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Tutorial - How to setup your camera view for rendering

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:48 pm
by Whaat
SkIndigo works a bit different than the Kerkythea exporter (which many SU users are familiar with). SU2KT exports your camera as the size of your current viewport. So, if your current viewport dimensions are 945 pixels by 634 pixels, that will be the aspect ratio and size of your camera view when you open the model in Kerkythea. That is all well and good because you can adjust your camera settings (focal length, image size, etc.) after you export. SkIndigo sets all of the camera parameters within Sketchup. This is how to set up your camera for rendering. If you do this correctly, your render output should match exactly what you see in Sketchup.

Step 1. Open Render Settings and set the width and height of your rendered image. Once set, this will immediately set the Sketchup camera aspect ratio. As a result, you will probably see black bars on the sides of the viewport showing where the image will be clipped. For some reason (possibly a bug) Sketchup may zoom in or out after setting the aspect ratio.

Step 2. I recommend adjusting your field of view (angle of view) at this time. This is done with the Field of View tool in the Camera menu.
If you are doing an interior view and you do this step after positioning your camera, you will likely have clipping problems.

Step 3. Position your camera using the tools in Sketchup (Position Camera, Walk, Look Around, etc.)

Step 4. Save your view as a new scene! Make sure the 'scenes' tab is open and either create a new scene or update an existing one (right-click on a scene tab and select update)

Step 5. You might want to name the scene 'Indigo 1' for example and disable the scene for animation using the Scene Manager.

Step 6. If desired, use the SkIndigo Set Focus Tool to focus the camera on a precise point. If not used, the default focus distance is 2.0 meters. You may have to increase the aperture size in order to see the depth of field effect.

Step 7. Render the scene. The render should appear exactly as what is shown between the black bars in the Sketchup viewport.

Step 8. Try setting up other views in the same manner using different camera locations. If you have selected a focal point, that point will always be in focus no matter where you position the camera.

Step 9. If you change the width and height of the render after you have setup your camera, be sure to keep the ratio the same, or your camera view will change.

Step 10. If you wish to remove the black bars, set the width to 0 in Render Settings.

I hope this tutorial clears up any confusion about how SkIndigo handles the camera export settings.

Whaat

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 10:05 am
by ryo
Yes!
Thanks a lot again, maaaaaster :D