@utiler said:

neat mate, very neat.....
It's a similar concept to something I have always wanted to do on a site in my city.

Mate I'll post some deatils on the layout as the job progresses! At this stage it is just putiing forward some ideas of style for the development!

When you see where this site is you'll be absolutely blown away! When I was asked if I wanted to be involved in the project my jaw dropped through the floor!!

BTW mate, why don't you sketch up a proposal and approach the owners, I've picked up a couple of projects that way in the past!

@unknownuser said:

Lookin' good, Richard. If you have more images, please do post them.

Thanks mate! I certainly shall post more - I'm working on two similar large projects at the moment so will present all the designs this way as it works in well with the way I model straight from primaries.

I posted a thread ("Fast Modelling") on the PPB a few years ago demonstrating how to model really fast for development of concepts, just using primaries and scaling.

It suits me well as I find the quicker you can create your vision on the fly the less it actually stifles your creativity! I have pretty much done all my modelling this way whether for concept or just for a pretty render!

I got the idea of using black fog from an animation I did some years ago. I'd post it here though not sure how to host the wmv file!

Thanks guys!!!!

Funny though how you develop a style that you really like, then think "Man I am going to use this style for ever!". Next thing you develop one you like more!

@foxar said:

Looking very sleek and clean, I really like this new kind of style.
Btw, are you from Belgium? As it's a mobile telephone number from Belgium on your renders/pictures.

No mate from Sunny (burnt) Australia! We obviously share the same mobile prefix!

Thanks again all, Richard

@steelers05 said:

Very nice illustrations. It is nice to see something of quality like this that was not run through any rendering. Any chacne you could share insight into your post processing methods?

Mate I used the shadows and highlights editor to drag out the light areas a bit as the fog can tend to dull them, and adjusted the colour correction of that editor to increase the saturation a bit.

Added noise 3%, then duplicated the layer and set the new layer to 20% opacity, blend mode - linear light! Quick and simple process really!

SU - black fog, shadows > 80/45, line extensions 9, line colour > light grey, additional construction lines, tree textures > saturation to greyscale and slightly transparent (no shadows).

Hope this all helps!

@spence said:

Wow! I like this style a lot. Nice work Richard.

Thanks mate! Black fog, line extensions and a few loose lines of geometry as construction lines! Simple!

@earthmover said:

Hi Richard,

I'll tell you the first word that popped into my head when I saw these. Refreshing! It just goes to show that a good eye will transcend all mediums.

Quite a compliment, thanks mate! It certainly has been refreshing this end too, not having to model detail after detail.

@honoluludesktop said:

Nice to know what you are doing, I would spend about half an hour of my time just looking for, and trying out textures. Maybe next year..

The beauty of the "sketchy style" not all has to be considered as the final idea!

Thanks guys! Richard

These are two sketch proposals for an overall larger project that I am working on.

Sketchup export with a bit of shadows and highlights filter and noise added in PS.

Each about 1.5hrs design, modelling and export in SU and 10 min post editing in PS.

I've been relying almost soley on Maxwell rendering of SU models of late so it has been a joy to go back and try to develop a new sketchy SU only style.

Hey Brodie

Would love to see your own results with the two plane grass!

It's hard to give direct tips for maxwell unless you have a direct issue! One big tip is too avoid whites that are above 224 white! These will really slow your renders down! The AGS is the absolute saviour toward interior and exterior renderings!

@unknownuser said:

Digging this post up from days gone past...

Richard,

I'm just getting into using Maxwell to render my SU models so I'm going through a couple of your old threads to try and learn your process because I really like the images you post. Anyway, I'm running into the same issue you have w/ huge problems with either displacement or clip maps to render grass. Unluckily, the buildings I do are hospitals so I can't afford the extra render time for all of the grass around a massive building. But luckily, my views are normally such that a flat rendered plane of grass doesn't look to bad w/ some post-processing.

But I'm really intrigued by this idea of 2 planes of grass. How has this worked out for you? Do you have any renderings you can post where you've used this effect? Could you post the maps so I can get a better idea of what you're talking about? In particular, I'm interested in what that top layer clip map would look like. Inverse of the bump map perhaps?

Thanks,

-Brodie

Sorry for the late reply mate!

The dual layer grass option I was testing honestly just didn't work! The grass still tended in all tests to just look more like flat swept grass that a straight flat texture!

I had much better results with displacement and found render times not too bad if the settings are right. Though must say haven't used them in any production renders yet due to like you flat maps still suiting the purpose!

@gaieus said:

Oh yes, look at this post in the components forum; all these profiles could be finely used!

What post mate?

@unknownuser said:

well. . .I will have visions of Profiler Builder dance in my head on christmas Eve and wait for early 09--I had forgotten it was in the video - --Maybe The easter bunny can bring it.

Hmmm! Chocolate coated!

I think the Googies have fixed the memory leak issue now so it should be better!

@whaat said:

Thanks for the encouraging responses! Sorry, but I will not be taking any more requests for beta testing. If you have already PM'd me, chances are good that I will send you a message in the coming weeks (be patient...) to give you further details.

I know there have been lots of questions about the plugin but I will have to keep a bit quiet for now

Cheers,
Dale

Mate I don't think you ever have to say sorry for anything!

Seriously what you have bought to the SU community and I'm sure will continue to (sure hoping) exceeds all expectations and imaginations!

I feel everyone gains greater confidence that SU will be around for a long while yet whilst it's development is supported with such insight and foresight!

During testing I came up with a simple way of creating objects with a SU line extension style for plans etc that would work well in combination with using SU import for elevations.

This method actually enhanced and speed up the design process for these plans as well as the extensions became the easiest grab and snap points, this also allowed faster layout as I didn't need to continually zoom in and out whilst designing.

I'll prepare a mini tutorial soon as I get some spare time!

@stu said:

Woooo! If I can read between the lines....it looks like Richard is giving up MS Word as his prefered CAD app and moving on to Layout!!!

Mate, if anybody can make layout sing, it will be you .

LOL - Yes mate MS Word is out the window now! Though I'm probably haunting the Googies now! Posted about 40 feature requests and you know where I would have got the ideas!

Yeah I actually developed a way to get LO to give SU style output with a sketchy style! Funny thing is it actually really speeds up the designing / drawing process in layout! I'll post some output and a tut soon as I get a chance!

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

It was said by someone else (sorry don't have the time to go through all the posts) that they have yet to see a truly professional presentation done in Layout that would change their mind into using it.....me either.

Scott I reckon I might prove you wrong there mate! Mind you I still have to finish it and I'm not sure of your expectations of course!

That said I still do have a lot of gripes with limited functionality though it really is a far better release this time around! And next time I reckon it will jump!

In regards to Layout

I would really urge others to have a clean look at layout! I for one wrote it off completely in V1 and now it will become a big part of my daily workflow! Sure it won't right now replace even the most simple CAD app but I have real confidence it will become so quickly!!

It is now a very simple and effective page layout tool and a VERY good 2d design tool. I've currently been using it (during testing) to assist in the design of 16 individual dwellings to develop the floor plan layouts after massing in SU and now cant understand how I lived without a simple fast tool like this before!

Honestly I reckon I could bet each a carton of beer that Layout will develop toward something exciting as even incremental steps in functionality are realised!

@remus said:

Rick, although i agree with most of what youve said, i think SU has moved on form its sketched based origins. It is so easy to create hugely detailed models, if only SU was faster!

Larry, i have to agree. I cant help but think a huge amount of hassle could have been prevented if there was a good dialogue between developers and users.

Mate I think this happens well in testing - this is the one area where I must say the Googies shine!!!!

I will go out on a limb to say they listen, understand and interact far beyond what is normal to beta forums AND they even hear the same rants as we are reading here and take that weight on their shoulders well!!

@unknownuser said:

Just a bit of clarification.

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

3. handle high poly count.

One of SketchUp's lead developers, John Bacus, has actually asked users at Basecamp exactly what this means. High poly support when orbiting, when modeling, with or without inference.
You see everybody whining about this feature but no one comes with any specifics and when they are asked for them no one replies. So by all means, SPECIFY what you mean with high poly support.

... huh? Coen doesn't know what we mean if we 'whine' about high poly support?

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

Every other modeler worth its weight is handling millions and millions of poly's and maybe choking, not SU........it chokes on hundreds of thousands! Come on!

Yes Scott, but the fact of the matter is that those applications don't support inferencing and/or not in such a superb way.
If I turn off Edges and Profiles I can easily handle 500.000 Faces as well. But I was earlier talking about a model with just 50K Faces in a normal inference enabled scene. When you turn off Edges and Profile the inference engine is likely to be switched off as well (though I'm not sure about this) and whatever be the case it DOES provide me with 10x higher framerate.

... well, whaddaya know ... he does know what it means. I'm sure John Bacus does as well.

Coen, I don't mind if you defend SU. Not at all even. But I would like you to do it without dodgy rhetorics. Pretty please?

Yeah have to agree with you here Stinkie - I've just read post after post of Coen sticking up for so many downfalls to the point I've actually got a bit cranky!

Some people (me included) aren't at all happy with the shear lack of poly support in SU.

Coen a 10% speed increase when we really need 100's isn't even on the measurement scale! To work even moderately efficiently in SU one must rely heavily on management. You mentioned in one post about Alan Fraser's trees and as amazing a job he has done on them and trust I've done many of my own as you would know they are still low poly!

Mate I suggest you drag one Xfrog or Onyx tree into a scene (where most apps will handle dozens or 100's) and SU will pretty much give up on you! Why do you think it is that most trees SU users use are billboards????

I must say that everytime somebody suggests a shortfall in SU somebody will offer a workaround - "workaround" is really a way of saying it doesn't work so here's some tape to hold it together! In regards to the issue of inferencing being a massive drag - one post I read recently and I think it was Whaat who replied suggested inferencing was infact not likely the drag given that the calcs to achieve this would be handled by the processor almost instantly!

Sure it well could be that high poly users are asking too much but mate if they are paying customers they can still ask!

In regards to DC's - if anyone counts on rendered output from SU they will soon find DC's have very limited application without the ability to make textures non-scaleable. Many manufacturers will also find that the lack of critical map placement will limit the quality reproduction of their product and find significant limits to there use!

@whaat said:

@remus said:

Unless im mistaken, DCs arent ruby, theyre straight SU.

I think you're mistaken. Strange that they would use Ruby for this one. Oh well...
After a bit of initial disappointment, I am starting to get more excited about the new features of SU7. I think dynamic components will make things interesting. There's lots of potential there. I hope we'll get a detailed list of Ruby changes soon.

Hearing you say that gets everyone much more excited I think!