one 'falling' big solid mass? It doesn't sound reliably. And that's exactly what architect wanted to do :) (or at least that's what I'm thinking). Concluding, both, robustness and delicateness can be good ideas, it probably depends what feeling you want to evoke.


During the animation of the clock the opening with the old school flicker pop I found a bit distracting and the fact it goes away after the opening makes me think you should just pull it out entirely.
Well, I had to experiment and see it visually. I'm fond of the very old photos/videos with high contrast, narrow value range, highly grained image and a lot of various flickering effects. Charlie Chaplin's first movies are the examples coming to my head first. But I do like clean, synthetic images as well. To be honest, I'm not sure yet which style I'll go along with for sake of consistence of style.


Around the 21-22 time mark looks like the face of the clock pops and reorients itself. Kinda weird.
There are two different faces for each clock - they're swapped because at some point 3DS Max has crashed (sic!) and I forgot to swap faces before rendering remaining frames. At first I thought "ugh!", but later I started thinking it looks a bit surreal. Although, if looking at whole animation, it looks rather weird. I think I will try to create more weird actions, giving more balance ;)


Then from around the 25 to 35 mark there are some harsh camera speed transitions as well as a fade in and out jerk. The jerks/pops I would try to smooth out and remove from the animation.
I'm not sure what camera speed transitions you meant. Could you tell more?


Your definitely a brave man for taking on Max! It is truly an evil program but sadly sketchup is missing some features max has and there is no other way around it.
That's how life of designer who relies on artworks always looks. She/he must depends on quite few programs to achieve certain effects or get them in shortest time. But I like it, the more software you know, the more combinations, thus more final effects you can do :)

Overall though great work. I would love to see some more :)Glad you liked it! :) I'm going to polish up clocks and render in higher resolution and quality. Then, I'll return to the first two projects (sci-fi hall with wacky robot and stone cheese).

[Strela]

I agree with him about the hands. There is something I don't buy at all about the hands-- the "typeface" that they typically use for hands, on clocks like that, is very different from your design. Your design has a more modern feel and it doesn't match with the "nautical" feel of those clocks. Also, the hands are much too thick; they are typically about as thin as a razor blade.

Of course, this is a minor quibble. Otherwise excellent artwork.

[Tonic]

Strela, thanks for notifying the differences - good to know how good quality clocks differs. My clocks are Chinese cheapo :-P

A little update - working on wood and plastic covers.

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/3d/boat_clocks/renders/render_06.jpg

EDIT:

2 new renders after post production. I changed the method for creating background/reflections/global lighting - not only it renders faster, but the quality is better as well.

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/3d/boat_clocks/renders/render_07_photoshopped.jpg

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/3d/boat_clocks/renders/render_08_photoshopped.jpg

[Demo]

Hay Tonic i was looking around today and found this little plugin you might have heard of it before but i thought id drop it off here for you to look into.
its a simpler way to create curved surfaces inside sketch-up.
Also dose some other neat looking things

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcOrlX5wgLE&feature=related

Download here.
http://www.tensile-structures.de/sb_software.html

[CharmaineVallen]

Wow!

Your sketckup skills and coloring is awesome!

But do u have any step by step tutorials? Cuz the video one is somehow too fast for me to catch up and I tried using Sketchup pro to get the correct camera angle but the thing is I dun know which one u clicked is it field of view or orbit? It its orbit how do you manage to rotate the angle u want? I tried but couldn't...

[Tonic]

Wow!

Your sketckup skills and coloring is awesome!

But do u have any step by step tutorials? Cuz the video one is somehow too fast for me to catch up and I tried using Sketchup pro to get the correct camera angle but the thing is I dun know which one u clicked is it field of view or orbit? It its orbit how do you manage to rotate the angle u want? I tried but couldn't...

Hold CTRL key and use orbit. It will roll the camera. But be aware, with some clicks or camera tools (can't remember which one), it could reset the rotation. I'm afraid I don't have step-by-step, but now that you mentioned it, I think I'll try to make it with next project.

Hay Tonic i was looking around today and found this little plugin you might have heard of it before but i thought id drop it off here for you to look into.
its a simpler way to create curved surfaces inside sketch-up.
Also dose some other neat looking things

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcOrlX5wgLE&feature=related

Download here.
http://www.tensile-structures.de/sb_software.html

Heard it :-D At the beginning I thought it's a simple and really cool plugin, but I had a lot of problems with more complex bases (more curves on which you place tensioned material) and there were wrong faces. Instead this plugin, I started using "Extrude Edges by Rails" by TIG - works more robust and is very promising - just go see review:

http://sketchuppluginreviews.com/2010/03/01/extrude-edges-by-rails-and-extrude-edges-by-rails-by-face-google-sketchup-plugins-review/

Example from another site:
http://www.blender3darchitect.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/free-plugin-extrude-architecture-sketchup-2.jpg

And some old works - only two, sorry:

[CharmaineVallen]

Hold CTRL key and use orbit. It will roll the camera. But be aware, with some clicks or camera tools (can't remember which one), it could reset the rotation. I'm afraid I don't have step-by-step, but now that you mentioned it, I think I'll try to make it with next project.:

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it. Do let me know when your next tutorial is out. :)

Hope to see more of your works. Just asking how long do you practise drawings everday? I mostly practise about 4 to 6 hours; can't practise too long due to my eyes.

[Tonic]

I wish I'd discipline like you - I'm awful with drawing hours. It's random and scattered, but also depends on what I'm doing. If I'd guess, I would say 2-4 hours for active things and a little more for passive, such as reading or looking at works.

About eyes, have you tried eye droplets? It could help a little.

[CharmaineVallen]

I wish I'd discipline like you - I'm awful with drawing hours. It's random and scattered, but also depends on what I'm doing. If I'd guess, I would say 2-4 hours for active things and a little more for passive, such as reading or looking at works.

About eyes, have you tried eye droplets? It could help a little.

Eye droplets doesnt seem to help me sadly. Thanks for the sketckup pro tips; is really helping me alot :D