Vehicles, Architecture, and Levels

[Chirp Chirp]

I have a lot of stuff to post and I am going to start with some of my first SU models from over 4 years ago!

[Chirp Chirp]

Bunch of various doodles and shape explorations

[Chirp Chirp]

SketchUp and level design part 1. I also have a video of SU geometry in game with physics as well as a power point on exporting to game engines I'll try and upload later.

[Chirp Chirp]

Sketchup levels exported to Crysis. First is a series is of a science lab. Second is inspired by a Michael Yon photo and expanded upon into a full blown game level with scripting.

[FourTonMantis]

Awesome stuff. That ad looks like something one would see in a future issue of Popular Mechanics or something.

I want to play your levels!

:D

[Jonish]

Perfect work! What do you use for rendering except Crysis?

[Chirp Chirp]

Thanks!

The rendered looking ones were done in Maxwell render. The one other game shot in the first level design set is done in a custom game engine. The rest are direct SU exports or painted over in PS.

[Jonish]

Wonderful. So you converted it into 3ds and then put into Crysis editor somehow? I should try to do the same in UT3, the only suitable game I own. In fact, I never knew how to make maps and now with SketchUp possibility, it's very attractive.

[MattGamer]

wow. impressive!! :D

the lighthouses remind me of Myst. gives me ideas
to redesign Myst in Sketchup. ;] thanks!

[MARMENTIDO]

VERY IMPRESIVE!.
HEY Chirp Chirp I HAVE A QUESTION, ITS ABOUT SketchUp .

ITS NECESARY THE PRO VERSION OF SketchUp TO DO WORKS SIMILARS TO YOUR WORKS?

I AM USER OF SketchUp 6.0 (6.0.1153) BUT I AM VERY BEGGINER USER OF THIS SOFTWARE.

GREETINGS,
NICE NICE STUFF MAN!

[wassermelone]

Chirp asked me to post some of my concept stuff. These are done in photoshop over his sketchup models. I dabble in sketchup as well, but nothing really worth showing. But Chirp thought it would be nice to see where some of this stuff ends up.

http://members.arstechnica.com/x/ptoast/building_3_sketchup.jpg

http://members.arstechnica.com/x/ptoast/building_3.jpg


http://members.arstechnica.com/x/ptoast/mausoleum_interior_sketchup.jpg

http://members.arstechnica.com/x/ptoast/mausoleum_interior_2.jpg

[Pfir8ich]

great work dude!
... sketchUp semms to be a really great prog ^^

PS: Crysis is my favourite game !

[Jonish]

That's just perfect! I like those arabic motives on walls a lot.

I tried to make UT3 map but it's terribly long way to go. *shrugs* And I'm too lazy.

[steak-tron]

Whoa these models and setups are rad Chirp. thanks for sharing.

And the same for you wassermelone!. Those paintover shots are really close to my heart.

Cool stuff you guys I'll check back often :D

[RocketMonkey]

Sweeeet!!! Lovin' it, Chirp Chirp, this stuff is awesome.

[darkwolf29a]

Incredible work!!!

Very nice. I sent you a PM, looking for some wheel and tire help. Hopefully, you can point me in the right direction.

Thanks again for your inspirational work.

[Lone Wolf]

Nice work in here Chirp.

[Chirp Chirp]

Darkwolf, I replied to you with some tips, but I also went ahead and just made a simple wheel tutorial so you can get a better idea of how I do it. See attached.

Marmentido, you don't need the pro version of sketchup to do any of this stuff. The differences between the free / pro version mostly come down to the ability to export various formats. The free version allows you to export .kmz which are just collada files in disguise. Use zip to open it up and extract the collada. Using collada can usually get your model export into other apps. Also my wife has been working on a direct to Crysis / source exporter. Another version should be out soon. www.playuptools.com

[darkwolf29a]

I'll take a look at the tutorial when I get home.

Thanks for the answers, and the encouragement. ;)

[kvitalij]

Great Stuning Works. The more you scroll down, the more interesting it gets. Love your Works. Cool Stuff.
Great Cars and Mech, Envoirement etc.

[Portus]

Simply brilliant and the tire tutorial you're a godsend, cleared many issues I was trying to figure out.


The paint-overs are also truly inspiring!

[eiri yuki]

could you possibly tell us what plugins you use and link them? much appreciated.

[Chirp Chirp]

Kvitalij, thanks! I know the models at the top aren't really worth posting but I started with those because they were literally the first models I made.

Portus.... I don't really think I am a godsend but I am happy someone found the tutorial useful. Over the years I've accumulated some various tricks that might be worth posting, if you guys want another just let me know.

Eiri Yuki, I don't use any plugins to model, I just use the regular tools that come with SketchUp. I know there are some cool ones out there that I keep meaning to check out but never get around to it.

[rattus]

Over the years I've accumulated some various tricks that might be worth posting, if you guys want another just let me know.

i hope you continue fill this thread with tutorials and nice su-work

[EskimO810]

Might be a stupid question, but I'm new to "digital" art, with those paintovers (very good I must say) do you import them as 3D models or as an image? This looked like something good to try out but I do only have photoshop elements (Yeah it came bundled with my tablet).

[Chirp Chirp]

The paint overs I do and the ones Wassa did were done by exporting a .bmp into photoshop. No 3d model required. Starting with a simple black and white line image, the typical paint over process is the same as someone scanning in a image from their sketchbook and painting it. I am sure there are loads of examples scattered through out CA of the process. Having said that.... there are tons of little tricks you can do by taking multiple screen shots of the same scene with different effects on and off, then compile them together in PS using layer blend modes. This page has some good examples of what I am talking about...
http://sketchupartists.wordpress.com/techniques/
http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/2008/03/throwing-things-out-of-focus.html - this one in particular is neat since it uses black fog in sketchup as a z depth mask.

[Chirp Chirp]

Quicky component cutter trick. Note that components are your friend. I use them on EVERYTHING.

[EskimO810]

thanks for the tips =)

[Chirp Chirp]

Used multiple sketchup exports with various style settings then combined them together in PS with blend modes, hand painting, and erasing.

[Brashen]

Hahah this some sexy stuff dude. I'm especially interested in wassermelone's techniques. by the way, what do you guys do?

If you guys have any tips and tuts about your work please feel free to share ^^

[Chirp Chirp]

Thanks Brashen, I'll be sure to pass on the complements to Wassermelone. Job wise, I design games and Wassermelone does concept art.

[DanielC]

This stuff's amazing. Must be quite something to walk around in those levels. Can't wait to see more !

[Chirp Chirp]

I should have posted these earlier.... The 4 screen shots I exported from SketchUp to create the previous image.

[Chirp Chirp]

Simple car I doodled last night then jazzed up in PS. 3hrs total.

[Jorge Gecov]

Awesome!
I must learn this software.

Post more!

[Twelve]

Wow, this is some good stuff. I like your vehicles and architecture in the first post. I have just got my copy of SketchUp so this is what pulled me to this end of the forums. Great stuff and very inspirational. Thanks for sharing.

[Chirp Chirp]

Thanks for the encouraging posts everyone. It seems to help me get off my ass and get busy. Here is some more vehicle modeling experiments. Both of these models begin life using the sandbox terrain and tools to push\pull the mesh around.

[mugen1]

beautiful

[Chirp Chirp]

Started working on a old vehicle I never finished. WIP

[ehaft]

Whoa I just want to say that this is some impressive stuff from both Chirp and Wasser. Thanks for sharing it.

[Portus]

Truly inspiring! You should consider doing a SketchUp 101 modeling video, I would be first to buy it!

[Chirp Chirp]

I feel a bit like a newb since I only now realized there were these little "thanks" buttons next to peoples posts. DUH..... So a belated big thanks to everyone for the replies!

Portus - Training vid... umm well that would be too much like work. :) So as a compromise I've been making mini sketchup tutorials for people with questions or problems. I have a few more in mind that I want to do such as one on organic modeling in SU and another on moving the world and local origins around to help with modeling on axis. I need to start another thread and collect them in one location so they will be easy to find later. If anyone has more sketchup questions on how to do something or what ever let me know and I'll get busy.

My wife has been messing around with the Unity game engine and we started making an underwater sub game. So first things first, sub shape exploration and concepts. Here are a few quickies...

[phate89]

amazing dude!!! your work is a insperation to people that are trying to break into level design...if you have any tips PM me.

but again wow!! amazing work mate.

[Chirp Chirp]

Tutorial on how I created a propeller. This should give you guys an idea on one of the ways I do more organic modeling in SU.

The .skp wouldn't upload here so I put it on google warehouse. http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=8d157c1d1fafe18b41266a444f3e927e

[Chirp Chirp]

Hey thanks Phate89. :) Glad you like it. Here's some more level design pics for you. First two images are together. I used the black and white SU fog trick to create a Z depth mask to do a lens blur / depth of field on the first image.

Second set is not really a level but a work space where I am designing a building piece kit for others to do level design with. One of the challenges of my current work project is that all buildings need to be architecturally correct because of destruction! So everything I design and build needs to have all the space accounted for, be structurally correct, have a good game flow, and fit into the damn memory budget.

Oh and for game industry advice. http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76898 Seedling started the thread a long time ago but I've added several pages of advice from a game design point of view.

[Chirp Chirp]

Rendered shots of some game levels. Almost everything in the overhead shot and a few buildings off screen are completely navigable. I had to design all the buildings which have functional floor-plans built with structural supports in mind. Soon it will get passed off to art for polish and detail.

And a few wips pics of that car I keep working on. I swear I'll finish it one day.

[Tonic]

Very nice renders. What renderer did you use?

[Portus]

I like the lineart rendering engine of SU but those renders look amazing, would never imagine they were modeled in SU.

[Chirp Chirp]

Cool glad you guys like them. I used Maxwell for the rendering. After seeing some of the stuff Tonic was rendering I though I would give it a shot. I really like Maxwell since its more like doing photography than a render app. They've also improved the SketchUp exporter significantly since the last version I used.

[Tonic]

What did you mean with "more like doing photography than a render app"?

[Chirp Chirp]

Well when you set up a camera you tweak the film iso, shutter speed, aperture type, focal distance, fstop, ect. Also because it bounces the light around the environment, I like to set up various sized faces of color to help back light and bounce light onto the shot. I feel more like I am creating a real set for a photography shoot than messing around with arbitrary numbers trying to get everything to look right.

Here is the original scene in SU I used to set up the lighting, bounce light and backdrop for one of the vehicles in my first post.

[Tonic]

Thanks, that explained a lot. Now I'm interested enough to try this renderer :)

[Chirp Chirp]

Last week the company I worked for closed down so now I am jobless! 14 years in the industry gives you a six sense about these things thus the nicer portfolio style renders I've been posting of late.

One thing I think you guys will appreciate and I am really going to miss was the level design pipeline I put in place. We had the ability to export directly from SU to our game engine and within seconds run around and blow shit up. These two videos are over a year old but it should give you an idea how powerful and cool it is.
In SU http://www.playuptools.com/csroby/video-sdif1.html
In Game http://www.playuptools.com/csroby/video-sdif2.html

Pdf file for GDC talk never happened that talks about using SketchUp as part of a game development pipeling. http://www.playuptools.com/csroby/media/GDC_Sketchup_09.pdf

And here are a few more shots of some levels and buildings.

[Chirp Chirp]

Results from a game design test I was given five days to complete. First image are shots from the final map. Second image is the final top down which was exported from SU to Illustrator as an .eps then cleaned up and organized.

The next set of images are the renders of the map in progress as I was designing it.

Last image is of the characters I designed for the mission. Several ended up getting cut from the final submission.

If anyone is interested in reading the cooresponding mission walk through you can find it here http://www.playuptools.com/csroby/media/ChrisRoby-R&C_Design_Test.pdf

[Chirp Chirp]

Another WIP I started a while ago.

[orgelf]

you work a lot ;-)

really nice models

i really like your paintings renders as the submarine and the car upon the orange spaceship .

and your last wip, the armor, is really imspiring :yum: (I think armors are the most difficult models to do )

for the view of the town with some orange buildings , did you use Vray for Sketchup or Maxwell ?

[Chirp Chirp]

Orgelf: It might seem that way but your looking at a collection of work I started back in 2005. I feel like such a slacker most of the time.

I totally need to finish that submarine. I have this habit of getting bored with projects before I finish them.

This is my first shot at doing something humanoid. I am terrible when it comes to proportions of people but all the robot like posts in here got me itching to give it a shot. Currently I'm trying to finish it up but struggling with the hands atm. Thanks for the complements and pep!

Orange building render is also in Maxwell. I've never tried Vray.

I've been experiementing a bit with render settings and thought this was kinda neat.

[Tonic]

Neat, indeed. It reminds me a ferrofluid (image (http://www.forcefieldmagnets.com/catalog/images/ferro1.jpg)).

Updates sweet as usual, but I'm loving the walking electronic parts. Brilliant!

[Jalc]

these are brilliant just goes to show how far you can take sketchup in the development of ideas!

[Ximenes]

Holy crap... I would kill to have your skill (yes, I know that rhymes). Phenomenal work.

[Chirp Chirp]

Jalc: Thank you. Often I don't know what I am going to make and begin by playing with shapes until I see something. I like exploring in 3d and SketchUp makes it fun and simple.

Ximenes: You know I often find myself thinking something similar when I see other peoples work posted on CA. Thank you.

Tonic: Thanks. I had a lot of fun on that design test. Trying to make circuit board components anthropomorphic wasn't too hard and seemed natural with the theme. However it was especially challenging to complete everything in five days starting the day after I lost my job. No pressure!

I did pass the game design test and had a preliminary interview that was to be followed up with a full team interview but I accepted another position at Ubi Soft Singapore. I am still trying to process the full scope of what I've done but I am too busy packing and trying to get my wife, kids and dogs ready to go. I leave in 3 weeks! That said, for a bit I am not going to have time to play in SU or post. So this will be my last post for awhile.

Work in progress for the hands and arm bits I am making for the robot suit thing. The thumb is temporary, something I stole from another model. It just looked dumb without it. The little triangles are my rig handles for posing the joints. Hopefully I'll be able to get back on this in a few months.

[Tonic]

Are you going to use SketchyPhysics?

[Chirp Chirp]

Tonic: at this point I just hope one day I get around to finishing it!

SU doodle I popped out tonight.

[Chirp Chirp]

Whipped up something for the Industrial design of the week.

[rattus]

really like the curving visor-design, looking good.

[Apotheases]

very cool stuff! Its very inspirational! Thanks for leaving that tip over on my thread. All are welcomed!:android:

[Visceral 619]

you've got a great eye tech design, the level designs are also awesome.

[Chirp Chirp]

rattus - thanks. I had planned a lot more stuff showing the interior and how people operate it but as usual life gets in the way.

Apotheases - thanks. Just keep at the modeling. It's neat that even in sketchup people have different styles. It will be interesting to see how yours evolves.

Visceral 619 - Cool glad you like my stuff. Almost everything I make starts off totally random. No idea what I am going to end up with.

[Chirp Chirp]

Shots from a metrics test space for the game I am making. Spent a few hour here and there on the weekends building it out.

* First image is a prone sniper position from under some trucks.
* Next is looking back across the kill zone from another cover position.
* Last two are examples of cover using architectural elements instead of crates and barrels. (ok so there is 1 crate in there )

So far the play tests have been great. I just need to remember to take some in game shots.

[Chirp Chirp]

Trying something a bit different. I doodle in a sketchbook everyday and decided to model one of the weird little sketches from a few months back. WIP

[rattus]

good stuff Chirp.
i have a question, i love your level-design. I picked up RedFaction1 again and played it for the first time in years.
So much fun, people are still playing it and making maps. I dont think i can use SU with the RED-editor but i see you made some stuff for Crysis,
my pc cant run that.

so...do you know of any other fps-games who take SU-files?
Sketchup could be a brilliant tool making maps i think.
i guess i need the full version too? i mean for export to obj-files or whatever.
.skp cant be very useful i guess?

would be cool to make maps for DM and CTF battles.

[Chirp Chirp]

rattus- Cool glad you like the levels. :) but unfortunately there are no game engines that I know of that natively read .skp files even though its technically possible.

Can't say that I am familiar with Red Faction 1 tech or how they structure the levels for destruction. But every game engine has a custom geometry format and usually has either an import process that converts the more standard formats like collada or fbx. If they don't import the formats then they probably rely on a plugin to convert the geometry directly out of max/maya/xsi ...

I am sure it would be possible to get sketchup level geometry into Red Faction by going through their standard pipeline. Which means you would have to export from Sketchup to something like an obj,3ds,dae,fbx then import to the software and plugin combo they used for development. Most of the time its max. The free version of sketchup exports collada aka .dae. The pro version supports fbx, 3ds, obj, dxf and some others.

The levels I exported to Crysis used this process and I had to go through XSI. Overall it kind of sucked. It was less than ideal especially when i compared it to the direct pipeline I got in place for the last company I worked at. Sadly even at my current job we are using a custom engine and I have to go from sketchup to .3ds to max to game.

As far as other game engines go, if they support modding then there should be an existing pipeline you can leverage. Or.....

My wife has been working on a plugin for SketchUp called PlayUp that can be found here http://www.playuptools.com/ . It's totally free and currently support exporting models to the Halflife Source engine and Crysis Sandbox 2. It also fully supports exporting models and level files to Unity. The game engine of choice for my wife atm. From what i've seen on unity forums people seem to be using it to good effect.

But yes it's totally sweet to be able to have an idea for a level, sketch it out in a few hours, play it multi-player, take some notes, and then iterate. Sadly I've seen pipes where the process takes a week from first idea to first playtest. The trick to great level design is lots of iterations. Faster you can make something and test it the more iterations achieve in a given amount of time. Thus why I fell in love with SketchUp when I realize the potential for making better games.

Let me know how it goes. Would love to see some videos or screen shots of something you made in a game. Good luck.

[rattus]

Chirp, thank you for taking the time to answer!
i need to play around in RED (red faction editor) and learn that prog.
I looked at the videos at playuptools... wow looks great.
i must check out Halflife Source engine and Crysis Sandbox 2. great work on the plugin!

for now i sketch the ideas out in sketchup and then have to rebuild them in RED,
it's going to take some time before i have something to show you=)

thanks so much again Chirp!

[rattus]

My wife has been working on a plugin for SketchUp called PlayUp that can be found here http://www.playuptools.com/ . It's totally free and currently support exporting models to the Halflife Source engine and Crysis Sandbox 2. It also fully supports exporting models and level files to Unity. The game engine of choice for my wife atm. From what i've seen on unity forums people seem to be using it to good effect.


i just had a chance checking out Unity, never heard of it before.
looking very impressive! Thanks again for the help and information!

[Chirp Chirp]

Some renders from a level design I did over the weekend.

[rattus]

cool, looks very inviting.
did you design this for a specific game?

[Chirp Chirp]

Thanks. Yes I did but can't say what is it yet. In a few more months I'll be able to say more. :)

[Chirp Chirp]

Digging around found some stuff I forgot about. Also a shot of another level design. Was working with some of the level designers on improving the massing and composition of the roof / construction space.

[Chirp Chirp]

Prop for a new level I'm working on.

[multix]

Wow, what a great work!

Do you use some Sketchup Plugins in your work?

If yes, can you recommend some?

Best regards,
multix

[Chirp Chirp]

Thanks man. Nope no plugins. Sorry! Everything you see is modeled with just plane ol SketchUp. :)