Understanding complex rendering

cdjdunny · 22 May 2008, 06:36

hello all,

new here, and very excited about discovering this forum.

i know all the basics of sketchup, but am now entering in the domain of more complexed curved renderings or everyday objects.

my question is, if i am to jump into it, is there

basic fundamentals concerning 3d rendering and surfaces that need to be understood first?

or

is it just a matter of learning all the tools and knowing which tool to use?

i followed one of the tutorials for rendering a boat hull on this forum, and it showed what tools we need, and it made sense.

but then i wanted to render a skull and i wouldn't even know where to start with that, so is it matter of concepts, or just trying to learn all the tools?

if anyone has any good places for me to start, i would really appreciate that.

thanks!

Gaieus · 22 May 2008, 07:19

Hi cdjdunny,

Well, modeling organic shapes with SU (which was primarily made for architectural visualization thus using basic shapes) is the hardest part of the game. It is possible of course - just have a look at Pete's Cartoon figures ) but with the "native" SU tools it is kind of hard and needs very experienced skills.

However there are the ruby plugins and lately quite a few of them have been developed in this direction. Have a look at Freo's "Tools on surface " plugin (offset and drawing lines on organic surfaces - new features are coming soon), his "Joint PushPull " plugin (ability to Push/Pull curved surfaces), Chris' "Free Form Deformation " plugin (ability to manipulate meshes from outside the geometry) and last but not least, Dales "Subdivide and Smooth " plugin (it has a whole subforum here) with which you can add details to your organic meshes. This latter one is not free ($ 22) but I think it's worth its value big time.

With these latest tools new horizons opened for SU users, I believe!

cdjdunny · 22 May 2008, 07:32

wow, (floored from SOLO's work)

i can just see the big yellow brick road ahead. i had no idea sketchup was this powerful. compared to RHINO or some of the other programs out there... how does sketchup compare?

i was attracted to sketchup by how intuitive it was to render basic things with just the native tools, now as far as rendering goes, does sketchup still retain that same level of heightened intuitiveness over the competition?

thanks!

Gaieus · 22 May 2008, 07:45

Now by "rendering" do you mean the final image output (as I would interpret this word) or actually modeling?

If moeling, I can say yes it does. But it's easy to say this because by the time one gets to the "heights" of such modeling, he/she can already "master" the basic, intuitive tools to use them in more complex modeling.

The same, "basic" (but very powerful) inference engine works with the most complex geometry the same way as with a couple of lines. You just have to find out the tricks to exploit its powers.

Unfortunately I don't know Rhino.

cdjdunny · 22 May 2008, 08:03

sorry, i mean modeling.

thanks gaieus!

Gaieus · 22 May 2008, 08:36

No prob. I guessed so and thus my reply above