SketchUp and LightUp
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Hello,
More help needed please. Yesterday I downloaded a trial version of LightUp, which will really help me with what I do - Event production and design renders. Problem is that while Light Up works brilliantly on some small room models that I put together very quickly just for practice, when I try to use it on my larger models, such as ballrooms with lots of tables, chairs, theatrical elements etc., it either freezes or just plain crash and burns.
I really love LightUp and would like to buy it once my trial period had ended, but if it is not going to work on my larger models then I am not sure there is much point? Has anyone got any suggestions as to what I might be able to do to get this to work? I even tried scaling my model way down and it still froze.
Operating system OS X 10.8.3 Processor - 2.66 GHz - Memory 8 GB
Thank you
PS -Only posting this here as I am not sure it is LightUp problem, most likely not, but something that needs doing to my SU model to get it to work.
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Hi Kathryn,
In general, models built for realtime rendering are built with this in mind from the start. In a SketchUp context, thats not reasonable as folks use SketchUp because you don't have to worry about doing too much of that kind of planning.
So LightUp works very hard behind the scenes to ensure you don't need to change your model for realtime rendering - by doing it for you. Generally this works well however, it is certainly possible you have a model that has hundreds of small parts that are not being optimized automatically as they should.
Broadly, you'll want to use SketchUp Groups / Components at the top-level to organize your model.
Also try running the free plugin "Goldilocks" which can help track down assets you've perhaps dropped in that have wildly unnecessary amounts of detail - I've seen coat pegs in models with more faces than the rest of the entire model!
Lastly, you can contact help@light-up.co.uk if you've got a model that repeatedly shows problems and we'll see what we can track down.
Adam
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Thank you Adam, I actually sent you the model I was having problems with as you requested in an email that I received from you. I did not hear back, but that's OK as I can only imagine how many requests you get for help, and I am self admittedly only a very small amateur fish in a very large pond.
But a determined little fish (just call me Nemo) who does not like to give up easily.I will do as you suggest, but in the past day of growing roots to my computer chair and refusing to throw in the towel I have made a little progress. I reduced the resolution of my image to 2x instead of what I believe is the default 4x and at least the tourtool now completes it's task sometimes, not all the time and SU does not freeze to the point where I have to "force quit" the application. It's still not up to the point where I can pat myself on the back and say job well done, but I will get there hopefully. Once I increase the resolution though I am back to square one with the freezing. I have to export my finished product as a 2D image into Photoshop to continue working on it in there and the images are then printed, so a high resolution is a must. The rendering quality I am also achieving at this point is somewhat less than stellar. Uploading images on the LightUp forum does not seem to be an option that I could see, so could not get feed back or suggestions from fellow forum members on what they thought I was doing wrong in my settings. But I can here!!!
So - here goes... Kinda crappy I know (pardon my French) but I am learning as I go along. We all have to start somewhere.
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Just tried your model on a Mac here with just Ambient Occlusion and it took around 3 minutes to light.
Is it possible you have some other plugins installed that are interfering with LU in some way?
As to your model, the big featureless floor material is broken up with your lighting, but you may want to apply a texture to it to add visual interest. You see I added a little Fresnel with some Roughness on the floor.
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No other plugins. LightUp is the first that I installed. Re the floor. Remember these "renders" that I do are for events. Once I export the 2D image to Photoshop, I still have to add gobo lighting to the floor, and possible other custom elements that are either composited in, or which I will hopefully be able to draw as components myself in the future, if I ever get that good. I can't just add something that is not there because it looks better in the render. Not that you have the time, but if you look at the website named on the pic I sent you via Yousendit you will get a better idea I think of what I am up against. So it might look plain and featureless in it's initial stages, (this was actually a pretty simple event, only one of three for the same company on that day) but still gets worked up a lot more on leaving SU. In addition, my boss (who also happens to be my nephew) is very particular about his clients seeing only exactlywhat they are getting, so that there is no "But it did not look like this in the render?" later on down the road. So far and using just Photoshop in the past, the comparison between the finished event and the render have been spot on visually but not as dramatic as the finished event with the lighting.
There is a lot of lighting done at these events. The bland floor above was a day thing. That circular wall in the back though is glass, and after leaving SU there is another light reflection plug-in that I use in PS that would have added the light and shadows coming from that wall of glass and cast the pattern on the floor. My images don't end with SU. The vast majority of events are done at night, indoors and outdoors and lighting plays a very big part. A lot of gobos, patterns, company logos, etc. Take a peek at the website, if nothing else I think you will find it entertaining. Adam, I really love LightUp - seriously, when I do get it to work on my quick smaller models as mentioned, it is AMAZING, and this is why I am so desperate to find out what's wrong, what I am doing wrong, put an end to the crashing and finally stop annoying you with my constant whining.
Attached is an image that was done totally in Photoshop before I started trying SU, and how much cooler would it have been had I been able to do it in SU, use LightUp to add some realistic lighting (this is most certainly not) and render it out. The clients don't really care about scale, these are not buildings where accurate size is imperative. It is more about visual impact and the ad nauseum overstated WOW factor. LightUp can help me provide this. I feel badly about all this yakkity yak, but maybe my issue can help someone else at some point.
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