This video tutorial shows how the Random Tools SketchUp Extension makes it easy to improve renderings, especially when vegetation is involved. I am showing how the tools work in the context of the real-time Enscape rendering software, however the principles apply to any renderer.
With this extension, you can place objects randomly, rearrange them randomly (including size, position, and rotation). and adjust their textures randomly.
Tutorial Video
https://youtu.be/f8QSU63o5zE?list=PL9BB9780934A68B41
Links
Random Tools for Rendering in SketchUp (with Enscape) on YouTube
Random Tools Extension
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This video tutorial covers several basic workflows that are common to all rendering software (materials, lighting, environment) using the excellent Twilight rendering software as an example. Use it as an introduction to rendering in SketchUp and feel free to explore the many options that are available to you these days.
Tutorial Video
https://youtu.be/YWPuAkCxJSk
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This post follows a theme that I explored in several other of my script examples as well: Copied objects in SketchUp don't appear overly realistic if they represent natural items; their geometry is simply too perfect. This is true for landscape items (trees, shrubs) but also for things like wooden boards (see left side in the image above): On a collection of real boards, the knots would be distributed somewhat randomly, not as shown here.
Textures before (left) and after (right)
Turns out, we can fix this easily with a few lines of code. Just select textured objects, run the code snippet below, and your textures are randomized enough to look realistic (as can be seen in the right side of the image above).
TIP:Want to use this without coding? This script is also in one of the tools of my Random Tools extension.
Drag the slider to see the result of this code
Let's Explore the Code, Step by Step
The following steps reference the...
When it comes to rendering software, there are many options available nowadays, but Kerkythea is one of the oldest free software packages that is still available for this task. It isn't as easy to use as other rendering software, but it still works reasonably well and produces good results. Check out this video for an introduction.
Tutorial Video
https://youtu.be/0_zlnrBHf1E
This is a free sample instructional video from the book "Architectural Design with SketchUp: 3D Modeling, Extensions, BIM, Rendering, Making, and Scripting" (2nd Edition). I discuss this topic more in detail in that book's Chapter 2.
Want more of these videos? If you own the book, use the password from the inside cover to gain access to all of my remaining videos on Wiley's website: http://www.wiley.com/go/schreyer2e. If you don't yet have your own copy, follow the links in the sidebar to get one. It is a great reference for SketchUp!
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At least when it comes to creating realistic-looking vegetation in SketchUp, it is important to be able to randomly place, scale, and rotate objects. Nothing looks worse than a "sterile" copied/pasted row of trees, for example. Of course, this applies to other objects as well, like e.g. a shag carpet or fur. Let's fix this with today's code snippet.
Random grass in a randomized landscape
Typically, the objects to be placed would come in the form of components (trees, grass, bushes, as in the image above). And those then need to be placed somewhat randomly on one or more faces in your model. A good example for that is a lawn, as I discussed in Chapter 5 in my book. As I mention in Chapter 4, there are of course several extensions available that let you accomplish this task. However, as it turns out, we can re-use two pieces of example code from Chapter 7 and do this with just a few...
