That seems like a good solution

I'm in Seems a nice enough place to stay.

Is there going to be a Gallery section ?

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Thanks for the feedback Alex.
Because of the nature of my day-job, I've always tended to over-emphasise the glints and highlights to produce a persuasive sales visual. I was trying to avoid that polished look here - but the result is (you are dead right) a little muddy and lacking definition. The chosen colour palette may not be helping too. I'll try re-working it a little when I can.

The sketch (or in this case collage) before SU was a really interesting exercise for me. The collaging threw up a couple of shapes that I probably wouldn't have thought to draw. I suppose it might be possible to use SU6's photo-match tool to use the collage to texture the model, but I like to get it out of SU as quick as possible, and do the fun stuff in PS and Painter.

Your comments were appreciated as usual

Hope this is OK Coen. Link to external file - http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x224/andyc990/tscopy.jpg

Was an interesting workflow to this one. Started with a collage of images and textures in Photoshop. Then drew some simple geometry in SU to match the more interesting parts of the collage and to act as a guide for painting. Overlayed the two, some Painter work, and a little more Photoshop.
Not 100% on the composition - may crop it down a little.
Comments welcomed as usual.

@mike lucey said:

I'm just wondering now if this 'Pro Forum' will remain for Pro Users
or will be be seeing non Pro Users jumping in ?

Personally I'm not in favour of 'exclusive' forums. Especially as the latest version of Google SketchUp enables some very 'Pro' work to be done. And it would be a shame if the exclusivity dissuaded new users from participating.
My vote would be to keep it open, but under review

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Tina,

Don't know if this will be helpful, but I often find that you can use more extreme perspectives for aerial and worms-eye views. Once you move away from 'realistic' eye levels I think the mind accepts that the view is no longer 'real' and will tolerate more exaggerated perspectives.

In the case of your project, I'd go for a more radical perspective (60 - 70 degree FOV) on the aerial view. I'd also be tempted to try a view from low down on the approaching driveway (which looks to slope up towards the building), putting the foundations almost at eye-level. This won't show the whole building (which I know your client wants) but could be a nice 'persuasive' illustration.

Hope that's of some help. Don't really feel qualified to comment too much, as my industry is traditionally a lot more tolerant of extreme perspectives (style over substance!! )

AndyC.

Some lovely renders on your site Fletch
What kind of render times are you looking at in Kerkythea?

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My definition of newcomer is someone who has never used the package before, but is familiar with using a computer - not necessarily CAD. I've found an AuotCad background to be of no real benefit as the programmes work in such different ways. As for 'up-and-running' I mean producing visuals which I am happy to put in front of long-standing and valuable clients.

The problem, I think, is that people are overwhelmed by the huge range of tools in MAX, and try and learn too much at once. Instead, I get new users to focus only on the tools which they need to do the job - which in our case rules out all the high-end animation, character-rigging, simulation and particle tools.

And disagree about the plug-ins, which I've never needed to use - especially as the later releases of Max include so many in the standard version. Most of them just offer a quicker/faster/easier way of producing something which the standard toolset is capable of.

All that said, since discovering SketchUp, MAX doesn't get used much round these parts anymore Wink

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Archi - If you're able to (add this comes down to cost) go for 3dsMax.
There's a lot of nonsense talked about it being hard to learn. It honestly isn't. Every new designer I've employed has been up-and-running on Max within a couple of days. The results you get will ultimatley be better than from a cheap/free renderer, plus you're getting the heavy weight modelling and animation capabilities with 3dsmax. Having 3dsmax skills will do wonders for your employment opportunities too. Nothing wrong with the cheaper packages, but you really DO get what you pay for. I've tried most of the cheap renderers (Kerky, Maxwell, artlantis). Was able to get some decent reuslts - but took a whole lot of messing around to achieve something which 3dsMax could have done in 5 minutes.

hope that helps.

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Thanks Guys.
Means a lot Tina - especially as it was your work that first persuaded me that SketchUp could be used for 'proper' presentations

Two more from the same series

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Time I put something up here, so.....