Really nice work.

Why did you decide to go for detailing rather than texturing?

Great minds think alike

I was inspired by rsw's Chrismas tree to try making something in a similar style for my christmas card this year. I've just started using podium so I put the sky in with photoshop (couldn't figure out how to do it in sketchup without changing the colour of the render) and the lights are a bit stronger than I'd like but I think it's about done.

This one -

(I hadn't realised he had quite so many gadgets)

Seeing the amount of details you put in your models I have to ask - does R2D2 have his little periscope??

I draw the new geometry outside of the group and then select it, cut, open group and paste in place.

Turn off hidden geometry (H key) before applying the texture, you might be interested in http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?p=3949#p3949

Glad to help. I new that there was an advantage to being simple. Dur

This is probably a dumb question but do you make sure that all of you models faces are facing forwards?

After a copy/rotate or a copy/move type x2, x10 (or whatever number) for however many copies of the process you want.

Right click on the component and select 'change axis', moving that to the middle should do the trick.

Also while you're working on the model switching off shadows and having faces set to monochrome will speed things up.

I know the feeling.

@masta squidge said:

EDIT**

Ok, i meant how do you change the FOV in Kerkythea, not sketchup.

In Kerkythea the green dashed lines in the main window show the limits of the render, change what you see with the dolly, pan and rotate controls.

If the ceiling gets in the way of the camera why not hide it it sketchup before exporting the file?

Ok, explode the terrain group and intersect with the hidden 'road' block to get the intersection lines actually on the terrain, then select the eraser and Ctrl click on the lines you want to soften. You'll be left with the road as one surface to texture.

I thought that the best part of the second vid was the adaptable digital keyboard - as long as the price of the touchscreen is low enough.

The Tutorials forums are a good place to start.

When you click the protractor tool on the place you want keep the mouse button held down, then you can control it's direction of alignment by moving the mouse. Or, when the protractor is aligned in the axis you want hold shift down to keep it in that axis. Hope that's what you wanted.

@ross macintosh said:

Thanks Guys.

The tip is: Having modeled three-dimensional topography it can be visually helpful using a texture that has a grid pattern incorporated in it.

You know, you're right - at first I wasn't sure that the patterned grass works but looking again it help bring out the sloping ground. Nice work.

Thanks for that - I've just started playing around with texturing so that's very helpful.