Artisan is an organic modeling toolset that was released today!
The toolbar has many great features for LA’s/designers including “painting” textures, shaping mesh surfaces like topography, and a polyreducer to keep the faces (and therefore the file size) down. The cost is $39, but there is a free 15 day trial.
Though SketchUp only can create an animation but standard is not world class. It will be a blessing for us if we get a plug in which we can create scene base animation not only to the camera but to groups and components. Now the Proper Animation is here to meet the demand of real time animation in SketchUp. This plug in is very easy to figure out and use. The script’s premise is that objects in your model – groups and components – can each have multiple positions. You have to assign each position to build an animation. The animation involves using SketchUp’s already existing Scenes feature. The most praising aspect of the Proper Animation is that it automatically connects positions to scenes.
The first thing you need to do is download and install the plugin. Its developer is MorisDov; you can find it on his site. Proper Animation also comes bundled with its own tutorial PDF. If you're looking for even more encouragement/inspiration/support, you can check out the plugin's SketchUcation thread. In this way you will have a super quality animation within SketchUp.
Source: Sketchup 3D Component
Source: Sketching 3D
From the looks of it, we’re taking Hollywood by storm.
It seems that every time I watch a movie’s special features, up pops SketchUp: How’d they figure out the Penrose stairs in Inception? What did a vehicle designer for Avatar use to invent the bad guys’ robot suits? What tool did the production designer for 300 and Good Night, and Good Luck use? The set design for The Social Network? Futuristic environments for Tron: Legacy? The sheer number of films and TV shows that SketchUp’s been a part of is jaw-dropping—and we couldn’t be happier about it.
Since the entertainment industry’s been so good to us, we thought we’d return the favor. The old Film & Stage plugin we built in 2005 has been languishing in quasi-supported limbo for years. We dug it out of the shed, took it all apart, fixed the broken stuff, then... strapped a rocket to its butt. If fact, we made it so much better that we had to give it a new name.
The Advanced Camera Tools plugin lets you work with real-world cameras in your SketchUp Pro 8 models. Cameras you create with the ACTs provide precise controls for settings like Focal Length, Aspect Ratio and Image Width, which allows you to accurately preview real camera shots right inside SketchUp.
We put together a little video that tells the story succinctly:
In words and pictures, here’s some of what you can do with the Advanced Camera Tools:
Position and aim your ACT cameras using familiar moves like Pan, Tilt, Roll, Dolly, Truck and Pedestal. 
Set the Focal Length of any camera to simulate a large number of physical lenses.
Look through your ACT cameras to preview Aspect Ratio and Safe Zones for the shots you’re planning.
Toggle on and off all of your ACT cameras’ frustums to clearly see what is—and isn’t— visible in your shots.The Advanced Camera Tools work on both Windows and Mac computers running SketchUp Pro 8. The plugin itself is a free download; you can get it here: Windows | Mac OS X
This Getting Started Guide is a good place to look for answers to your questions. To join a discussion, check out this thread on our forums.
Six years ago, we also released a big collection of components that relate specifically to film and tv production. If you need a dolly or a jib or a light stand or a light or a scissor lift or any other piece of movie set apparatus, this collection of collections on the 3D Warehouse is a great place to start looking.
One more thing: The lion’s share of credit for getting these tools out the door goes to Brian Brown. He worked on them in his 20% time—his day job is leading the engineering effort for Building Maker and the 3D Warehouse. Small tokens of appreciation (RED ONE HD cameras, etc.) should be mailed directly to him.
Happy pre-visualizationing!
Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist
If you also want to Import .obj files you can try with other plugin: Sketchup .obj Importer by TIG
Source: Sketching 3D
The title Google SketchUp Workshop may sound dry but don't be fooled - if you're into SketchUp either as a professional or enthusiast and you have the basic skills down already then this is the book for you. If you're a novice, this book is not going to teach you the basics; the Overview section of the book starts with working with complex models in SketchUp and moves on from there to other advanced topics assuming a level of knowledge you get only from working with SketchUp for a while. If you have these skills already the subjects in the overview are really useful. Yes, you might know quite a few of them already but it doesn't hurt to brush up and to see if there's a better way of approaching the issues you face.
The rest of the book is made up of sixteen chapters, each of which is written by a different author. Each author is introduced and each has a specific area of interest or expertise which they then address with specific real world examples. The experts range from the SketchUp norms of Architecture, Engineering and Design through to more esoteric areas such as set design, woodworking, concept design painting and graphic design. It is this variety of subjects and voices that make this book so successful. Of course you will be more interested in some subjects than others but seeing these practical and inspiring examples of what SketchUp is capable of, described by experts in their fields teaches you something. Even if you never intend to model a Process Plant you can learn a lot from Mitchel Stagl's chapter because it shows an approach to working in teams and with really complex models. You might not have the artistic skills to paint the concept art Alex Jenyon can but his chapter might inspire you to be a little more adventurous the next time you have to produce a 2D image for a client.
It is the variety of voices, applications and subjects combined with scope of artistic to technical emphasis that make this book my favorite SketchUp book to date. Some have criticized the fact that many of the examples use third party software (some of it very expensive) in addition to SketchUp to achieve their results. I might not be rushing out to buy a thousand dollar rendering engine but I did learn something from each chapter about how SketchUp integrates into each author's workflow. Very few people use SketchUp in isolation; it is just one tool in the arsenal.
I can't remember the last time I dipped into a technical book just for fun but with it's beautiful color illustrations, variety of subjects and inspiring tone I find myself constantly going back to the Google SketchUp Workshop and not wanting to put it down when I do. Whether you read it cover to cover or skip around through just the chapters that interest you most there is something for most SketchUp enthusiasts here. I just hope they're working on volume two...
Source: Sketchup Fanboy
Nearly five years ago, Google embarked on an ambitious project to work with everyday users like you to create a 3D model of every building in the world for Google Earth. We’ve made strides toward our goal adding millions of buildings to the 3D layer of Google Earth in cities across the globe. And today, we’re pleased to announce another big step in that direction with the release of expanded 3D coverage of the California Bay Area (which also happens to be the homebase of Google’s headquarters!).
With Google Earth’s “3D Buildings” layer turned on (or by using the Earth View in Google Maps), you are now able to tour tens of thousands of new buildings in the 50-mile stretch between San Francisco and San Jose, as well as select areas of the East Bay, like Oakland and Berkeley. You can now fly through the air and view urban centers of cities like Foster City, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Oakland, Redwood City, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, and Sunnyvale, in 3D.
If you’ve never been to the Bay Area, start by visiting iconic landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Ferry Building (note: you will need to have the Google Earth plugin installed to view these links). While in San Francisco, you may notice that in addition to 3D buildings, there are also 3D trees throughout the city. This is a new feature we released with Google Earth 6.0, and San Francisco is one of the first few cities to showcase 3D trees.
The Golden Gate Bridge and 3D trees
The Bay area peninsula is also the home of Silicon Valley. Several technology companies are available to view in 3D, including of course, the Googleplex in Mountain View.
Googleplex in Mountain View, CA
Sports fans might be interested to check out the HP Pavillion, where the San Jose Sharks play, as well as AT&T Park, home of the 2010 worldseries champion, SF Giants. Music lovers may also want to view the Oracle Arena in Oakland and Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. If you’re starting college soon, take a virtual tour of the Stanford and UC Berkeley campuses.
UC Berkeley Campus
Of course, this is just a small sample of the several thousands of buildings you’ll find in the area. You can check out an expanded tour we created, or you can open up Google Earth and explore for yourself. As you go on your virtual tour, you may notice that several buildings were created by users, who continue to be an integral part of our 3D building efforts. For example, supermodeler, PeterX created nearly 1,000 buildings around the Bay Area, including the NASA Ames Research Center. PeterX's model of the wind tunnels at the NASA Ames Research Center
If you’d like to get involved in modeling your town (or any other location), we have several free (and easy!) tools to get you started. With Google Building Maker, you can create and contribute a building in as little as 10 minutes. And if you’d like to refine your building, bring it into Google SketchUp for fine-tuning.
Everyday, we are working on adding more 3D cities to Google Earth as part of our larger mission to organize the planet’s geographic information and make it accessible to all.
Happy touring!
Posted by Gopal Shah, Google SketchUp team
If you've been modeling in SketchUp for any length of time you know how it is. You get back from lunch and get stuck into a model for a couple of hours. The next thing you know it's dark outside and your wife is calling you to find out if you're working late again.
It is so easy to get stuck in the minutiae of a model. A model you thought might take an evening takes weeks as you explore every last detail. It is easy to forget one of SketchUp's biggest strengths - its speed. It's an interesting exercise to challenge yourself to model as fast as you can and this is the idea behind the speed modeling challenges on SketchUcation. You generally have 30 minutes to start and complete a model based on a theme and to submit it to the forums for judging. I've only taken part in a couple of challenges but in that 30 minutes you learn so much about how to pare down to the essentials, forget about a few of the details, and build something quickly. There's no time to search for tutorials on how to achieve some specific, niche effect you just have to get the idea of the object into SketchUp as quickly as possible. Even if you don't submit your model to be judged I do encourage you to try this exercise once in a while - to complete a model in the 30 minutes or less. It will help you to reinforce your strengths and what you already know. At the same time it will highlight your areas of weakness - the things you need to improve on. Give it a go and test yourself!
Source: Sketchup Fanboy
Google team just launched a maintenance release for SketchUp 8. The sketcup users will be highly benefited with this release as it will solve several, long standing, bugs. These are given below :-
The "Shadow Bug."The codec selection issue on Windows.The "whack-a-mole" issue with Outliner on a Mac among other Outliner oddities.Failures when trying to export an image at a large resolution.Blank Components browserIf SketchUp 8 already installed, simply click Help on Windows or SketchUp on Mac then select Check Web for Updates... to avail this update.
Posted bySource: Sketchup 3D Component
Source: Sketchup 3D Component
When I first downloaded SketchUp years ago, I thought I was the coolest guy on the block because I could push/pull a square into a cube. Then I went online and saw what some other folks were modeling and realized I needed to up my game FAST. So like many folks, I turned to (my now colleague) Aidan Chopra’s Google SketchUp For Dummies book.
I learned a lot from this Dummies book, so I’m especially proud to be able to announce that the newest edition of Google SketchUp For Dummies is on bookshelves now. This new edition is fully revised and updated to cover all the tastiness we packed into SketchUp 8—both free and Pro. You can find the book online and at bricks-and-mortar bookstores.
Two weeks ago, we issued a free maintenance release that eliminated the much-loathed Shadow Bug (among other things) -- and the SketchUp community went bananas with paroxysms of delight. We felt like Oprah on one of her "Favorite Things" episodes. More of you downloaded SketchUp 8 in the seven days after the M1 release than had ever done so in any one-week period in history.
My first full day of work with M1. halleluja! Not a single crash in SkU or LayOut. And no more subtly changing layout view to avoid the shadow bug! Thanks for such a fantastic update. My work life is so much better now. -- Hendrik via the SketchUp Blog
Congrats to the SU team. Now we can finally lurk in the shadows...hehe -- NVizeon via the SketchUp Blog
What's left for us to complain about now? -- Thomas via our Facebook page
To make sure you're running the latest (and most certainly greatest) version, open SketchUp 8 (free or Pro) and choose Help > Check for Update. If you're on a Mac, choose SketchUp > Check Web for Update. Let's see if we can break the record for 30-day downloads, too!
Free Model of the Week |
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