wow, nice collection, thanks for the link James! Someone put a lot of assiduous work into this. too bad none of them are seamless...

Hello David and welcome

That is indeed a bit confusing - happened to me too. Components that have the ability to automatically cut openings seem to work only on ungrouped geometry, and only when they are placed on the already existing wall/ceiling. Don't explode anything, just place new lights into the ceiling group/component while editing it. You could as well cut the openings in the same manner if you don't want your lights to be nested inside other groups or components. Even simpler is it to leave the ceiling ungrouped if possible.
(could be that there are even better methods)

I'd say it's a question of how accurate you intend to model it. If you want a perfect copy and you want to do it in SU, risk is high that you'll be ruining your nerves.
Like Solo says, a 3D sculpting software could make you much happier - Sculptris is free and I found it very easy to learn.
In case you're fine with something that looks similar, it could work out with the mentioned plugins (that are also fun to learn btw). Begin with tracing from the photo. Because you need to make the geometry according to the method you choose, do several testings first.
Have you seen this thread?
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=31364

In Podium you could set up photos behind the camera to create reflections.

good luck

Why don't I get the Curve Simplification to work?

thanks oscarlok, just collecting reasons to upgrade, you know

Does it work in SU 7.1 as well?

just used an alpha map and deleted the lower part of the mesh, then flattened it. not talking about quality, but at least it looks like some sort of image tracing...

Some insight is always welcome, and as you can see here you get the SketchUp folks exited.
please keep us informed!
I always was a lazy painter and doubt that I will ever get results like yours. But with 3D apps I was the same before SU turned up and changed that.

Good work Richard! The way you have placed the shadows works magic - very realistic.

!!!

Jeff, that concentric wave looks great!

Thomas, sorry but I won't be able to get out of Berlin atm. We are preparing to move to a new appartment with my son being only six weeks old, and Munich is 600km from here...
Enjoy your time there - and don't forget that not all of us germs wear leather pants and drink beer until they pass out.

alex

Genius!
Thomas you have a great fan in me. Many times I thought "glad that I have insisted on paying for our lunch the day we met, dunno when I get the next chance to buy him cookies".
With this release my credit is definitely used up...
...playing for time I extruded a cookie for you, until I get a better ideas

Thanks for this plugin, I bet there are a thousand interesting ways to use it.

cheers
alex

These are some masterpieces, congratulations Landie! I think this is the first time I see Painter used here. Are you working with version 11? Is the watercolor renderer really that powerful as the videos are showing?
I am really looking at this software for some time now - the painterly effects are so different from what Pshop can do...

cheers

Hi again,

When geometry casts shadow ON ANOTHER face - then you can prevent that geometry from casting shadow elsewhere by unchecking "Cast Shadows" for the geometry (2nd picture).

The stoplight technique works by preventing the respective face from recieving shadow FROM OTHER geometry by unchecking "Recieve Shadows" (3rd picture).

However, in your case we are not talking about a shadow that is cast somewhere else. The side of your face is simply not recieving sunlight in the first place - if you want, it casts the shadow on itself (don't know the right word for this, my translation would be "body shadow").
It seems that Sketchup cannot switch this off separately.

There are a few workarounds to produce stills like we have described before, but if you want to create an animation with shadows displayed (exept for your screen), then it looks like you have to do it in post process or just turn your model to have the screen face the sun.

happy if this helps
alex

Wenn Dein zu verschneidendes Modell relativ klein ist (z.b. Logo am Monitor, also wenige Zentimeter oder gar Millimeter) und die Schrift viele Kanten bzw. Flächen hat, besteht die Möglichkeit das Verschneiden mit einem um ein Vielfaches größer skalierten Modell zu versuchen. (Hinterher einfach wieder verkleinern)

Deine Beschreibung lässt den Schluss zu, dass SketchUp einen Fehler macht - und die treten häufig bei Berechnungen in ganz kleinen Maßstäben auf.

Falls Deine Frage noch aktuell ist, zeig uns doch einfach mal einen Schnappschuss von der Problemzone

Great work Sid! Even in b/w it feels warm and welcoming - makes me wanna go and live there.

alex

Fletch just posted this video link at Twilight Render Forum about a creator of kinetic sculptures. It remids me of this zonohedron structure.
Really amazing work the guy is showing there, its a must watch.

Twilight Render User Forum - Information

(twilightrender.com)

it's the last post on page one.
Or you'll find it at youtube here:

bravo! now you've got to find a goldsmith to build it Dave

TIG, simply fantastic! Both Radial Lines tools are brilliant. I have been waiting for this - did it too many times manually. then I used projection and scaled one end to a minimum... omg what a mess

+1 on the artificial light to shadow tracing. I guess the difficult part is how the automation can tell where the "shadow" goes when used for perforated objects or objects that are not connected...

keep it bubbling
alex

Didn't know about these, thank you Tom!
Made in version 5, haha... still very good looking NPR trees!

cheers
alex