MEGA thank you!
your replies are very helpful!!

nice! good luck and congrats on this amazing idea

Hello my friends!

I am trying to alter the shape of a sphere in sketchup. Is there a way i can divide the sphere into nurbs and mesh so that i can control each part of it separately?

I ve downloaded MOI. Moment of Inspiration is a very easy program designed for more curvy situations with smooth edges. However i can NOT export from sketchup to MOI but i can save from MOI to sketchup.

Is there anyone who knows how can i convert skp to .3dms? Or if i can work with nurbs in sketchup? Any plugins available to do this?

Many thanks!

The 2nd image

Hello people,

Here i am once more. I am uploading 2 images. The first one shows the model of my pool, how it is located in sketchup in relation to the global origin, and the red dot indicates the view point.

The second image is different rendered scenes of my pool at different times. The 2nd image is the pool of the 1st image.

I am having a great trouble finding the sun's photons each time. As you can see at 8:00, 9:00, 10:00 i have no caustics. At 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00 i have some caustics with weird shapes. At 15:00 and 16:00 i have caustics!

• How can i locate the sun's photons each time without trying by luck?
• Why i am getting these weird shadows of straight lines? Isnt the sun circular in shape?

MANY THANK YOU TO ALL!!

@andybot said:

I your sun settings in the "Sampling" settings, try changing your "photon radius" to something like 1500. Also, make sure your model is at your global origin. The radius sets how far away from the origin that the sun generates caustic photons.
See this thread for more info: http://www.chaosgroup.com/forums/vbulletin/showthread.php?63088-does-caustic-work-in-1-49-00 (registration required)

Ok, i get what you are saying with the photons. I usually use a value of 500 but will have a try on 1500. My model is at my global origin (where the 3 axes meet right?). Your explanation has been really helpful and thank you, but i still have one question following with the images that i am about to upload. As far as the link is concerned i cannot view it. (I did register!)

Thank you andybot for your time & help!

@valerostudio said:

Not sure how SkyView would affect VRay, if at all. Stupid question, but do you have caustics enabled in your options?

Hello valerostudio!

I was only trying to use skyview in order to understand the sun's paths and how it works around my model. Yes, my caustics are on! Thank you so much for your reply and i look forward to any extra help! Thanks!

@eidam655 said:

can you show us what you are getting?

hello eidam!

ive uploaded a jpg. i would truly appreciated if you could have a look at it!

Cheers!

Hello eidam655 & friends,

Sure i can!

I am posting the image with NO caustics just to let you see what i am saying.

I have also finally managed to get some caustics on another image but this was only temporary.
I got them by luck!

Sometimes i get caustics and sometimes not! The reason is that i have to
place the water of the model (that i am experimenting with) in the area covered by the sun's photos in the model.

However i am not quite sure how to achieve that everytime.

I downloaded a plugin concerning the sun and the way it works in sketchup. It is called SKYview. But again i am having a hard time understanding how to get caustics or to be more specific, how to get photons from the sun to hit my water.

Can someone help me please?

Thank you people! I appreciate your help!

Greetings my friends!

I am currently trying to create caustics for my swimming pool model. I followed tutorials such as:

---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbHdi5bEdlI (many special thanks to Fernado for the amazing work!)

----> http://triangleko.blogspot.com/2011/07/water-caustics-su-vray.html

and settings such as:

---> http://www.scribd.com/doc/98795401/V-Ray-for-SketchUp-Pool-Water-Material-Settings-With-Caustics!

All of the prementioned were extemely helpful and thank you people for doing them. However i still dont get caustics in my rendered image.

Can anyone help or suggest what may I be doing wrong? Thank you people!!