# Interesting New SketchUp Application



## SketchUp Guru (19 Jul 2008)

I've been playing with the demo version of a new application--well it's a plugin--for SketchUp. It's called LightUp. It creates the effect of multiple light sources and soft shadows with very little setup. Here's a screen grab. The demo version leaves a watermark on exported images and although I don't know why, it seems to square up corners on cushions. Still, it has a lot of promise for making more realistic looking images from your SketchUp models with a minimal amount of work. It won't be free but if you need the capability, the cost my be worth the ease of use.







And a sort of sketchy style of the same scene


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## wizer (19 Jul 2008)

Interesting. Sketchup is a very versatile app


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## tim (19 Jul 2008)

Looks good Dave

Is it easier to use than Kerkythea? I didn't register with light up - have you got a price for retail price that you can share?

Cheers

Tim


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## SketchUp Guru (19 Jul 2008)

Tim, it is much easier to set up than Kerkythea but it doesn't have near the capability of Kerkythea. No reflections or shiny surfaces. I don't see it as a replacement for a real rendering application but for quick and dirty, it's not so bad.

It's priced at $149. I think the author is in the UK. If you register you might get a UK price. 

FWIW, here's the results of some more experimentation. This is a combination of a Light Up output and a Hidden Line JPG export. I combined them in a free image editor called Paint.NET.


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## tim (20 Jul 2008)

Thanks Dave

I have found that Kerkythea is very powerfu but probably more that I need for most customers/ jobs esp since it takes me an age to set up and render. Is this app much quicker to do the render/ effect?

Cheers

Tim


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## SketchUp Guru (20 Jul 2008)

Tim, with LightUp installed, you open your model, drag in and place light components from the In Model components browser and hit the green button on the toolbar. In maybe a minute or so you'll have an image. You can use the SketchUp sun instead and you can make a few changes to the lights. The lights can be dragged around and placed wherever you want. You can also make emitters in the model although I haven't played with that.

To get the image out, you hit Enter after LightUp has completed it's work. The file is saved as a TGA file at a very high resolution. 

The last image I posted is a combination of another style exported immediately after the LightUp version. The second was done with Hidden Line and a sketchy line style applied. The two images were put together in Paint.NET. Probably from start to finish; less than ten minutes.


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