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[TUTORIAL] Dead Easy Soft Shadows

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  • D Offline
    Dave R
    last edited by 31 May 2011, 17:50

    This won't be news to those who are experienced in such things but perhaps some of the newer users will find it useful.

    Things are always sunny in SketchUp land and the sky is always clear. This results in hard edged shadows when you have them turned on. Here's a pretty easy way to soften those shadows. Admittedly you can't do it all in SketchUp but it isn't difficult nor does it take a long time.


    http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2458/5781894577_32eab7b7aa.jpg

    To start with you need to make at least two image exports. I make three and show them here.

    The first export is with textures turned on and Use Sun For Shading ticked. Shadows are not turned on for this image. If you're only making two exports, leave edges turned on in the Styles dialog.


    http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2560/5776134750_9b62c32567.jpg

    The next export I make is in Hidden Line mode. Again, no shadows.


    http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3627/5776134900_c7615e91f7.jpg

    Finally, for the last export, turn on shadows and turn off Edges under the Styles dialog Edit tab.


    http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2176/5775593109_3a7c37df8b.jpg

    Open your favorite image editor--I used Paint.NET (freeware for PC)--to make this example.

    Open the images you've just exported. Go to the shadow image and use a blurring tool to soften it. I used Gaussian blur for this but there are several choices and you'll get different kinds of blurring with them. It's worth experimenting.


    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3439/5782447872_a80078cd7a.jpg

    Add two new layers over the softened shadow layer. Set both layers to Multiply. Copy and paste the textured image and the lines image to those two layers. Crop if desired and save the new image. Done.

    For this last image I ran the textured image through FotoSketcher first and I didn't soften the shadows quite so much.


    http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2401/5775594073_e5fd970c93.jpg

    Etaoin Shrdlu

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    • J Offline
      JGA
      last edited by 31 May 2011, 20:28

      Thanks for the tut, nice & clear to follow.

      Regards,
      JGA

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      • M Offline
        Mike Lucey
        last edited by 31 May 2011, 21:00

        Great TUT Dave 👍

        Support us so we can support you! Upgrade to Premium Membership!

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        • D Offline
          Dave R
          last edited by 1 Jun 2011, 09:47

          Thank you JGA and Mike.

          Etaoin Shrdlu

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          • P Offline
            pilou
            last edited by 1 Jun 2011, 10:54

            Softy ☀

            Frenchy Pilou
            Is beautiful that please without concept!
            My Little site :)

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            • P Offline
              pitrak
              last edited by 1 Jun 2011, 12:39

              Nice and easy!

              There's a good way to automate the process if you want to make a lot of those images. And if you have photoshop & bridge. Make three scenes with style settings as described. Include these three in the animation. For every camera scene, export those three style scenes (in an animation without transitions).

              In bridge, select the three images, go to Tools>photoshop>Open files into photoshop layers. Make an action for the blurring and blending of the layers and save. Now you just have to repeat this action on the next series of images.

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              • I Offline
                irwanwr
                last edited by 31 Dec 2011, 11:41

                excuse me, Dave.
                i can't see most of those images now.
                are those images still host on flickr?

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                • D Offline
                  Dave R
                  last edited by 31 Dec 2011, 11:54

                  You really can't see them?

                  Etaoin Shrdlu

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                  • I Offline
                    irwanwr
                    last edited by 31 Dec 2011, 12:17

                    i can see them now, Dave.
                    thank you. they were only flickr logos when i open this page before.
                    how did you do that?
                    anyways thank you very much.

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