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Modeling with SketchUp for Entertainment Design

Chapter Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction

• Why SketchUp?

• Getting SketchUp

• Three-Button Mouse

• User InterfaceTemplates (Toolbars and Shortcuts, Model Info, System Preferences, Keyboard Shortcuts, UI Windows)

• Good SketchUp Habits

• 3D Warehouse, Models for This Book

• About the Authors

• About the Cover

Chapter 2: Explore Some Models

In this chapter, we’ll look at a few SketchUp models representing types of projects that a film and stage designer, or event planner, would produce. First we’ll explore a basic industrial set, then a TV news set, and finally, a film set. The chapter will end with some important SketchUp guidelines and rules to live by.

• Simple Industrial Set (intro to layers, scenes, cameras)

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• TV News Set (use of digital images)

• Film Set (step-by-step model creation, cameras)

• The 10 Commandments for a Successful Model

• The Test of a Good Model

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Chapter 3: Build a News Set

In this chapter, we’ll look at the detailed process for modeling a realistic TV news set. We’ll start with preparing the studio, then import furniture and people. We’ll add details like columns and wall panels, add and change colors and materials, and end with setting up camera views.

Basically this long chapter is a crash course in a lot of SketchUp tools and features. You’ll do a little bit of actual modeling, a lot of importing (and fixing) of other models, and you’ll learn about painting with textures and materials. At the end of the chapter, you’ll set up several camera shots, to see how the model will actually look on a TV screen.

• Prepare the Studio

• Import the Platform

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• Choose a News Desk

• Assemble the Columns and Cornice

• Find Chairs and News Anchors

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• Set up the Wall Panels

• Add Colors and Materials

• Pause for Station Identification

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• Paint the Panel Monitors

• Add a Backing

• Add Cameras

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Chapter 4: Model a Studio Set

This long chapter is the meat of the book: a highly detailed, step-by-step project showing the proper way to build and document a model of a set. This project represents a typical work flow you might see in a TV or film art department.

The sleazy motel model in this chapter is based on a swing set designed for the first season of the HBO series Big Love.

• Get Extensions

• Import the Plan to Scale

• Build the Platform

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• Model the 8” Bay Walls

• Model the Remaining Walls

• Model the Wide Bay Window

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• Model the Narrow Bay Window

• Model the Exterior Door

• Mirror the Bay Walls

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• Exterior Objects

• Final Modeling Details: Windows, Doors, Ceilings, Cyc

• Fine Details: Window and Door Casings

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• Fine Details: Cornices and Baseboards

• Materials, Textures, and Dressing

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Chapter 5: Model a Film Location

When working on film location design, you’ll often need to build sets in the context of existing structures, within a specific, confined space. In this chapter, we’re going to appropriate a Los Angeles parking lot to build an Art Deco theater façade.

• Lot Description

• Model the Community Center with Matched Photo

• Model the Condo Building with Street View

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• Model the Theater

• Import the Theater

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• Real-World Modeling

Chapter 6: Dressing and Props

There exists a whole world of items for you to add to your sets - people, furniture, appliances, knick-knacks - to make your designs more specific and realistic. While this daunting range of possibilities makes it challenging to discuss this topic in detail, this chapter will present some general guidelines for handling props and dressing in SketchUp.

• Using the 3D Warehouse (file size, textures and materials, scale, model structure, layers, 2D vs. 3D entourage, purging)

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• Searching the 3D Warehouse (generic models, narrowing the search, modifying Warehouse models, combining Warehouse models)

• Warehouse Models - Common Problems (hidden objects, organic shapes, large textures, painting structure, reversed faces)

• Other Sources for Models

• Creating Your Own Components (matched photo, modeling from elevations)

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• Replacing and Reloading Components

• Working with Figures (2D and 3D entourage, Face-Camera figures, case studies)

• Your 3D Warehouse: Uploading and Collections

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Chapter 7: Working with Textures

There’s much more involved in texturing a successful model than just choosing from the small set of choices that come with Sketchup. This chapter will discuss painting faces and surfaces in groups and components, ways to edit textures, how to find more textures, building your own texture libraries, and texture-friendly extensions.

• Overview: Faces and Surfaces

• Finding and Adjusting Tiling Textures

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• Editing SketchUp Textures

• Material Collections

• Material Extensions

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Chapter 8: Cameras

SketchUp has a native camera through which the model is viewed. This chapter delves a bit deeper into how the SketchUp camera works. The end of this chapter discusses the Advanced Camera Tools (ACT) extension, a boon for SketchUp Pro users.

• The SketchUp Camera

• Camera Controls

• Camera Views and Scenes

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• Walk-Throughs

• Advanced Camera Tools

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Chapter 9: Extensions

Extensions are a familiar topic to anyone who’s worked through the previous chapters. The examples in this chapter will look at a few more “can’t live without” extensions, and demonstrate more uses for some that you already know.

• Where to Find Extensions (extension verification, Extension Warehouse)

• Extension Showcase 1: Curved Desk

• Extension Showcase 2: Spaceship

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• Extension Showcase 3: Materials

• FredoScale

• More Extensions to Try

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Chapter 10: Theater Design

Most of the techniques from the previous chapters can be applied to all forms of entertainment design or event planning. But there are considerations in designing live entertainment that are particularly adaptable when working in Sketchup.

• Assassins

• Cirque Berzerk

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Chapter 11: LayOut

Layout is a separate program that comes with SketchUp Pro. It’s a paper space where you can present and annotate various views of your SketchUp model. The other main use for LayOut is for creating scaled construction drawings - plans, elevations, sections, and details.

• LayOut for Presentation and Storyboards

• SketchUp Viewports

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• LayOut Rendering and Printing

• Printing and Exporting

• LayOut for Working Drawings and Construction Documents

• SketchUp Model Plans, Elevations, and Sections

• Construction Details

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• LayOut Viewports

• Notations and Shading

• Spotting Plan

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• Directors Plan

• Advanced LayOut Techniques

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• Detailing with Notation

Chapter 12: Rendering

Rendering programs can take SketchUp’s native OpenGL-rendered, video-game-looking model, and turn it into an almost photorealistic image. This chapter will focus on Podium and Shaderlight, because those are the ones that seem to have a slight edge at the moment. At the end of this chapter there is a list and links to many popular rendering programs.

• Setting up the Model to Render

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• SU Podium

• Shaderlight

• Other Rendering Programs

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Chapter 13: 3D Printing

With 3D printers becoming common in art departments and design studios, Sketchup has become a go-to program for creating models for printing. The most common elements that get printed are model parts, either as part of a design model or a miniature to be shot, as well as small props and other décor elements that can fit on a 3D print bed.

• Will it Print?

• Solid Inspector2

• SketchUp Solid Tools

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• Model Scale and Orientation

• Converting to STL

• Rafts and Supports

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• 3D Printing Case Studies

Must-Have Extensions• Free Extensions

• Paid Extensions