Is This Quality Possible?

pauly7 · 17 Sept 2014, 10:25

Hello, i have been playing with SketchUp for the last few months.

I've been following a lot of tutorials on YouTube.

One thing that i noticed is that the quality of the actual model output and animation tends to be very low.

I read somewhere that you can turn the quality up but it greatly slows down the process and makes you files much larger.

Is it possible to turn this quality on at the end, or does it need to be turned on for each object when you are creating / drawing it?

Is it possible to create a smooth animation with smooth edges, similar to this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTlwsu0kVoA

Paul

pilou · 17 Sept 2014, 11:00

You will have this quality with renderers not with Sketchup "alone" !
Choice is some plethoric!
But carreful someone don't support animation !

pauly7 · 17 Sept 2014, 11:13

Hello Pilou, thank you for the information.

Can you elaborate please What do you mean 'renderers' and 'someone don't support animation'?

Dave R · 17 Sept 2014, 11:23

Paul, I think Pilou was indicating that you can get the qualities of that video but it may require some additional rendering of the images. SketchUp isn't a renderer so you might need some additional processing outside of SketchUp.

Some of what I see in the animation is the choice of textures. The trees look a bit sketchy or painterly to me. There isn't real obvious repetition or tiling in the flat textures and yet surfaces such as the grass aren't just flat colors. You can get all that in SketchUp if you have materials and components that look like that and adjust your style accordingly. It's basically a you-get-out-of-it-what-you-put-in sort of thing. The reflections in the glass will have to be done in a rendering application so you aren't going to be able to do all of this directly from SketchUp.

Rendering applications are used to create a more photo-realistic appearance in your images. They are used to add reflections, soft shadows, highlights, perhaps reduced depth of field and so on. There are quite a number of them out there. Many have free eval versions so you can try them out. Asking which one is the best, though, is like asking who makes the best beer. You'll get different answers from everyone and no one will be absolutely right.

pauly7 · 17 Sept 2014, 11:44

Thank you Dave.

Is it possible to 'turn up' the quality in SketchUp so that is is better than normal.

I feel that everything looks like it has been drawn in Microsoft paint

I understand that you can apply textures etc, but is it possible to turn the quality up at the end, before you export it?

Dave R · 17 Sept 2014, 11:47

Th output quality is established during the output. Can you be more specific about what you want to change? Are you only referring to animation exports or still images?

Maybe you could post an image of something you've done and tell what you want to make different.

ely862me · 17 Sept 2014, 11:49

Except applying a desired Style there is nothing you could do to improve the appearance of Sketchup output.

Dave R · 17 Sept 2014, 11:54

I think that's a rather simplistic answer that isn't exactly right.

pauly7 · 17 Sept 2014, 12:04

I think i'll need to start looking in Styles very soon.

Here is how my model currently looks and EVERY single line is extremely rough when i zoom out.

Dave R · 17 Sept 2014, 12:13

Some of that might be fixed by styles. Maybe you should get rid of endpoints and extensions. You could change Profiles to 1 and reduce the weight of the profile edges. You might also find that changing OpenGL settings for Hardware Acceleration and Fast Feedback (under Preferences) will modify how things look on screen. You might also be able to change Anti-Aliasing settings which is responsible for the pixelation of lines running at an angle across the screen. That 's not so much a SketchUp thing but it has to do with the GPU in your computer.

When you are exporting images you can increase resolution under Options in the save window and you might find that useful.

ely862me · 17 Sept 2014, 12:21

@dave r said:

I think that's a rather simplistic answer that isn't exactly right.

Sorry, it wasn't my intention.
Since Pauly doesn't want to go with a rendering program all he can do is work the drawings inside Sketchup. Of course there are some techniques(rounding corners,hiding some edges, smoothing some others) that would help a bit but editing or applying a style is the only thing he can do.

baz · 17 Sept 2014, 12:49

Doesn't he simply need to export at a much larger size and reduce as we all do?
The roughness he mentions are 'jaggies', a result of screen res are they not?

Dave R · 17 Sept 2014, 12:54

Exporting an image at a larger size can help with reducing the jaggies, too. I was assuming his example is a screen shot but maybe I'm wrong. As I mentioned earlier, increasing image size under Options will help.

pauly7 · 17 Sept 2014, 13:07

Hello guys, thanks for all the input... excellent forum.

I have played with the Style settings and it looks much better now, thank you.

I have a few questions:

a - what would be the downside of having end points turned down to 1
b - what would be the downside of having profiles turned down to 1
b - what would be the downside of having extensions turned down to 0
c - does anyone know how to change the Anti-Aliasing settings on a mac

Cheers

Dave R · 17 Sept 2014, 13:16

a - what would be the downside of having end points turned down to 1

The endpoints wouldn't show. My opinion is they shouldn't be turned on when you are modeling. They are more for display. I leave endpoints turned off and don't use them.

b - what would be the downside of having profiles turned down to 1

You won't get the heavier edges in your model. Profiles are mainly for display also.

b - what would be the downside of having extensions turned down to 0

You won't be masking where the edges you're drawing actually end. Again, extensions are for display purposes. They can be annoying when you are modeling. It's much better to have them turned off while you are drawing.

c - does anyone know how to change the Anti-Aliasing settings on a mac

There is a tool that can be used for changing the AA settings on a Mac. Either I'll hunt it up or someone else will be along with the link to it.

pauly7 · 17 Sept 2014, 13:23

Thank you so much for all of your help Dave.

I found this hack for the Anti Liasing and i now have a perfect display

Google Product Forums

(productforums.google.com)

Dave R · 17 Sept 2014, 13:24

Did you experiment with the OpenGL settings in SketchUp? Don't have any problems with jaggies on my MacBook Pro with the default AA settings.

Dave R · 17 Sept 2014, 13:27

@pauly7 said:

Thank you so much for all of your help Dave.

I found this hack for the Anti Liasing and i now have a perfect display

Google Product Forums

(productforums.google.com)

Then you're all set.

pauly7 · 17 Sept 2014, 15:15

Hi Dave, i don't have any settings under OpenGL other than the 4 checkboxes

Dave R · 17 Sept 2014, 15:22

Yeah. On Mac that's all you get under OpenGL settings in SketchUp. But did you try making any changes to them to see what you get?