Enscape Objects in SketchUpUnlike Revit, SketchUp does not have a way to facilitate light sources. To deal with this shortcoming, the Enscape team created a tool within SketchUp, to add special objects which are recognized in Enscape; light sources, sound sources and proxy objects.
In this post, I will focus on the light sources.The next two images simply show the exhibit model in the native SketchUp application. This is a commercial lobby composed of various items downloaded from SketchUp’s. Take a minute to notice the various light fixtures and materials employed. Just starting Enscape in any SketchUp model can have pretty nice results as shown in the image below. However, there are no electric light sources, just natural daylight. Also, the are all generally flat with no surface sheen or reflectances.Before Example: SketchUp model initially opened in EnscapeThe next image jumps ahead and shows the final results of adding lighting sources and adding keywords to a few material names. It is easy to see the added effect of the additional light sources and the material adjustments.
In SketchUp, making a scene doesn’t disturb anybody. In fact, scenes help you save different model views and properties and then present those views to other people. When you create a scene, a tab appears at the top of the drawing area, so you can simply click the tab to display the saved view. In the following figure, you can see how several views of the Victorian-style house are saved as.
Refer back to the first image in this post and observe the quality of the wood on the reception desk.After Example: SketchUp model opened in EnscapeTo place a light source, from within SketchUp, select Extensions - Enscape - Enscape Objects as shown in the image below.Starting the Enscape Objects commandThe Enscape Objects dialog appears. From here you can place new objects and edit previously placed ones.In this example, a Spotlight object was placed relative to the recessed can fixtures in the ceiling. When selected, we can adjust the Luminous Intensity and Beam Angle another option is to assign a photometric IES file to get a more accurate product-based light distribution; these files are provided by the light fixture manufacturers.Enscape Object placed and selected; SpotlightIn this next example, shown in the image below, I have placed a Pointlight and selected it. This object type only offers the Luminous Intensity adjustment. So, for aiming and photometry you need to use the Spotlight rather than the Pointlight option.Enscape Object placed and selected; PointlightSimply use the regular SketchUp Move and Copy tools on the Enscape light sources.The following video represents a live recording of the screen to highlight the fluid real-time experience possible while designing or presenting to a client.
Be sure to notice the results of the light sources, especially near the end when the time of day is changed. Materials in SketchUpEven easier than adding light sources in SketchUp is the ability to dramatically affect the way in which materials are rendered in Enscape. There are still some limitations but, let it be known that this will improve in the near future!Currently, there are a number of keywords Enscape looks for when reading. The following image highlights a few of the keywords and their result in Enscape.
ConclusionThe images in this post speak for themselves for the most part. If you use SketchUp and would like to quickly take your design visualization to the next level in terms of graphic realism, then Enscape is the tool for you! And kick the tires yourself to see just how easy it is.To close out this post, I have included a few more from this sample SketchUp model.
![Vray Vray](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125555631/551745656.jpg)
By the way, none of the images in this article have any post production meaning I did not use Photoshop to adjust colors, brightness, contrast, etc.
Interior Lighting with LightUp for SketchUpBy Adam BllyardThe following tutorial will take you step by step through the process of rigging lighting in SketchUp for rendering in. LightUp for SketchUp is a SketchUp plugin that adds realistic, realtime lighting to your SketchUp models. This particular model was used on a Italian 3ds Max/V-Ray site and is called the ‘Tatami Room’.
We will use it in this tutorial.You can download the SketchUp model if you want to follow along. Its available on the LightUp website. After downloading it, open up the file in SketchUp and open the LightUp preferences dialog. More Definition in Sun ShadowsAdding in Ambient OcclusionOK, next we are going to blend in some Ambient Occlusion (AO) to give some fill-in lighting. We do this by opening the LightUp preferences and changing the drop-down menu for “Combine with AO” to “Screen”.You will see that an extra menu unfolds to reveal the parameters for AO. AO works by calculating how much non-directional local shadowing there is.
![Model Model](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125555631/171409563.jpg)
It does this by searching for nearby geometry that could occlude the ambient lighting in your scene, so it is normal to give some cut-off beyond which the software won’t search.The reason this is particularly neccessary for interior models is because all of your scene is oclluded a little which would result in total blackness. So in LightUp, the preset “Interior” searches for 10% of the size of your model, “Exterior” for the full size of your mode, and “Custom” allows you to input an absolute distance beyond which not to search.We’ll start with “Interior” and leave everything as the default. Go ahead and press Tourtool. More Natural LookReflectionsWith the lighting pretty much there, we want to turn our attention to editing our materials to add reflections. First up is the glass table in the center of the room. While in Tourtool, we can click on any material we see to edit it’s properties.The table top uses a material that is just used on flat surfaces – the table itself, so LightUp can automatically generate realtime reflections for it. By adding Specular and Fresnel, we can now see the table reflect the room in a realistic manner.
Add Specular and FresnelThe couch at the back of the room has a curved metal frame which we also want to set as reflective. Because the material is on a curved geometry, we’ll need to place a LightUp IrrCache nearby to capture the surrounding lighting to be used for realtime reflections.The technique used in LightUp to place an IrrCache, is first to navigate down the Group/Component Instance hierarchy to the object you wish to make reflective. An IrrCache Component is then added nearby and the IrrCache and Component you wish to be reflective all Grouped together.