Sun always behind

avraz · 20 Mar 2011, 19:07

im no programmer so i can only hope someone will write a plugin for that or maybe one will be built into sketchup
i do a lot of rendering and because of the size limitation i'm using a lot of 2d components that always face the camera but because of that i also have to play with the sun position from every angle so the shadow will come out correctly and not a line
what would solve the problem would be a plug that overrides the sketchup sun by date and hour and simply locate the sun behind the camera at a 45 degrees angle by default however it moves with the option to adjust it left or right or up and down (up or down will also change the strength of the sun like morning or noon)

Gaieus · 20 Mar 2011, 19:36

What rendering software do you use?

honoluludesktop · 20 Mar 2011, 19:55

Avrez, Will this help ? It gives you better control of your shadows for illustration purposes.

araz · 21 Mar 2011, 11:08

i am using vray

Gaieus · 21 Mar 2011, 11:54

Okay then, in V-ray, you can set a material double sided (somehow, do not ask me as I do not use V-ray but down in the V-ray subforum on the board index).

This means that while a face can be completely transparent from one side, can be a shadow caster material from the other - i.e. if you create a dummy, shadow caster face for a 2D component, it will result in a "normal" shadow from any angle.

This is actually very useful in SU as well. See an example file by Alan Fraser here:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=173618#p173618
Although it is not a "classical" 2D face me component, its leaves are actually face me pieces. If you turn hidden geometry on, you will notice what casts the shadow there. You can use that shadow caster component (maybe a bit slanted towards the camera so that you can never see "underneath") with a transparent material on top and a non-transparent, shadow casting material at the bottom in V-ray.