Better fog tools ?

DOD3R

Hi guys,
I am just wandering if someone could benefit from better fog tool.
I am thinking of distances based falloff.
Or is there any other way to be consistent results with fogtool?
My problem is that my elevations and exports with fog, are with different shades of colors and it simply looks bad on paper.

renderiza

Do you have any examples that will help me understand what distance based falloff is?

pbacot

Something about the fog settings certainly make it difficult for me to use. I'll grant that. But what could be done? Usually get what I need eventually.

I would like to see what you mean visually if possible.

Dave R

I don't use fog much but I've thought it would be interesting to be able to define where the fall-off occurs using a graphical slider right on the ground plane. Probably not possible but it would be cool.

jolran

It may be possible, since there appears to be some RenderingOptions methods in the API for this matter.

I have never experimented with these, but one can extract this information:
(I persume on can also set these attributes.)

FogColor
FogDensity
FogEnd
FogStart
FogType
FogUseBkColor
ForegroundColor

So using a graphical slider right on the ground plane like Dave R demonstrates could be a good solution. One could use GL rendered objects for that.
There already are some fance gadgets in this fashion made. Look at some of Fredos Tools and Aerilius GL sliders and gadgets.

It's an interesting project, but I don't have any time left over for this kind of thing. Maybe Renderiza ?

renderiza

Hi,

I will be happy to give it a try!

The example that Dave R posted is very helpful to understand the end goal but if anyone have a particular idea please share it so we can make the best plugin possible.

Thanks,
Renderiza

renderiza

I did some looking around an found this post in which thomthom makes a list of what seems all the rendering_options... http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&p=271960

For Example:

Sketchup.active_model.rendering_options["DisplayFog"] = true

Sketchup.active_model.rendering_options["FogStartDist"] = 1.0

Sketchup.active_model.rendering_options["FogEndDist"] = 15000.0

Note: Just in case you are lost in how to use the lines of code you see above, here is a list of some of the best Ruby Consoles for SketchUp... http://renderizastudio.blogspot.com/2013/06/top-ruby-consoles-for-sketchup.html

renderiza

Here are some interesting finds...

Fog Distance -what does it refer to? by thomthom - http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=180&p=219538

The above is a discussion that have me worried the plugin we wanted to create is not possible. This distance value of the fog is always tied to the camera position so it is not a fixed value that can be easily attach to a marker on the floor like we want it to.

Maybe it could be done but I just don't know how at the moment.

The following Rendering Options methods are a mystery to me!

DisplayFogEdges
FogDensity
FogType

Maybe the SketchUp team was on to something they never finished.

Anyways I will keep the search, wish me luck!

raineysky

A Fog plugin would be very cool. I've tried fog a few times and never could get it to go where I wanted to. Best of luck Renderiza.

DOD3R

DaveR naled it with the picture!
exactly what i had on my mind. visually i was imagining repaints axes gadget.
so i hope lives thats good.
good luck Renderiza in making.
D.

jolran

@unknownuser said:

The above is a discussion that have me worried the plugin we wanted to create is not possible. This distance value of the fog is always tied to the camera position so it is not a fixed value that can be easily attach to a marker on the floor like we want it to.

Maybe it could be done but I just don't know how at the moment.

Ah bummer. Not as straightforward to do then..
Looks like there have been some pre attempts at making a plugin like this.

I have never dealt with fog so aint got a clue how it works.

Looks like there are some hints from TIG dealing with raytests and camera positions, etc in the links. Thomthom where on to something there as well.
Maybe that could help. Hope you manage to find something, Renderiza.

renderiza

Thanks everyone for the encouragement, I will try my best.

@jolran said:

Looks like there are some hints from TIG dealing with raytests and camera positions, etc in the links. Thomthom where on to something there as well.
Maybe that could help. Hope you manage to find something, Renderiza.

The camera position in relation to the markers on floor is something to be explored indeed but its going to be a mess trying to have formula that can give you the right value for fog.

Depth of Field
with SkethcUP and Photoshop

Here is little experiment using Fog and the style options for making an alpha type image that I could use in Photoshop to make depth of field.

Alpha 1 (from SketchUp)

This is an exported image from SketchUp which was made to look like that using Styles options to modify fog color and few other parameters. This output image will then serve me as alpha channel to apply lens blur in Photoshop.

Original (from SketchUp)

Result (from Photoshop)

This is how it will look with depth of field applied, please keep in mind that you have full control of the amount and you can even invert it so that the blur area is the front. Apart from the blur effect I also did an inner shadow type of effect just in case anyone wanted to know.

Maybe I will make a tutorial so that it becomes more clear how to do this.

Thanks,
Renderiza