@kwistenbiebel said:

That's not a valid argument Matteo.
It would be the same to say : 'Don't have an architectural modeler because of all the bad doodle houses the 3D warehouse is cluttered with.'

I was just kidding, Kwist. I like Solo's idea and what he is showing us.
I'also happy that a piece of software like Poser exists, expecially the old versions that can generate low poly 3d people to use and modify with sketchup.

And btw, architectural modelers and cad programs (but also pencils, drawing paper and ink pens) should not exist, because of all the bad doodle houses the real world is cluttered with.

aaargh!

why will you give to sketchup the functionality of Poser2? Can you see all the Poser nerds migrating to Sketchup to populate google earth with tons of NVWSIFOAS (naked viki with swords in fron of a shrine)?

me too!

I also use a lot the golden proportions.

I had a 3 year experience as computer graphic teacher from 1998 to 2001 with a mixed classroom of people with various handicaps. At that time we made a lot of webdesign and some 3d with Bryce 3D.

Each man or woman has its own difficulties, there is not a general rule, but:

• I noticed that some tethraplegic students could work better with a trackball.

• In some cases we altered the mouse so that they could grasp it better; it is quite easy and cheap. If your man can not press well the mouse buttons, you can glue over them a small table-tennis (ping pong) ball. You also need a couple of rubber rings to put between the balls and the mouse buttons.

• A programable keyboboard for gamers, like the Belkin Nostromo, may work well beacuse you can split some functions over two hands: move the pointer with one hand and control the mouse buttons and wheel with the other.

• In the worst cases, we also used the Dragon Naturally Speaking software as help to input voice commands.

Sorry for my bad English, I hope I didn't use rough or rude terms.

wow, wow and wow again!

back buttun disappearing is evil!

i've made some patterns for a restoration work of a castle with inkscape and then converted them to sketchup: it was a pain! you can't imagine how they become heavy to handle: even if the pattern is simple, the geometry of your model will increase exponentially.

even with the workaround of setting my patterns on a hidden layer, to unhide only for the final rendering, i decided to go back to the plain old bitmap textures.

classy! i do love how you compose your images and how you mix the colors.

The revised work looks much better; the original background is very dramatic, but the perspective looks wrong.

@unknownuser said:

Cool views but...
Trees in winter have such leaves?

maybe in the other hemisphere

cool rendering, dirkkkk

i'm simply admired: despite of the incredible number of details, your model looks very clean - and that's not so easy to achieve.

wow! you had really a nice idea. thanks a lot.

don't tell me that the smoke is made in su too! i know it could be possible, but it would be a challenge like carving a david from one block of marble.

nice idea and composition indeed.

Best wishes and happy modeling to you all for this new year!

/matteo

the view itself has a strongly scenographic appeal - i believe it would look great even if rendered with the plain hidden line style of sketchup.

moreover,your use of the textures is very good, expecially all stone and concrete materials.

can we call it modelling philosophy?

i don't know, but i'd say yes. i love the mental exercise to draw as low polygons and lines as possible. you have to be really synthetic, and that's good to point your focus on the general project and get not lost in ludicrous details.
when we draw on the screen we tend to loose the sense of the scale and draw often too much stuff.

small models are also fair to exchange with people who doesn't own a 'superworkstationonsteroidswithtonsofgigaherzmulticorecpuplusonedozenofgpusinparallel' and are easier to send by email

one other advantage is that my dual core cpu can really execute multiple tasks at the some time, if su requires only one of the cores to run. moreover i can run two su instances at the some time, one for the whole model and the other for editing the components.

if su could handle hi-poly objects, they should add more tools and options to edit better your models. for example, i find that the selection tool is too weak to handle hi poly geometries.

su is su and i like it as it is; otherwise it would be called maya or cinema 4d or modo or any software that can model complex geometries: there is plenty of alternatives, even free like wings 3d or cheap like silo, a nice modeler that starts from $ 79.

even photoshop can't draw any type of 2d image - they had to publish the creative suite, a potpourri of graphic editors, that still lacks a good cad.

at the some time i don't think that su can be the mother of every 3d application.
if the goal of google is to distribuite a software that creates contents for google earth and the 3dwh, it has to be easy and straight.

why is it preferred by many architects? well, that's another story. the plethora of ruby plugins available is surely of great help.

i personally find it really intuitive and love to work with it - fun is an essential factor!

my 2 cents
/matteo

graziano,
that's utterly fantastic!

complimenti.
/matteo

solo,
that's quite pretty, but i fear it is an option of vue infinite only - or at least you have to buy the plant plugin for vue d'esprit.

Since all elevation plans are made with sketchup, in a b&w style, these hedges suit well both programs. Time is my biggest enemy.

Anyway thank you for your tip, that's something I have to learn better.

earthmover,
here is my hedge component:

301 Moved Permanently

(www.sketchucation.com)

matteo

maybe somebody wants to turn it in a dynamic hedge. this is really a low-poly model to let you work with light geometries.

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

(sketchup.google.com)

location: (as said) merano, north of italy, an alpine town with a really mild climate. it is a well known touristic place, where north and south can meet each other. we have snow and palm trees at the some time

project: the project is itself a little crappy - the bureaucracy here is too strong and you have to accept many compromises: my goal was to give it a mediterranean flair, like many old buildings here.

all the exterior views were drawn in sketchup. in this case, only the building was exported to vue d'esprit, while all trees are native of vue: the foreground shows some single tree objects, while the background is populated by ecosystems (a kind of fake vegetation between 2d and 3d, that saves you a lot of render time, lowers the poly count and fools your eye). the only exception are the shrubs, made with sketchup, to reduce further the poly count. The radiosity engine is killed by hi-poly objects and i don't have all that time to spend to make it perfect - another compromise.

@daniel
yes, the sky of the first image is dark because it's a dramatic scene with a rainy dark sky with some light beams that filter through the clouds and hit the building. it's a bit like a searchlight.
what i love of vue d'esprit is that you can create some non-photorealistic atmospeheres: it's more emotional, like in some impressionist pictures. the night scene is not realistic at all, but looks great to me.
otherwise, if my goal was to achieve some photorealism i would have chosen indigo as render engine.

i hope this clears some more about these renderings.
just ask if you want to know something more.

matteo