Thanks for the insight Roger, i've heard of black & tans. Being an englishman i also know about ratting with terriers they are quite vicous ! As a child i slept with our dog a labrador who instinctively protected me from wasps etc. Now i live in an apartment with 3 cats that's a different story.

Dr Strangelove's war room is actually on my list, i have already done some research on it ! It is also by the great designer Ken Adam. Cinematography & 3d rendering are kind of entwined for me, i like to give my images a narrative. These works are just me polishing my portfolio during quiet times , plus i actually enjoy it. Sketchup & Maxwell are my weapons of choice. I actually have something from English Heritage coming next i hope Tadema is watching ! Thanks for the comments guys.

wow this one looks stunning. almost can't tell if it's a photo a little displacement maybe would fit the cigar?

This stair leads from the lower road & car park entrance, to the upper Gallery. Maxwell & Sketchup as always SL 21.6. Many thanks to Jason Maranto for helping me with this model. Also my friend Tomasz who converted the EPS file to dwg. [image: rcVo_Stair.jpg]

I took it from a book by eye, to be honest the feet are a little different, thanks for the comment. I found this one online just now but i think it's been flipped. [image: u7ZU_eames-chair-wire-front.jpg]

@chedda said: Thanks for all the help Richard, can i apply a bump map directly in sketch up through the maxwell plugin interface, or is this something that has to be done in studio ? I am guessing mapping the crack in the wall in the centre of the image would be difficult to position, the glass bump would be easier. Position your bump map to the model in SU, this will by default set it for both the bump map and colour map. In the plugin material editor bump channel under source set to "use specific texture" and link to the same map externally, In the colour map channel again select "use specific texture".*** This should drop the colour map from this material yet maintain a bump map that utilises your UV's. Use this method for both your wall map and glass bump. *** you may want to use a map here with a VERY low contrast mottling created using your wall colour and a slightly off tone mixed using photoshop's Filter > Render > Clouds.

Good job, man!

Hi I have not used this plug in, but I seem to think you have Maxwell so you could use the proxies thing. Though I have had the odd quirky result using it.

pardon the stupid question, but what exactly does Repeat Copy does that Compo Spray does not?

Here is an update, the emitter was a single plane at the top of the shade 3cm square. I think the effect is quite successful although i'd like to have seen a bulb as the source. [image: nnYa_Starkbedscene.png]

A glass challenge? Me? Never!!! - can't stand the stuff. Oh go on then

Solved thanks again Bjorn !

I've got Windows 7 on my Mac too. It a good operating system, much better than XP (but of not as good, as OSX of course!) 8 gigs is plenty, but if someone is happy to pay for you to go to 16 gigs, go for it! However, watch out for the damn Shockwave Flash plug in. It has a memory leak in it, and if you have a lot of ram, it will eat it if you are running a browser (like Safari or Firefox). Therefore it's wise to get the "Click to Flash" plugin installed to halt Flash in its tracks. I'm pleased your office colleagues had a good experience. I had a very similar experience too. They thought the computer was a hard drive!!! There was complete disbelief when I had it up and running! Tom

The sky seems a bit dreary on the house renderings. Thanks for sharing!

I like Roger's version with more light. It's sunny outside and brighter inside and overall make me feel more cheerful. The nymph ....

Hey Richard i remember you from back in the day at PPB and the early beta's of maxwell ! I would recommend 2 years with artlantis to my worst enemies. Joking aside it was like training with ankle weights on. Now i am literally bounding along. It did teach me the basics though of composition and more importantly lateral thinking lol. The client did a lot of chin scratching and mis-informed observations followed by reducing my asking price by 1/3rd. My next visit saw the bridge view printed and framed in the focal point of his office same old story Richard ! Studio is really a godsend for composition it makes up for our beloved sketchup's inadequacies with high poly support. I have found the software to be fantastic along with the plugin which now with fire is a revelation. Even though i threw my artlantis libraries to the wind i have not regretted my migration. I can recommend maxwell highly, everything is very predictable and beautiful.

Yeah, it sounds like they've put some time into it's development, which I suppose you'd have to for that sort of thing. He seemed to skirt around the questions regarding what sort of meaningful changes were put into the mac version (...um, it's prettier and the UI is less costumizable, but you have 2 color options?). And the guy who piped in at the end seemed a little overly defensive regarding autodesk's relationship with apple. It felt a bit like the guy being accused of being a racist who says, 'well, i've got a lot of black friends!' (or in this case we bought maya which is on the mac and there are lots of people here who have iphones). All in all, I'd say that it's a good sign for mac users that they've created the mac version and I suspect it will work just as well as the windows version. -Brodie

Well spotted Frenchy the rooftop is another nightmare the client wants a sky terrace using a tensile skin it's like a whole separate job within a job ! No not Podium !