SketchUp rendering

[Kate Marshall]

I’m involved in the development of Shaderlight, an interactive render plug-in for Google SketchUp http://www.shaderlight.com.  We’ve just launched an update to the software alongside a new Mac version and now we’re planning what’s next!

To make sure we’re on the right track it would be great to know how you’re using SketchUp and if you render, what you want most from a render plugin. It could be a new feature specific to Shaderlight or something more general. Is animation important to you in your work?

[Wes Arola, RLA]

Reflection,shadow, texture and lighting are all important in a renderer and being able to adjust those quite easily would be great. Some renderers have their own components which will emit light and reflectivity and the renderer will notice these preset characteristics, but it would be nice to select a material or object you have in your model and adjust the basic characteristics of it as the render works. Another thing I like about other renderers is it will regenereate your rendering as your work and move around in your model. You dont have to hit ‘render’ and wait over night to see what it is going to look like and then make adjustments and wait another night guessing and checking. It would be great to be able to turn this ‘live’ rendering function on and off so that your computer doesnt bog down if you want to make major changes.

[Kate Marshall]

Have you downloaded Shaderlight?  I think you’ll find it pretty much does what you’re after right now!

[Jon Quackenbush]

Most all render plug-ins for sketchup highlight interiors an overwhelming majority of time, I would like to see some landscapes rendered with it, especially in the gallery page.  For those of us who would be the ones pitching the software to our supereriors, it would be nice to see a finishined product that makes sense to landscape architects in order to justify the cost.

 

[Kate Marshall]

That’s great feedback – i’ll be sure to add some more exteriors to our gallery. We’ve had some great images produced by Daniel Tal and other landscape architects which we should definitely make more of. I’m guessing user stories that you could send directly to your superiors would also help.

[Jon Quackenbush]

They trust my judgment, but it is all about the deliverable.  I have to believe in it first and think it necessary in order to then convince them of the same…

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