Bridge computer models

tallbridgeguy

Hi I have been working with Sketchup and Kerkythea to develop bridge models for competitions and clients.

I need some help finding tutorials on placing computer models into landscape site photos. (I am an engineer and I don't have much training in that area, so some advice would be helpful. I would use Photoshop of course.)

Here is a model of a pedestrian bridge I concepted. The Crossbow bridge.

Here is a link to some other images on my Flickr page.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acceleratedbridgeconstruction/

This page of concepts for the Calgary bridge competition is what I would like to learn.
http://www.calgarymlc.ca/submissions/

Is it something I learn by trial and error or is there some books/website that can help.

Thanks!
Stuart

Aerilius

I can think of 2 ways:

make it by hand: cut out the bridge with the select tool, past it as a layer over the photo and erase some parts (were a tree hides the bridge for example)
Kerkythea offers a mask render (when you hit "render" there is a "settings" list, the 25. entry is mask render).
So render the bridge as a normal image, then render the bridge as a mask from the same camera but with surroundings, landscape etc. turned off. In a graphic editor, you can use the mask render as an alpha mask for the bridge render and use a photo as background.

To get the right perspective, you can import the photo into Sketchup as "photo match" and create the scene where the perspective fits to the photo.

tallbridgeguy

Thanks! I didn't know about the mask render in kerky but I will give that a try.

(what do you think of the modeling by the way? Bridge concepts always seem to be white now)

Updated: I tried the mask render in kerky and it gave a pretty good mask that I could use in photoshop to "cutout" my bridge and place it into a background photo. I will try the match photo in sketchup and then rendering in kerky. If that makes sense.

I would still be interested in web tutorials that show examples of adding models to real images. I am very new at making models and photos mix.(for shading help, making it look real, etc)

Update 2: Just a quick render and photomatch for the bridge shown above. I need shading, scale, etc and the angle might not be correct but I think I am on the right track..

Thanks for the help!
s