Possible tutorial request

mogogirl · 18 Sept 2009, 17:41

As a newbie (I've never worked with CAD, Sketch-up or any animation programming before I downloaded sketchup a few months ago) I would love to see some very basic tutorials on how to start with rendering programs. I am starting completely from scratch and I have downloaded Twilight but so much of it is just so over my head. I'm not sure where to even begin at this point. Heck, until a few days ago, I didn't even know how to load a plug in!

I have a good model with animation started and would like to add some rendering elements but am not sure how to work the program. I keep playing with it and eventually should be able to figure some of it out but a small tutorial sure would help. Sometimes the written word is hard to follow but give me a video and I can always follow right along

I'm sure there must be other Sketchup/Rendering virgins out there who are in the same boat.

Just a suggestion! You guys always give me a lot of help whenever I need it!

Thanks, Mary

david_h · 18 Sept 2009, 18:00

probably the easiest to start with for a newbie is to go to http://www.SuPlugins.com and download a trial version of Podium. See what that does for you. There are video tuts on their site for it as well.

good luck.

Ecuadorian · 18 Sept 2009, 18:17

Well, there's a lot of concepts to learn.

If you haven't already, I'd recommend your first stop to be the basic SketchUp video tutorials. They helped me a lot.
http://sketchup.google.com/training/videos/new_to_gsu.html

If you find any word or concept new to you, try searching on Google Images, Youtube and Wikipedia besides your regular Google search. This has helped me a lot of times to grasp new concepts that can't be understood by just reading the glossary in the user manual. For example, a simple Google Images search for the term "antialiasing", gives enlightening results:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=antialiasing&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g-s1

Or just post your question here. SketchUcation is a very friendly place.

mogogirl · 18 Sept 2009, 20:03

Thanks guys. I've posted at Twilight as well. I have gone ahead and downloaded the trial version of Podium which seems a little easier to understand. I'll keep working at it!

david_h · 18 Sept 2009, 21:38

Good luck. If you figure it out. . will you explain it to me???

Gaieus · 19 Sept 2009, 04:46

There is also IDX Renditioner (with a free trial, too).

All these applications have the basic concepts about reflections, bump maps and such to make your renderings more (or less) photorealistic.

Once you have the basic idea, the the rest is just to get used to the UI of the different applications.