for really high quality prints you want to render an image for 300ppi, that means multiply your physical dimensions in inches by 300 to get your pixel size for the image. (ie 24"x36" print should come from a 7200x10800 pixel image out of 3ds)

it seems like its a problem with the way SU exports texture files to GE, if you export twice and look in the kmzs they will both have a texture called "texture0.jpg" even though they are different exports and different textures. when you reload the program it confuses them ?

i'm having a hard time understanding the behavior- I renamed all the textures in the kmz files to make them unique then opened both in GE and it seems to work, but when I reopen GE with them preloaded, I get blank textures.

Has anyone else experienced this:

when exporting multiple times to google earth, materials will switch from one model to another. I have not yet figured out the pattern for this. Sometimes the models will both display correctly, but upon closing and reopening GE the textures will be switched or blank

it also seems like the model will load many times faster by opening the .kmz file rather than opening GE with the models previously loaded

sintra: keep us posted as you refine your technique/use it on different projects. It will be nice to see where you go with this

@Wo3Dan: thanks for all the keyboard tips that will help out a lot

I will reiterate what gaieus said, that it seems like you will always have some scrap when using the visual line up technique that will interfere with modeling or take a long time to clean up by hand

this problem is hard to describe verbally but easy to see:

does anyone have any experience changing the resolution of the terrain that imports from google earth? the problem I am having is that no matter how large the viewing area on the google earth screen is, the terrain mesh is still subdivided by the same number of rows and columns. This means that it is less and less accurate the larger the area of land you import is. I have been working with large masterplans lately and would like to keep things fairly accurate because once I export the building models back into google earth they will all be floating or sunken into the ground because of the difference between the SU terrain and GE terrain. See attached.

It seems like one solution would be to stitch together a bunch of zoomed in views, but it I can't figure out a way to import a view that exactly matches with the view next to it. Hope any of this makes sense

so i broke down and made one

if it is indeed a transparency issue as mentioned above, you might try setting the "transparency quality" drop down box in the styles palette to "nicer" and see where that leaves you?

anyone have a handy split rail fence png? see attached or similar

sintra: the step by step method

1. download majid's file to your computer, and rename the file to remove the ".rb" at the end

2. open photoshop, go to window>actions to bring up your actions palette

3. drag the .atn file that you downloaded onto this palette, the action will now show up on your list

4. open a target image, then highlight the action. push the triangle "play" button and its all automated after that

i just ran your action straight through on the same photo see attached. it has a nice texture

i am going to study your action some more, but one thing you can try is setting the "paper brightness" on the color pencil filter very high

the sky/tree trick is a good one to remember, thanks!

al- i dont' fully understand the "egg" concept. where is this being placed in relation to your model? all the way around it?

another post per request, this time on a photo i found online. i also included the layer stack at the end. remember majid's rules- this is a "one touch" solution with no human judgements in the process.

one note is that photoshop filters act according to absolute pixels in an image, that means you will get different results with bigger or smaller base photos, so try to resize them at the beginning to get consistent results. this image was originally 1800x before i cropped it so you could see the detail

for this I used photoshop cs3 and a free plugin called carravaggio by xero

1. copy background layer, apply filters in this order: surface blur to get rid of brick texture detail, gaussian blur, colored pencil set layer to "multiply" mode 90% opacity

2. copy the water puddles layer, apply find edges filter, set to "multiply" mode 50% opacity

3. copy the background, apply suface blur and caravaggio filters

4. make a new layer, apply render>clouds filter, apply render>fibers filter and scale in the horizontal direction ~200%, add a layer mask and apply render>clouds filter to the layer mask. set to "overlay" 25% opacity

5. create paper layer per pixero's directions above (thanks!!!) set layer to "multiply" mode

6. copy paper layer, set to "soft light" mode 75% opacity

after that you can adjust contrast/saturation to fit your taste, but the previous steps get to you to a good point in about 10 seconds. I'd be interested to see if anyone else has success with this method...

this doesn't directly answer your question, but you can try to just copy or mirror one of the good faces and replace the side you are having troubles with.

let me know if that doesn't make sense

here's another try with lightened up linework

here's my shot at it, with line overlay and a "find edges" layer on the poster layer. its not coming out as soft as some of the other posts here, maybe its because of the lines

a small detail that would make all the difference in your model would be to include precast caps on all of your stone (columns and fireplace) it will give you model a much higher level of refinement for not too much more work.

@edson: the battered stone at the column bases and heavy timber members is a good use of the vernacular cues from the region

try using the right click "smooth/soften edges" dialog box, drag the slider all the way to the left, then check "soften coplanar". is this what you are asking?

very clean model! the photo projections on the next door buildings are very effective, and the detailing in the cornice is great. It would be nice to see some of the facade elements matching the height of those in buildings next door- i.e. pull the cornice up to match the brick building and pull the entry canopy up to the same level as the existing canopies. what do you think?