Rendering Tip - Use Self Glow for backlit objects

(Self glow applied to television screen)

Self Glow illuminates a surface as if it had light shining on it, without actually making it a light.

* Balance illumination in scene without adding additional lights.
* More realistic signs, monitors and projection devices.
* Faster rendering times.

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Use Procedural bump maps or materials for water

if your renderer has special procedural bump effects they can be used to make realistic water which will reflect buildings, sky and other background objects realistically.

• Distorted reflections to represent water ripples.
• More Realistic highlights from reflection of light.
• Realistic transparency caused by ripples and reflection of light.

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Rendering Tip - Use Camera Lights

By using lights attached to the camera, you can:

• Add illumination which moves with the camera.
• Make it easy to render several views of a model without having to add additional lights for each view.
• Insure that the objects you are focusing on are well illuminated.

Scene rendered with lights attached to the camera.

It is often very difficult to place enough lights in your drawing to be fully realistic. Ambient light settings help with this, but often produce a flat effect. By placing movable lights, attached to the camera you can add effective illumination and highlighting which will be used for all views.

These can be multiple lights attached to the camera - but they can be offset as far as desired - left and right, up and down.

Read more: Camera Lights

Tip of the Week - Use 2 Pt Perspective for vertical alignment

Due to the type of default perspective that SketchUp use, sometimes buildings can become distorted. Using two point perspective can correct these types of distortions.

Two point perspective, sometimes called ‘2D’ in SketchUp, will keep the vertical lines of your model parallel to each other.

If your rendering software supports 2 pt perspective, use it for better renderings when ever you are looking up or down on models with vertical lines.
 

SketchUp image in 2 Pt Perspective. Vertical lines are vertical.

SketchUp image in normal perspective. Vertical lines angle out.

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Use reflective surfaces for better detail

When making your first renderings you will probably think of adding mirrors and lights, but you may ignore the value of adding reflective properties to other surfaces.

A reflective floor can make the difference between a flat image and a realistic look image. The same is true of metal, wood, plastic and other surfaces... Read more...

Use Section Planes for better interiors

When rendering the inside of a room it is sometimes a challenge to place the camera properly.
If your renderer supports section planes, you can create realistic renderings of the room itself with a camera position outside of the room.

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Use Edge lines for better detail

Edge lines can be very useful for users who are trying to show off detail in a rendered image.

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