I'm not really into Murder Machines, but you did a great job with this model.

Here's a small collection of landscape lights I modeled a while back. They are set up for Podium with geodesic omnis. You may need to make a copy of the omni and put it close the lights target. They are modeled after the Cast brand of landscape lights - http://www.cast-lighting.com/products/fixtures. Also included is a simple step light that I use to place below a step tread or pillar cap for downward illumination.

Enjoy.

Landscape lights.skp

I thought I'd add a collection of boulders I made a while back. They could use some retexturing, but the shapes are there. I used FFD on a sphere.

Boulders.zip

Ross's affinity for a gentle romantic quip is not a surprise to me, as I've been to the land of Green Gables from which he resides, and there are not many more gentle and romantic places on this Earth.

It is nice to see these young actors paying homage to the sensitive side of our human existence. Especially in a world where subtlety is all but dead and gone.

That's so sad. It would be nice if someone could keep his site going....his love for Sketchup makes me think it's something he would've wanted. Man, 44 is just too young.

Thanks Gus and Edson. Great links! The library of Congress website has hundreds of plans for architecture in my area! That's pretty cool.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll keep digging.

My wife and I have 3 older kids, ages 10-12 whom we teach at home full time. Part of their curriculum the past two years has been learning Sketchup. I think there are a lot of great mathematical and analytical problem solving techniques that can be gained through using sketchup. This year, we decided to incorporate sketchup into a bigger "major" for each of the kids. We had each child pick a subject of interest. My youngest daughter wants to be a veterinarian, so her curriculum was structured around biology and animal studies. We incorporated sketchup by having her design and build an animal rescue center. She had to do a few weeks of paper sketching before even beginning in SU. My older daughter is involved in riding and boarding horses, so that was her "major" and she used Sketchup to model an entire horse farm. My son wants to be an animator, so he used SU for conceptualizing his story boards, but used Silo for all his character modeling.

I also educate other "adults" in my field about using SU, and I can tell you that my kids picked it up in a tenth of the time as the adults. I think fundamentally, kids are more apt to get it, as technology is something that is ingrained from the time they were born. Don't underestimate the level at which kids can understand. My 11 year old son has now produced several animations in 3ds Max and my 12 year old daughter is a Pro at Photoshop. It's all about raising "no limit" kids.

That looks great. There a bunch of .vob waterfalls that came with Vue on the extra content CD as well. I didn't realize that up until now. It's amazing how I seem to find something new everytime I play with Vue.

That's funny, I was just playing one of the Stacy waterfalls. I got it here - http://www.sharecg.com/v/17463/3d-model/Staceys-Third-Vue-Waterfall-.vob

Awesome Pete!

I found this great tutorial on how you did this. http://www.geekatplay.com/tutorials/waterfall/ This may be where you got the .avi files as well. They have a collection of 5 free ones for registered members here - http://www.geekatplay.com/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=57

Anyone know of any websites that you can download architectural blueprints or CAD files for study purposes? I'm trying to add some architectural models to my portfolio and would like them to be precise.

Thanks!

Any chance you can point me in the right direction? I've been searching on cornucopia3d.com and can't find the animated textures.

@solo said:

Adam, I was thinking of an easier solution.
I have numerous waterfal avi's (1 second loops) that work like billboards when modeling, and when you render your animation they become animated billboards within your animation, hence giving you a falling waterfal without having the strain of rendering moving water which can kill a rendering.

Wow, that's interesting. I've never seen that solution, but it makes sense. Is this supported in Vue? That would be a great way to add fire too I guess. Or, for animating a television in an interior shot. Where would one get some of these .avi's?

@gaieus said:

Not only him - here is something from about a year ago.
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5396&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=waterfall

Thanks Gai, I missed this one. Great stuff in there by everyone. I really like the effect that Alan achieved with .png files, however it wouldn't suffice in a sketchy output.

Pete,

I would love help with animating it. I remember reading somewhere about leaving the waterfall mesh stationary and using a rotating cylinder behind the mesh to give it the appearance of movement. Would something like this be effective?

BTW - I emailed the model over to you

Pete,

If and when I render a waterfall scene, it would most likely be in Vue. If I could figure out a way to do an animated waterfall, that would be even better.

This particular one however, is for a client that is looking for a simple sketchup output, most likely just as a hidden line style. The waterfall is not the focus of the design, but is part of a larger pool and patio layout.

It occurred to me that I can open up the .3ds waterfall I have in Lightwave and run Polyreduce. I reduced it down by 75% and now it is manageable in SU. The results are good, but I'd still like to know your thoughts on reproducing this effect with sketchup tools.

I'm trying to recreate this waterfall in sketchup and I need a little help with the waterfall itself. I have a great waterfall and splashfoot that I got from Turbo squid in .3ds format, but it's way to heavy for SU. I tried messing around with a vertical plane and running Jim's Greeble divide and protrube ruby, then using FFD to curve the plane, then running SDS. It gave interesting results...but not quite right. Any suggestions or recommended methods?

Thanks!

Adam

Awesome work Gus! I'm a bass player myself and I'm inspired to try and model my Fender Precision.

Thanks Pete. The soft shadow button will still result in hard shadows for me. Perhaps it's the ambient light/sun light slider that I need to adjust.

For the grass, I'm looking for something that I can use for quick residential projects. A short mowed lawn that doesn't appear flat, without taxing render times too much. Do you think creating an ecosystem material would be my best bet? As it will render billboards in the distance, instead of trying to displace an entire lawn.