My Models: Liberator (Blake's 7)

Liberator (Blake's 7) a photo by the other Martin Taylor on Flickr.

After the struggle I went through finishing Valley Forge I thought it would be a while before I found myself modeling for fun again. I was surprised to find myself modeling another 1970's spaceship but I couldn't believe this great ship from my youth was so poorly represented in the warehouse. I set to work and this is what I came up with after about 4 hours effort. I am pretty happy with how it looks and the rendering from Twilight looks decent too - I just wish I knew more about rendering textures to dirty it up a bit. I did watch a couple of episodes of the old show while building this model to get in the mood - the Liberator may still look great but the show itself doesn't hold up that well. Time for a re-make?

Adventures in Rendering: 2

It seems such a long time ago since I bought the Twilight renderer for SketchUp and played with it a little. I was slightly put off by the amount of time it takes to render a reasonably detailed image but I guess that's just the nature of the beast.

More than a year after starting a model of the Valley Forge from the 70's movie Silent Running I finally went back to it and finished it. After all the work it took me to complete it and the invaluable help I got from Taff Goch who is geodesic master I figured it was worth firing up Twilight once again. I have a reasonably powerful quad core 64 bit Windows machine and this render took about 2.5 hours using 100% of my CPU for most of that time. I added the lens flare in PhotoShop Elements 8 afterwards. I'm still learning about twilight and I've been given a few pointers from the Twilight forum that I will try to incorporate for more refined attempt but I think you'll see that it's worth the time and effort when you compare it to the 2D export direct from SketchUp

Twilight render of The Valley Forge

Native SketchUp 2D Render

Adventures in Rendering: 1

SketchUp is great for creating detailed models quickly but the output formats that come built into it are a little cartoon-y. In most situations they are great for getting an idea across but when you want to present your model in a slightly more photo-realistic format you are going to have to rely on a third-party rendering application or plugin.

To create renders of your SU models there are many options available. There are those that use an export of your model from SU and then render the image after further work on your part to describe the lighting and materials. There are those that work inside of SU itself allowing you to add lighting and material information and all other rendering settings and parameters within SU itself. I am not an expert but the former seem to be cheaper but have a much steeper learning curve than the later which, unfortunately, tend to be much more expensive. As a rendering newbie I wanted the simplicity of the rendering application hosted within SU itself but I wanted it at an affordable cost. Just at the right time for me the Twilight Renderer application was released: I couldn't pass up the simplicity of having the renderer withing SU for the affordable price of less than $60 (until September 24th).

I've played with it a couple of times without even reading much of the documentation and I am getting some pretty nice images. I'm not really in control of everything yet but it looks like a fun utility and I don't have anything to compare it to but it seems relatively simple to use. I look forward to learning more about rendering but, until then, here's one of my first renders of a couple of models I worked on over the weekend - you have to be a big old Sci-Fi geek to know these guys:

Guggenheim Design It Shelter Entry

Like most SketchUp Fan Boys I like to enter SketchUp related contests and the big one at the moment is the Guggenheim Design It Shelter competition. I had a lot of fun creating my own design that complied with the competition guidelines (basically the interior space could me no larger than 100 square feet, the height no taller than 12 feet and you couldn't use any plumbing or electrical components). The specs may seem restrictive but I'm loving seeing what my fellow SketchUp designers from all around the world are coming up with; your imagination and ingenuity is a source of inspiration.

By contrast my own design seems tame but I did think it through. My modest fantasy was that I had permission to build a retreat near a local, quiet beach that I occasionally stop at to get a taste of the ocean on my way home (if I take the scenic route). I wanted it to be a sort of surf shack (although I don't surf) where I could escape the city, by bike, and spend a day away from phones and the drama of modern, urban life. It might not be the most flashy of designs but I like what I came up with.

If you want to participate you have until August 23rd to submit your entry. I can't wait to see what you come up with.