Useful SketchUp Output for Postpro of Renderings
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Hello Everyone
I am working with the Shaderlight render plugin. From the perspective of an architect, Shaderlight is
a very easy-to-use tool. However, it is missing some features that are very useful for a later post
production in Photoshop or GIMP (etc). For example, there is no possibility to render detailed alpha
channels or material ID channels.With this work I would like to show how useful it is to use not only the Shaderlight
rendering tool for itself but also the material coming directly out of SketchUp.
Long before a rendering is done, SketchUp provides a lot of useful material, which we can use
later for our post-production.It’s nothing new that SketchUp can do hidden line renderings. Such a hidden line rendering is always
an important thing if you want to or need to emphasize contours or joints. And even if that’s not
necessary - do this anyway - This does not take much time, and I always recommend here an export
to PNG and always without anti-aliasing.For post production in Photoshop or GIMP, always alpha channels are needed. Shaderlight is not able
to provide these alpha channels but SketchUp can do this!!!! You just can change the desired
materials temporarily into a high contrast colour within SketchUp (for example black and white). This
way you can also produce material ID channels. Also here, I recommend an export to PNG and always
without anti-aliasing.In the attached example, the old car should not only cause shadows on the street, it should also
reflect on the wet road somehow in a glossy manner. For this reason I made a second rendering, only
the car and a mirroring surface under the car. In order to merge these two renderings into one
picture, I needed the alpha channel of the car. To insert a silhouette of a driver, I also needed the
alpha channel of the car´s windshield and side window. All of these alpha channels SketchUp has given
me, with just a few clicks and very fast.
Sometimes it even makes sense to do a "Chalk Rendering" which is the Shaderlight name for Ambient
Occlusion (which I have not used in this example). With a Ambient Occlusion Rendering you can give your rendering a lot more depth and spatial appearance later in post-production.Regards
PS: The Model is downloaded from the 3D-Warehose
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You should have a look at the related plugin [SU]Ch from Renderiza.
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Thank you Cotty, and again AUA !!!
How could I have missed this wonderful plugin ????Forget, what I have written here but
maybe you like the rendering at least ...
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Oh. I also didn't know that plugin. Thank you.
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@hornoxx said:
For post production in Photoshop or GIMP, always alpha channels are needed. Shaderlight is not able
to provide these alpha channels but SketchUp can do this!!!! You just can change the desired
materials temporarily into a high contrast colour within SketchUp (for example black and white). This
way you can also produce material ID channels. Also here, I recommend an export to PNG and always
without anti-aliasing.I've used Renderiza plugin before and it was nice.
For this kind of output I only use styles and some more settings, as changing materials is out of the question for me most of the time. I only change materials with Jim Fulmers greyscale plugin, wich changes all material to a grey scale or front face colored material wich is able to convert your image into, black and white or black and any color.
So for alpha I'd use a style with the following settings on an alpha channel scene:
Background black;
No ground or sky;
Front face white;
Backface black;
No textures and frontface backface color shading mode;
No edges or profiles;Then I set the following:
No shadows;
Hide the layers I don't want to see in the alpha channel scene;
Reverse faces eventually on some of the objects if I want to see through the white remaining ones (wich will render them black);
Export and undo reversed faces... -
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Also the plugin promises "composting" in the description, but I doubt it is of any use in the garden.
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