entourage

Another Great New 3D Warehouse Feature: Download Components

In the previous post, I wrote about the new material-downloading capabilities of the 3D Warehouse. Another feature that was added at the same time was the ability to download specific components from a model. This feature is also incredibly useful, though it’s still in its initial stages. Just because something in a model is defined as […]

Reloading Components from the 3D Warehouse

  Did you know you can replace components in your model with something from the 3D Warehouse? I’ll show how with this example. I’m using this model by Daniel Tal – if you want to follow along at home, click the “3D Warehouse” logo on the image below.   Placeholder Components The trees in this […]

Image Trimmer Extension: Part 2 – Face Camera

In Part 1 of this series, I showed how to use the Image Trimmer extension to make a stand-up component from a PNG image. Here’s where I left off: a face surrounded by hidden edges (over 4800 of them!)   Component Location So we have a couple of issues. First, the man’s feet should be […]

Image Trimmer Extension: Part 1 - Trimming

I had never heard of the Image Trimmer extension until I read something about it on Facebook. So I tried it out and wrote a couple of posts about it. Why trim? I’ve done a lot of projects that involve tracing and trimming, in particular for 3D printing. As an example, here’s a picture of a penguin: Using […]

Quality Components: Part 3- Podium Browser

The first two posts in this series discussed how to find lightweight, well-crafted models by the SketchUp team, and models offered by the subscription service FormFonts. This post showcases one more resource: Podium Browser. SU Podium is pretty well known as a SketchUp rendering engine. Podium Browser is a collection of render-ready entourage models (trees, […]

Quality Components: Part 2- FormFonts

Part 1 of this series on quality components focused on generic, lightweight models provided by the SketchUp team. This post is about another great resource for quality SketchUp models: FormFonts. The model creators at FormFonts have been at it for almost 15 years. It’s a subscription service, but you can download up to 30 models […]

Quality Components: Part 1- SketchUp Collections

My “day job” project this week has been working on a chapter for an upcoming book on Modeling with SketchUp for Film and Stage Design. This chapter is about props – modeling or importing entourage objects such as furniture, knick-knacks, plants, and of course, people. If you rely only on the 3D Warehouse for these […]

SketchUp Layers: Part 2 - Layer Case Studies

In Part 1 of this series, Bonnie showed the importance of using SketchUp‘s Layer0 for all loose geometry, and placing components and groups on other layers. In this post, I’ll demonstrate how layers can take you beyond basic organization. And in Part 3, I’ll combine scenes and layers for seamless control of object visibility. Layer Organization Case Studies The […]

SketchUp Styles: Part 1 - Customize Your Look

One of SketchUp’s best features is styles, giving you the ability to produce excellent graphic images and non-photorealistic (NPR) renderings. I almost always use SketchUp’s native graphic styles for client presentations, though I do have to produce “fancy” renderings from time to time (these days I’m into Lumion). For a basic presentation, just turn on […]