As Dmitriy Ushakov of Ledas Ltd has just announced, a new version of their parametric design plugin for SketchUp, Driving Dimensions 1.2 has been released. New features have also been added:
Support for national languages
Japanese translation of GUI
Less edges and faces are now moved when you edit a driving dimension value
The time required to solve driving dimensions has been significantly reduced
Several compatibility issues with other SketchUp plugins solved
Read more following the release notes of the plugin above.
SketchUcation Community member “Speaker” posted an excellent animation of Luxo in the classic Pixar Animation studios logo remade in SketchUp, animated with Sketchy Physics and finally rendered with Podium.
“I began this by finding a great high poly model of Luxo in the warehouse which I then remodelled and grouped so it was then about 8 times smaller in size and with many adjustments to allow me to move and rotate different parts of the model. After that I inserted an omni inside the bulb with some extra geometry to lead the light and added some transparency to the bulb itself (needed some time to figure out how to make this work because at different parts of the animation the transparency had to change, the reason is that at a certain angle of view the light will break from a different side of the face).
Next I made Luxo fully functional in SU physics and saved him at different positions that served as templates. Then I put them on a path that was divided in segments to match the desired fps rate and rotated Luxo’s head and the base plate for each copy (100 Mb file in the end ). The process was kind of similar for all the animation.
Brought the models in the “stage” with 8 omnis for a softer shadow and rendered them one by one. There were more than 250 frames in the end with an average rendering time of 3 minutes, with optimal presets and 1216 x 676 resolution.
The final step was to put all the frames in Sony Vegas studio and synchronise them with the audio track and add the signature” says “Speaker” (as if it were that simple and easy).
Read more (and see higher resolution images and video) in the forum topic.
Alejandro Vasquez has posted a short but possibly very useful tutorial about his workflow from SketchUp to Blender via Collada (zipped in the kmz export from both Google SketchUp Free and Pro).
See the tutorial here but when you are there, don’t forget to visit his website, too – it’s well worth a good look!
It seems that I should have been much more active in modelling for GE… Maybe next time.
“Starting tomorrow, August 6th, twenty Google Earth 3D modelers will join us in Boulder, Colorado for a two-day conference. These super modelers are flying in from locations around the world; including, Brazil, Belgium, Germany, Poland, United Kingdom, Argentina, and around the US. They have created and published hundreds of beautifully detailed 3D models in Google Earth.”
Autodesk has just announced Connection Extension for 3ds Max Design 2010. The extension allows enhanced interoperability with CAD packages, streamlined compositing with OpenEXR and extensive connectivity with Google SketchUp.
Develop a concept in Google SketchUp software and finesse it in 3ds Max Design. The Connection Extension for 3ds Max Design 2010 features a powerful new SKP file translator that enables you to bring SketchUp scenes into 3ds Max Design with a high degree of data preservation. And 3ds Max Design can now read thousands of free SketchUp models from the 3D Warehouse section of the Google website. The SKP translator includes:
Support for the double-faced materials workflow available in SketchUp, so arbitrary surface orientations don’t cause models to appear to be missing faces when displayed in 3ds Max Design.
Preservation of original pivot and scaling values of objects and instances, so designers don’t have to redo work.
Consolidation of material references. Multiple uses of the same SketchUp material are collected and referenced back to a single material, saving designers time if a change is required.
“While one half of the developers were busy with the 2.5 project, the other half happily continued working on directly usable and useful features in Blender. Especially advances in the Game Engine justifies having a well tested, bug fixed and stable 2.49a release”
Visit the site and check the impressive long list of features!
Yet another cool and useful tutorial video on the proper methods to build models for Google Earth in Google SketchUp. Read more or watch the video below.
While Interiors contains many furniture items and accessories, users will always find they need something different for that new design they are working on. That is why Interiors has support for importing both the 3DS file format and also Google Sketchup files!
Though a Mac only application for the time being, the ability of importing skp files shows SketchUP continuously becoming and “industry standard” in 3D modelling.
E-on software, in association with Maxon, Pixologic, 3D Total, 3Dconnexion, 3D World magazine and Cornucopia3D, is inviting participants to the “Vue 3D Environment Competition 2009″. With judges that are leading experts in the major fields of the 3D entertainment industry, this competition represents a unique chance to get noticed, and win a complete 3D arsenal at the same time!
Schedule:
Submission period: June 15 – July 20, 2009.
Finalists announced: July 31, 2009.
Winners announced: Siggraph 2009, August 04 – 06, New Orleans.
“MAXON Computer, a leading developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions, today announced that CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D are now available at special prices to 3D artists wanting to enhance their current 3D arsenal.”
Although there is an emphasis on “enhance” (and of course you should check out the “Qualifying Software” list), still a good option for those who have any of the applications listed and planning to purchase either programs.
). The process was kind of similar for all the animation.
