# Rendering From SketchUp



## SketchUp Guru (13 Oct 2007)

Right, here's the quick tutorial on how I arrived at the rendered image of the cabinets I posted previously. It's really a stretch to call this a tutorial. I am nowhere close to being in a position to teach others how to use the rendering software so I hope you'll bear with me. You know, I never know for sure which spelling of that word I should use in this context. When I think about using the other spelling I get strange images in my head that make shivers run up my spine. Besides, I like all varieties; polar, brown, grizzly. Well, Kodiaks also give me a shiver but I digress. :lol: 

Uh, where were we? Oh, yeah. Rendering. That's what they do to fat to make lard. Well, maybe that's what this will turn out to be.

So, here's the rendered image for reference.






And this a similar view from SketchUp.






The last image for now is of the entire "stage"





I drew the floor for the models to sit on and then placed the models. I also drew a large "wall" that would end up behind the camera. You can see it as a dark rectangle off to the left in the third image here. For this drawing I left the front face of that "wall" the front face color I was using. (The rectangle laying down is there simply to show you the color of that wall. It isn't really part of the image or anything.

One important thing to do to the glass in the model is make sure it is only a single face. I originally drew the glass as 1/8" thick so I deleted the rear face of the box.

Then, using the _Insert Spotlight_ tool in SU2KT3.0, I added three spotlights. The lights are drawn by clicking on the desired location of the spotlight and then on the center of the area you want to cover. After the second click you can give the light a name and make some adjustments if you wish. For this model I didn't.

To set the location of the lights I drew a few intersecting guides. In the third image here I have drawn some vertical lines to give you and idea of where these lights are relative to the rest of the model.

That's the extent of the setup in SketchUp.

At this point we're ready to export and start with Kerkythea. I clicked on the button labelled _Export model to Kerkythea_. The exporter does some hocus pocus and then a box pops up giving some information about the export and asking if I want to open KT. I hoose the affirmative.

Once KT opens I click on Settings>Materials. Right click in the left hand pane of the dialog box and choose Select all. Then right click and choose Rebuild selected. After KT is done rebuilding, the textures are shown applied to spheres in the left side of the box. Click on one to select it, right click and choose Edit.

For the glass, I right clicked on Matte/Phong at the bottom of the Edit box and chose Set Thin Glass. Then I changed Reflectance color to 0.95 at the upper left of the Edit box.

For each of the wood materials I added a little bit of Reflectance and Specular. I also changed the Shininess to around 70 which reduces the smoothness of the surfaces.

The next thing I did was click on Setting>Scene>Lights and changed the Radiance of the spotlight shining on the wall to 2.5.

The final step at this point is to do the render. I click on the Render button and set the resolution (lower results in faster renders) and the Settings that I want to use. Finally I click start and go off and raid refrigerator. In the case of the rendered image above, I chose #19. MLT.

I'm sure this might seem like I wrote this in the Aztec language. It'll make more sense once you've downloaded the exporter and Kerkythea and looked at them it should be a little more clear.

Go here for more info and and to download the program and SU2KT3.0
http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/index.php

Go ahead and ask me questions. I'd be happy to answer them if I can.

Now, what do you suppose is in the icebox? :lol:


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## Slim (13 Oct 2007)

Thanks very much for doing that Dave,  

I shall try it later on when I get a chance.

I did this one with Podium






but there are no reflections on it. I'm sure Kerkythea could do a better job. I presume you need to place something in the scene in order to cast a reflection?


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## SketchUp Guru (13 Oct 2007)

Simon,

I haven't used Podium for a long time so I can't tell you how to make the adjustments but you ought to be able to assign some level of reflectance to the surfaces such as the wood and metal bits. There should at least some reflection of the walls and floor.

I used that wall behind the camera to keep the glass from being black which it would have if there'd been empty space.

If you look close, you can see a reflectionon the floor of the right front leg of the sideboard. I could have made the floor shinier but I didn't want it to look like a mirror or even a very well kept, freshly finished wood floor.


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## tnimble (13 Oct 2007)

Slimjim81":1dbyifb2 said:


> Thanks very much for doing that Dave,
> ...
> but there are no reflections on it. I'm sure Kerkythea could do a better job. I presume you need to place something in the scene in order to cast a reflection?



Yes and no. You could either place an object or a face with a texture on it in the scene to have that shown in the reflection. But most of the rendering software have the feature of adding a reflection map to a material. It depends a bit on the scene and what result you want (and rendering versus design time) what method works best.


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## SketchUp Guru (15 Oct 2007)

SU2KT3.0 goes in the Plugins folder in SketchUp. After putting it there, you should have a toolbar when you next open SketchUp. One of the buttons is for spotlights.

Read the PDF that is included in the zip file.


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## tim (15 Oct 2007)

Sorry Dave - I found it just after I posted the question so deleted it but you were too quick.

Cheers

Tim


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## tim (15 Oct 2007)

Dave

Can't find that PDF file.

I've managed to get some results but is there a quickish way of understanding what all the various terms mean re Render settings eg Ray tracing + AA etc. My PC is okay but not the most powerful so it would be useful to have some idea what does what without having to run it for a long period to be disappointed by the result (or not notice the difference except for the time taken).

However, your instructions above have at least allowed me to get some results and I can see that its worth persevering with so thanks for taking the time.

Cheers

Tim


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## SketchUp Guru (16 Oct 2007)

My mistake.. No PDF. Take a look at the following http://www.kerkythea.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3517 for info.

As far as learning all that stuff I think your best bet is to look at the tutorials and forum on the Kerkythea site. Sorry, I'm not smart enough to tell you about all that stuff. I'm so busy tutoring SketchUp that I don't get to spend much time on KT.


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