My house: Inner structure complete

My SketchUp model of my house plods on. But, with the major inner structures now complete the model does begin to look very interesting. As you can see in the following picture I have added the interior doors, and this gives the model a peculiar dolls house effect.

I have the exterior 'shell' to apply now, including the window frames and front and back door. I have noticed quite a few nice windows available from component resources like 3D Warehouse and Form Fonts.com that look similar to those of my house, so I will give these a try.

My mind is also turning to doing a couple of different versions of my house model. A simplified version - without all the extra walls and parts I have included in this model - which I will texture, and also my fully modular animated version.

Link: Barnabu.co.uk - London skyline in SketchUp

Here's a nice SketchUp site with some lovely models of buildings that make up the London skyline and some interesting Google Earth animations.

I've yet to really get to grips with Google Earth implementation for SketchUp models - though this has a lot to do with the fact that my home town is one of those in the UK that is not covered in detail by Google Earth. But I hope to move into this area soon.

Barnabu.co.uk is a wonderful showcase of just what can be archived, as well as showing some beautiful pieces of architecture. The Google Earth animations are well worth a peek too.

Link: Barnabu.co.uk

My house: Ground floor stairway

Added the lower stairway to my SketchUp model of my house. Stairways are easy enough to make so I won't go through the process, but it's probably a good idea to save any stairways like this as a component. You never know when they might come in useful for another house project.

This concludes all the major structural parts of the building, now I have to create the windows and doors. And, again, these can be added to a component library for re-use.

WWI fighter: Part 6 - the final model

I have completed my SketchUp model of a World War One fighter aircraft, and have - I think - met the original criteria that I set down for it's production. The model is simple, yet reassembles the original, was quickly assembled (in total hours) and I managed to avoid the over-complication and over-ambitiousness that marred some of my projects to this point.

Above: The final render shot of my Neiuport 17 fighter - in Royal Flying Corps colours. I am using SU Podium for my renders, because of it's simplicity and speed. I could have perhaps elaborated on this render by additional post-production rendering in Adobe Photoshop, to give it an 'authentic' WWI aerodrome backdrop. Maybe in the future (I may even add a pilot)!

The main purpose of this project was to stop me getting over-engrossed in unnecessary detailing and to match the complexity of my models to it's purpose. In other words, why built a 100% authentic 3D replica of an object when all I want is a component part in a larger illustrative scene?

I have uploaded this model to Google's 3D Warehouse if you would like to examine it: Click on this link to navigate to the Google 3D Warehouse download for this model (download size is 1mb)

I hope you have enjoyed following along with this project, and if you would like to see the progress of it's construction in pictures then take a look at the supporting Flickr set here: SketchUp Nieuport fighter - Flickr set

...Or, click on the 'labels' below to follow the blogged project journal.

UTube SketchUp house build

Here's an interesting movie from a guy called Nick Kujawa. Now what is interesting about this is seeing 'a' process of building in SketchUp, not necessarily the right way, but neither is it wrong. But there are snippets which do make you go 'nice idea' (the making of the stairs for example, I've never seen them done like this).

No. 6's residence - progress to date (film set ceiling)

My SketchUp model of Number Six's apartment from the TV series 'the prisoner' has taken a bit of a interesting turn. Originally I simply wanted to make a model based on a floor plan published in the book 'The Village Files', but now I have started to think of the model in terms of it's function as a reconstruction of the film set.

Above: The 'film set' ceiling is complete. High and open, this 'false ceiling' is what I assume the original set must have been like to accommodate lighting and cameras. The red area is my latest addition, a sloped ceiling as I imagine the original set to have been like.

The fact is, that although my 'assumptions' are based on what I can see from the DVD footage of the series, without actual firm reference and schematics of the film set I am stabbing in the dark. Although, so far, I have been unable to find out if a technical drawing or photographs of the original set construction are available.

I'm not even sure if there was just one version of the set - as sometime you can see the rooms with ceilings, and sometimes there are hints that the walls in some sequences are much higher (perhaps with no ceilings to accommodate cameras and lighting rigs).

I am sure, over time, as I collect more data a third and forth model will be made!

No. 6's Residence - SketchUp for 'forensic' set design?

One of the unsung advantages of modelling in 3D and SketchUp, is that when you see an object in three dimensions, and are able to 'move' around it in virtual space, this tells you a lot about that object that you otherwise would not know from a 2D photo or movie.

As it turns out, this is exactly what has happened when I created my model of No. 6's residence from the TV series 'The Prisoner'.

Above: This stage in my model shows the enlargement of the bathroom (immediate foreground) to accommodate a sliding door, something not allowed for in my previous model - which was based on currently available data. You can also see that I am beginning to make the wire frame for the extended wall/ceiling area - another set feature allowing for lighting and filming from above.

My initial model unearthed a slight anomaly with the dimensions - some of this was due to lack of accurate reference about the original set design, and in part also to do with the difference between the set design and the real building as it exists in the village of Portmeirion.

The picture above shows my second version of my model with a correction added to the dimensions of the bathroom. My original models apparently showed that the current thinking regrading the size of the bathroom was incorrect - and I have recreated the dimensions to match clues to the true size and shape that appears in the DVD of the series.

OK - so on the surface of things this does appear to be a little 'geeky'. But when you consider the serious study of historical Film and Television, and the interest in re-creating stage and film studio sets for a better understanding of important works for the screen(s), then the use of SketchUp as a kind of 'forensic' set design tool is yet another string to the bow of this impressive piece of software!

Credit and appreciation goes to Tim Palgut - author of the book 'The Village Files' - for his kind correspondence and help in this project.

Link: SketchUp Component Library

Found a terrific component resource for SketchUp this morning. Called, simply, 'The SketchUp Component Library' it has a stock of very good quality furnishings and accessories.

What marks this site out from a lot of the free stock components out there is the very nice styling of the items. A lot of thought has gone into these objects, and they are far above the usual box constructions that are the norm in the 3D Warehouse.

I'll be using this resource regularly - and I've placed it in my link list of good resources. Well done the anonymous - student architect - author of the site!

News: Release of V-Ray for SketchUp

As part of my current interest in rendering Sketchup models I found the news of the release of the V-Ray rendering plug-in noteworthy.

"ASGVIS has released V-Ray for Sketch-Up. This release brings users various performance enhancements, an out of the box rendering solution, and many great V-Ray features to Sketch-Up. V-Ray is a rendering plug-in that enables Sketch-Up users to take advantage of the power and speed of the Chaos Group™s V-Ray rendering solution."

Link to reseller: ASGVIS website - V-Ray for SketchUp

'Du-oh!' Tip: Copy/move array - equal distance

OK - sometimes reading the manual pays off! But that's the downside of the free Google SketchUp, as such there is no paper manual to refer too, so you miss some fundamental operations.

Here's an example of one of those 'du-oh' moments of realization...

Creating a banister for 'My House' model
I wanted to make a set of banister spindles for the stairway of my house model. The problem being to create a set of spindles all of equal distance from each other up the banister rail. Of course I *could* just measure the distance divide it and copy/move each individual spindle up the rail...

But SketchUp includes the cool ability to automate tasks such as this by means of the entry field. For example, if I wanted to make a series of equal-distance columns, I would simply copy/move the first column to the position of the second, then type in '10x' - and 'poof', as if by magic 10 columns appear!

But, what if - as with my banister - I want the objects to fill a specified distance exactly?

Well, as it turns out there is a text entry formula for this too. But this time, instead of moving your object to the second position in your desired array, you move it to the LAST position in the series - then you type '10/' (divide by 10, or whatever number you want) and SketchUp will FILL IN equal distant objects between the two positions.

Fantastic. This saves a lot of time and fiddling about.

Credit: Thanks to Mike from 'School' who shows this technique in Episode 24 of their video-cast.

Tony's 3D Modelling Service: Beautiful brickwork

I came across Tony's blog during one of my blogesphere recces, and although it's actually less of a blog than a shop window for his excellent commercial modelling using SketchUp, it's well worth a look.

One thing which immediately struck me was Tony's fantastic brickwork rendering. I'm still puzzling over quite how he did this:

Quite beautiful isn't it?

But, is it texture applied to the model? Surely it can't be post-production rendering in Photoshop? I'm stumped!

But anyway, see more of Tony's wonderful models here: Tony's 3D Modelling Service website

The Prisoner: No. 6's - version 2

I was a little unhappy with some aspects of my SketchUp model of The Prisoner's apparent! So I started from scratch again. I'm happier with the proportions this time, and I've also been able to work in some minor detail which I missed out on my first attempt.

In this view you can see two interesting features. First of all there is the two levels of the apartment, interesting because the top level doesn't actually exist in the real building as it exists in Portmeirrion.

This section only existed as part of the set built for the TV series, 'The Prisoner' (the real building is called 'The Roundhouse', and now serves as a shop selling 'Prisoner' memorabilia).

The second feature I have added is the very small balcony on the lower level (you can see slightly protruding from the door on the right of the model). This does not appear on the floor plan I based this model on - taken from the book 'the Village Files'.

Oh! And one more thing I have done, having started afresh, is to build the model in a modular format - like I used when building the model of my house. The walls are wholly separate entities, which can be stripped away to reveal the floor plan - rather like a film set. This adds a little more polygons to the model, as usually walls would be part of the building 'shell'.

Above: Here you can see the model's floor, the red outline marks the outer wall thickness, the wall having been constructed as an independent object to allow the apartment to be taken apart.

As is my practise now, I am building a Flickr album to show the progress of my project in pictures: Flickr set - No. 6's residence

Rendering test using SU Podium

I have started to test SU Podium as a means to render SketchUp models. SU Podium is a plug-in rendering tool that works from inside Google SketchUp or SketchUp Pro. On the surface it is a easy to use gizmo with not many controls to set. Here are my first couple of tests:

Despite the lack of complicated controls, the theory behind SU Podium is a little tricky to grasp, especially for interior lighting - in my humble opinion. But at least it offers quick previews so you can adjust your render until it's to your liking.

Personally I would like to see more controls in order to model directional lighting easily.

SU Podium is available from here: SU Plug-ins

Scarborough Campus: Hypercosm test

Hypercosm is a set of SketchUp and browser plug-ins that allow you to display an interactive version of your SketchUp model on the web. With Hypercosm visitors to your website can manipulate your model in 3D space by downloading the plug-in (just 1.30mb). Great for displaying progress to clients at a distance quickly.

I have created a test using my Scarborough Campus model (still incomplete), and you can see this by downloading the Hypercosm browser plug-in here (Note: PC platform only!): http://www.hypercosm.com/download/player/index.html

Once you have that loaded, you can then view my test model at this location: Scarborough Campus - Hypercosm test model

Instructions for use: The left mouse button ROTATES the model, the right button MOVES the model, and pressing left and right together ZOOMS the model in and out.

More SketchUp student work

I mentioned a while ago that I had found a series of blogs done by students of architecture who are using SketchUp as part of their course. I've revisited some of these blogs, and found some really nice renders which I think are worth mentioning.


I really like this style, in particular the semi-transparent figures. These have been done in Photoshop as post production work. The renders have a nice West Coast USA feel about them - though I am still not sure which college these students are from.

I'll be trying to emulate this technique myself, and will report on the results in a later post. In the meantime, enjoy more of these wonderful renders at: http://stephenvarady.blogspot.com/

And here's the link to the my original post about the students' work: SketchUp class online work journals

The Prisoner: No. 6's residence

Inspired by Go-2-School's videocast tutorials on making a house in SketchUp, I decided to attempt a very quick project myself. As it so happened I had a floor plan I could scan in a book right next to me so I used that. It is the layout of No. 6's residence from the 1960's cult TV series 'The Prisoner'.

No messing around with this one! Taking a leaf from the Go-2-School videos I tore through the initial build-up, using some of the tips they showed. I did have to take a guess at the height of the rooms (as the book I had - Tim Palgut's 'The Village Files' - didn't give any scale. But a quick search round the Internet found me a 'standard' height for rooms of 8 feet - so I tried this.

I *think* my build speed with SketchUp is increasing with every model, but I still have a long way to go in learning about styling the model and - ultimately - perhaps rendering it.

Scarborough Campus: Accommodation complete

Finished the accommodation block of my SketchUp campus model. The buildings are nearly all there, just one small block - Music Technology - to make and the diorama, of course.

I have a bit of detailing and cleaning up I want to do - including some further optimization (getting rid of some internal construction and guide lines). A process I will be talking about in a later post.

As you can see, no windows or such-like. This model is a simple directional map of the campus - although, I have included fairly detailed models of the disabled access ramps. As these are important points that will be highlighted in the final map.

All the buildings have been 'cut' ready for the diorama (base on which the model will sit), illustrating - simply - the various slopes the buildings sit on. Of course, SketchUp includes a very sophisticated 'sand box' tool set that allows you to model realistic terrain very accurately. But for this model a simple geometric impression of the terrain is all that is required (see bellow).

Above: The red line shows how I have 'cut out' a section of a building so that it sits on the base I will be making, giving the impression of slope in the terrain. For a more sophisticated and accurate model I would have probably attempted to create the terrain first using SketchUp's sand box tools, and then stamped a foundation for my buildings into the terrain, thus avoiding cutting into my buildings.

WWI fighter: Pt. 5 - The wing spars

Just a few parts left to model now, including the propeller - which may prove tricky. SketchUp has made this an enjoyable project, and not too hard. By keeping things simple I haven't had to stress too much about how to create this shape or that, I have taken the simple option but still managed to create a model that resembles the original.

But, as always when working with SketchUp you are left thinking - 'I could do better the next time!' :)

Scarborough Campus: Unexpected accurate results

Little whoop of triumph for me and my 'brick counting' method of determining my dimensions for my SketchUp building projects (where detailed schematic measurements are not available).

The red line in the above screen shot illustrates an - unexpectedly - accurate alignment of two points. Who'd have thought! LOL

Of course, statistically, I guess you could say that I eventually could get an accurate dimension using my method simply by chance - but I prefer to pat myself on my back and say it's skill! ;)

You will also notice that my SketchUp construction method is not perhaps to usual practice of drawing a buildings 'footprint' and then using the pull tool to make a 'box'. I am working around the outside shell of the building, making the faces of each block one at a time.

I am gambling that my 'brick counting' method will have the ends of my construction meet perfectly at the end - which is why I was excited with the above alignment!

Small things! ;)

Titanic animation done in SketchUp

A couple of times a week I will be showcasing SketchUp work from around the web that I think is interesting or impressive. Today I found - thanks to a Technorati search - this wonderful 'fly-by' animation of 3D model of the Titanic.

The animation - created by AlexRanwellAR - is based on a model downloaded from the 3D Warehouse. The complex and smooth animation is noteworthy, particularly when I have yet to dabble with the animation features of SketchUp - so I was gobsmacked. There are so many aspects to SketchUp, I sometimes wonder if I will ever try out every feature of this program!

Aside from the clever animation, this model shows the usefulness of 3D Warehouse, a fantastic community resource for SketchUp users. I have watched the content of this resource for quite a while now, and the quality of the models available has improved in leaps and bounds (although there is a suspicion that a certain percentage are models ported over from other 3D packages).

Scarborough Campus: Accommodation block

Started off the student halls (outlined in red). These are a little tricky as they are built on a series of small slops that run both north to south and east to west. I'm working my way round the face, and if my calculations are correct I should meet up nicely at the end.

What's the chances of that coming off? LOL

WWI fighter: Pt. 4 - The lower wing

I was unsatisfied with the first wing I did for my SketchUp aeroplane. The thing that most niggled me was the wing tip, which I couldn’t model successfully. My inability to create a nice rounded tip had me posting a request for assistance on the Google SketchUp Help forum.

Luckily for me, help came in the guise of Gaieus and Panzerlite - Help thread: 'How to create a rounded wingtip' - who advised me on the best way to produce the semi-teardrop shape I wanted. And in this post I will take you through how I created the lower wings of my aeroplane model.

1. The wing profile
A wing profile is a highly sophisticated piece of technology. But, for the simplified model I wanted to make I would not be creating a completely authentic profile. I used the 'pull' tool to turn the profile into a panel.

The top profile section (red) is an authentic profile – traced from an original blueprint for the Nieuport 17 fighter. The bottom panel (green) shows my simplification of the profile, removing many of the curves, flattening the bottom and making the profile on a horizontal plane. This will become important when I ‘lathe’ the profile later to make the wingtip.

2. Making the wing panels
I am making the lower wing out of ten identical panels (move/copy/x10), this is just to give the impression of the wing 'ribs' of the original.

3. Lathing the profile into the wingtip
Next I copied the profile section and prepared a circle in order to 'lathe' ('Follow Me' tool) the profile into a teardrop shape.

4. Quartering the teardrop
I now want to quarter the teardrop shape into four segments. I do this by drawing a flat plane through the center of the object, making the plane (rectangle) a grouped object. I always group objects which I am using to INTERSECT with other objects. I have found this makes intersections neater and more successful.

Having intersected through the vertical plane, and finish by intersecting through the horizontal. discarding the three unwanted segments, I end up with the following quarter teardrop shape:

5. Fitting the teardrop wing-tip to the wing panels

Nothing difficult here, I simply join the wing tip to it's adjacent panel - remembering to create a face on the bottom of the wing-tip of course.

6. Orientating the wing
The lower wing of the Nieuport 17 isn't straight, it's actually slightly swept back and angled upward towards the tip. I used the rotate tool to rotate the wing to the correct final orientation.

7. The finished wing!
Well, that wasn't too difficult. Although I have to stress that a bit of planning and a bit of judicious simplification of the original wing profile helped make this easy. Had I attempted to make the wing using the authentic profile things would have been a lot more difficult.

However, for my goal of a uncomplex representation of the plane the simplified component are just right. This simplified model would be ideal for using as a component itself inside another model as it simplicity gives it a relatively small file size.

An authentic rendering of the same plane would result in a huge file size. So even before you start you must plan what you want to use the model for, and this will decide for you just how complex (and authentic) your model is going to be.

WWI fighter: Pt. 3 - The undercarriage

Forcing myself to simplify my latest SketchUp model really seems to be working in one respect, I am whizzing though this build very quickly!

Last night I completed the undercarriage, and the model is really starting to take on the look of a World War One fighter. Although, when I check out the 3D model done for a commercial flight simulation (see below) my efforts pale into insignificance!

Above: No, not one of my models - unfortunately! This model of a Siemens-Schuckert D.III WWI fighter was created by a commercial company for a new flight sim called 'Knights of the Sky'. 'I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy'! ;)
Credit: GT game de.vision

Obviously, this model was produced in a package like 3D Studio Max or Maya, which is why - even as a 'white label' - there is nicely rendered soft lighting. These packages have a bevy of organic tools that aren't available to the SketchUp user (yet). However, you have to balance this with the ease in which the beginner can get into modelling with SketchUp. You pays your money and takes your choice!

Pop over to GT game de.vision to see a lot more beautiful 3D game models: 'Knights of the Sky' models in progress gallery

Or...For more modest modelling (LOL), here's my Flickr album - showing more construction detail of my little fighter: Flickr set - Nieuport fighter