Bonnie Roskes has been writing tutorial-style projects on 3D modeling software, primarily SketchUp, since 2001. Her website, www.3dvinci.net offers a wide variety of learning materials for all ages, from kids in grade school through design professionals. Her materials cover general 3D design, 3D printing, geometry, interior design, geo-modeling, and more, and future books are in the works. Read more about Bonnie.
A SketchUp user who found my long-ago SketchUp projects on the Math Forum (those projects are no longer hosted there), recently told me about a one-page site she created: http://sketchupshortcuts.com/ Here’s a peek: I’m a big fan of using shortcuts, and it’s sometimes hard to remember what key does what. You can set up […]
In Part 2 of this series, I left off with the room and person, ready to animate in MSPhysics to see the Ames Illusion. Here they are: Before getting into making the person slide across the room, run the simulation to make sure the person is stable and won’t topple over because of the […]
In Part 1 of this series, I ended with the distorted room that would house the illusion itself. It looks like this: But in the saved view, the back of the rook looks more like a regular room: In this post, I’ll show how to set up the room to work in MSPhysics, […]
I recently wrote up a kids’ project for Beanz Magazine on how to create the Ames Illusion in SketchUp. (If you have kids, or are a kid, check out my last Beanz project on jigsaw puzzles.) What is the Ames Illusion, you ask? It’s an optical illusion in which a person appears to grow or […]
If you’re a professor or instructor in higher ed, this post is for you! Did you know that SketchUp has an arsenal of experts, ready to share their expertise with teachers and students? And that you may be able to get someone to come out to you, FOR FREE? All thanks to SketchUp’s Visiting Professionals […]
In Part 1 I showed how I modeled an organic sculpture using a few neat SketchUp extensions. That project consisted of two sculpture models, and here’s a description of the second one. My model appears in this rendering – it’s at the top left corner, along the sidewalk. The idea was that the […]
I recently had a fun design job with a local architect. The idea was to make a conceptual model that loosely resembled a specific sculpture. The sculpture model would be placed in a SketchUp model of a new, mixed-use project, to show in context what a similar art installation would look like. (The […]
A few months ago I joined up with Beanz Magazine – a bi-monthly publication that teaches kids about all things tech. If you have kids who like coding, robots, Minecraft, 3D printing, electronics – please check it out. There’s a print and online version, and my own kids have spent time enjoying many of the […]
The other posts in this series focused on how to create models of trees that have transparent background and always face the camera. This last post in the series is about solving the problem of shadows. Here’s a face-camera tree: And here’s the same tree with shadows turned on (menu: View / Shadows). Because […]
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