One alternative not mentioned is Truespace (now free). It has most of features included in XSI, C4D etc. including bones, animation, more complete modeling tools than Silo, plus a not half bad render engine. If you are interested take a look at their organic modeling videos. http://www.caligari.com/products/trueSpace/ts5/Courses/WorkspaceOrganicModeling1.asp?Cate=Training&Subcate=Fundamental
The interface is not inspiring but not nearly as daunting as Blender.
Here is one of the past winners, Dennis Allain, and how he does his illustrations. 3D program plus Photoshop.
I find his illustrations are a cut above almost all the other pros.
I would like to see a dedicated thread for illustration and possibily include inspirational examples.
Juju, I think you are probably correct in your concept of what real time rendering means is this case. Here is a link to an almost identical scene as the first animation, but the shadows are clearly there in the first part of animation, which I think shows it is rendering with shadows rather quickly.
The 'real time render' part got me too. I think it means all the frames in the animation were rendered in 15 minutes total for all frames. Considering the time to render a frame in other applications - this sounds pretty darn fast. But who knows if that is actually the case.
I downloaded Truespace and have been gradually learning a little about it.
Here is an interesting 'real time animation' that looks pretty smooth and hi poly. This would be a usefull capability. Would anyone like to see SU be able to do this sort of heavy lifting? Or is SU already able to do comparable hi poly animations?
Caligari (owned for a little while by microsoft) is offering Truespace 3d free to the public. This is a pretty full function 3d program including rendering, rigging and animation. A pushback to Sketchup for sure.
Coen, excellent and interesting newsletter. Thanks for your hard work.
I can't help thinking the fears about GE are overblown.
Alex, just great matte painting. Please keep showing this sort of thing!!
Really enjoyed your web site.
Google is building quite an infrastructure around sketchup, that is a support team that is reaching out in many directions. They are bloging it in a big way. Looking for Sketchup pros as instructors says something big is coming. Could be release 7. Also SU is so capable compared to older CAD programs, improving SU with a new release might throw many of the dino CAD apps into the dust bin.
As far as need for photorealistic rendering. Google could afford to produce a really speedy renderer. The addons to SU currents do not seem (hearsay) to be as fast as some of the speedy rendering applications available in places such as Modo. Speed does make a big difference in the rendering arena. Probably SU could maximize integratiion of render component better than anyone else. Will they do it. Maybe.
Should have said Sketchup 7 will be released on or before the date of base camp 08. My dyslexia affects more than my spelling sometimes.
Here are the reasons I can't help thinking this will be true.
Google call for Sketchup instructors early this year. Last time they had an instruction blitz was on release of version 6. No new large scale instruction sessions have been announced to my knowledge.
Basecamp 08 schedule of classes is mostly a repeat of things that most advanced users would know cold. It is also pretty vague about content of the classes.
It seems odds on that Sketchup 7 will be released by or at Basecamp 08. Basecamp will be used to show off what the new release can do. I think the next release will be excellent! 
Probably in the next release:
Rewrite of core code to handle heavy lifting of mega polys.
Improved modeling tools some of which will be similar to conventional modelers.
Photorealistic rendering.
Better movie capabilities.
Just speculation (and hope) on my part. 
For file interchange between apps I used .obj from Su to Hexagon and .dxf from Hexagon to SU.
Hexagon imports, exports:
Import OBJ, 3DS, A3D, DXF, DWG, Illustrator
Export CAR, A3D, OBJ, 3DS, DXF, DWG, STL
Link to Hexagon:
http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/hexagon/-/?&_m=d
This is kind of a response to the ruby topic Subdivide and Smooth. Hope this is the right place to post.
Hexagon (yet another 3d modeler) has a polygon reduction tool built in. The image shows it at work. The figure on the right is from 3d warehouse and the other two figures are progressively reduced by the Hexagon decimate command. (No manual cleanup.) It seems to work in a fairly straight forward way. Possibly usefull to someone really looking for polygon reduction. Of course Hexagon is not nearly as easy to use as Sketchup.
Thanks for the ideas. I will definitly try them.
Canoek, your version is really neat.
This is a Sketchup model rendered in photoshop. It's a little different because it does not use the SU lines to make the lines in the rendering.
Started with model downloaded from 3d warehouse. The lines were extracted in PS using the smart blur filter. Then used the ripple filter to make the lines wavy. Plus other PS work.
Any hints on what other PS tools could be used to give lines more character?
Stinkie, my experience with Modo is similar to yours. I've been trying for months to get to a base level of ability but slow slow progress. Really not very usefull for architecture. I would think just about every modeler would want to put good inferencing and snapping like SU in their application.
I do think Modo is a good piece of work and the render engine is fast and potentially usefull to me.
Outstanding visualization! Liked the way the road went up hill and around curves, plus the trees and walls etc along the way.
I did a too long comparison of various modelers looking for something to make some boat hulls. I choose MOI. The attachment shows the MOI screen. The yellow lines define the hull in MOI before the skin is put on the hull in MOI. In SU the imported polys are smooth and light. See also a rendering. I wanted to see if I could import the hull into SU and then do the non-hull parts in SU.
Using MOI is like swimming in a sea of intuitive snapping. Seems on a par with SU for ease of use. Http://moi3d.com
Considering the number of postings about curvy objects it seems there is a need for an application that handles these well as a complement to SU???
(Post copied from Newbie Forum per suggestion)
I did a too long comparison of various modelers looking for something to make some boat hulls. I choose MOI. The attachment shows the MOI screen. The yellow lines define the hull in MOI before the skin is put on the hull in MOI. In SU the imported polys are smooth and light. See also a rendering. I wanted to see if I could import the hull into SU and then do the non-hull parts in SU.
Using MOI is like swimming in a sea of intuitive snapping. Seems on a par with SU for ease of use. Http://moi3d.com
Considering the number of postings about curvy objects it seems there is a need for an application that handles these well as a complement to SU???
