@hornoxx said: :thumb: you describe a great and multi talented team workflow - there must be plenty of fun even I hope! This "ice world" in this watercoloured look is so great again !!!! Please keep posting further on! Thank you very much for your kind words, HornOxx. Hello everyone, Here are the Halls of the Dead in chapter 3 (Helheim), that is one of my favorite regions to do concepts for. Thanks for viewing and have a great week! _Ken [image: jnh0_chapter_3_halls_of_the_dead_CONCEPT.jpg] [image: aM2d_chapter_3_halls_of_the_dead_CONCEPT_skp.jpg] [image: L4EK_chapter_3_halls_of_the_dead_concept_01.jpg] [image: SSHy_chapter_3_halls_of_the_dead_concept_01_skp.jpg]

@jql said: If a component has a material applied that material always overrides the default material both on back and front faces. Thanks, JQL, you may be right. Have a good weekend!

one of my favorite toolbar is CD Standard [image: AaNd_YellowDoor_Snap_2015.05.02_18h54m55s_001_CDSTANDARD.jpg]

Thank for your comments, guys. V-Ray is working now. What I did was un-installing all my plugins and installing only V-Ray, then slowly add back one by one all the other plugins. I believe there is a conflict between V-Ray and one or a few of the plugins, although I don't know which ones. Have a great day! _KN

@jim said: in Shadow Settings - turn on "Use Sun for Shading", decrease the Light slider, increase the Dark slider. Awesome! Thanks, Jim.

I really havnen't made any changes to QuadFace Tools since 19 April 2013. Even then the UV tool haven't been touched - that's the same as several years ago. It's really help to have a sample model we it fails for you. Because in my tests it's working. Only thing I can guess at now is that your mesh isn't consisting of quads. You say "creata a shape" - what kind of shape? If you are using Sandbox Tools as a starting point you must remember to convert the mesh to quads first.

It's off to the D'oh thread for you Ken. It's an easy thing to miss, even for someone of your skill, so a good lesson for everyone.

That's a bummer, not being able to catch the holidays. Your utility is god-tier Ken. Hope all is well!

@box said: Taking what Ken is saying ones step further would be exporting your toolbar setup to load on another computer. Or as part of different setups, as with the new "sets" in the SU store plugin. +1 That would be ideal for people using both work and home computers.

@cotty said: maybe Thomthoms -Edge tools: close gaps tool -Architect tools: Contour tool ? Thanks, Carsten. I will check them out.

I tried it and it was just what I needed! Parfait! Merci, Didier. Have a great one! _KN My interview with Sketchupartists.org: http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/ Sketchup for Fantasy Art: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27028 Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030

@solo said: Do not make the background 0.0.0 lighten it a tiny bit. So first go back to white (so they turn black again) then make it 0.0.1 and the lines will stay black. use RGB selection Well, that was easy. I never thought of that. Thanks, Pete. Regards, _KN

Even more, it would be nice to have a plugin which helps in optimizing SU model by marking groups and components with colors according to their polygon count. ... and than gives an option to reduce them (useful for making proxies also)

I think there was another post about this, and I thought about a clunky solution for this. Have you ever taken an architectural model on a base out into the sun to mimic what shadows would be like at a specific time of day/year (ok this is for those of you who built models prior to 3d modeling apps). There was a little sun dial type of thing you put on the base, and that would make sure you had the proper orientation. So that is an odd kind of SketchUp solution. This would idealy best be done on a copy of your file as it involves moving your geometry. User experience: Setup the camera view(s) that you want for your final presentation. When you run the ruby a dialog box comes up asking the angle and azimuth you want for the sun. The ruby then takes the difference between the current sun location and your requested sun location, and rotates your model in the reverse direction. (Since you can't move the sun, move the model) Cameras for the views requested are similarly moved, so what you see for each scene is still the same. Now maybe this transformation is saved, so that it can be undone, but I wouldn't want to put my model through that. Probably best done by having it open an new file and place your model in it as a component. Then when your model is updated, you can update the component and your desired sun location and cameras are intact.

Thanks a lot

Hi guys, Thanks for all the tips. Very useful. But I still cannot manage to get the correct result. Shape bender does work only for flat/2 dimensional curve. What I have is a complex 3 dimensional curve. TIG's method or the similar method that I used in my first images using Component Stringer works well only is the segments of the curve are equal. In that case I can probably join the helixs end-to-end, explode and weld them as TIG described. However, most of the curve that I use will mostly be composed of irregular segments. Therefore, all the methods that have been give won't work. Indeed, I just did another test with a curve with different sizes for the segment using Component Stringer. As you can see, it is not possible to join them end-to-end as the size of each helix is different from one another due to the different sizes of the segments. [image: helix_following_curve_04.jpg] What I hope is to have a plugin that will make the helix follow the complex 3 dimensional by connecting end-to-end and keeping it size consistent/uniform not matter the sizes of each of the segments that make the curve. I think it will be a great challenge to come up with that plugin, but if anyone has time and would like to think about it, I'll be much appreciated. Thank you, _KN p.s. I may even give a monetary donation as a token of my appreciation.

@db11 said: Very happy to see you posting again. Your work is exceptionally creative and inspiring and always a pleasure to view. Don't be a stranger! Thank you so much for your kind words, Doug. Have a wonderful week!

@mike amos said: Very nice, very effective shaders and mats. Thanks for your kind words, Mike. Good day to you!

I´m a bit late to the party, but... While Twilight render has other main purpose, looks like in the Pro version it has tools that allows to select edge loops: https://www.twilightrender.com/index.php/component/content/article?id=187:twilight-render-tutorials-tools Hope that helps.

@gaieus said: Something like Fredo's Tools on Surface? Yes! I do have it, but did not remember that "offset contour on surface" was in there. Thanks for the reminder, Gaieus. Have a great day! _KN