basic questions

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hockmen
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basic questions

Post by hockmen » Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:24 am

Hello

i'm realy new in this. i experimented with this sketchup plugin for almost a hour. i searched the forum and internet after a couple of beginner questions, but didn't get these.

maybe this is a good sticky for your forum?

- where do i save the materials? do you need to do something after saving to have them in your material box?
- when i do a default render the image looks grungy/pixalated. what do you need to do to avoid this?

- can somebody write a tutorial with screenshots for every step you take when adding a material to an object.

- share your rendersettings with screenshots.


these are default questions a noob has when opening this plugin. i hope you all can explain these questions. i think this is good for your community.

regards
Hockmen

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Pibuz
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Post by Pibuz » Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:37 pm

...do you need some help or you just want us to post a doc for everybody?

hockmen
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Post by hockmen » Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:06 pm

i need help :-)

but if you can make a doc where you can explain something to somebody with no experience would be nice!

you are an expert. would be nice to learn from the expert, but i need to understand. i don't speak your expert language yet.

regards
hockmen

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Pibuz
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Post by Pibuz » Mon Dec 01, 2008 11:35 pm

Ok, fine. A SkIndigo FAQ is a current wip of mine.

Now, to get down to your business, i'd try to answer you:
1. Save materials? You mean, a sort of .mat file to be re-used in following scenes? I've never done that, so i don't really know if it's possible or not (it's also important to know what version of skindigo you are running); but i know a useful story: skindigo materials are stored withing the sketchup file you render, and applied to objects. So, once you find the correct values for the mats of your objects, you just have to save the object file and then import it into a new scene. It will render correctly. It works with groups components and every generic geometry sketchup handles.

I once made a "cube" scene, in which you could apply textures (diffuse, bump and exponent, etc etc) that define the mat properties. Then, in my mind, you could save the skp cube file with the name of the mat, and then anyone could have his library of "cube mats". Then it would have been sufficient to import the desired mat's cube into the scene and apply the correct texture in the model and it would render correctly. It's a sort of workaround, but could be a solution.

2. To answer your question n.2 i need an image of your output. Sorry..

3. The pdf tut about setting mats and applying them to objects is another wip of mine :wink:

4. I think you're right about sharing render settings, but they're not always so important, you'll see. Indigo is an unbiased render engine, so there are pretty few parameters to set, and generally they don't concern the render QUALITY, but only his lightness or color correction. I can surely give hints about shutter speed, f-stop etc etc but most of the time it's up to you to decide which is the best combination for your scene.
So, i'll include some render parameters tips in another wip tutorial, if it could be of any help.

hockmen
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Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:06 am

Post by hockmen » Tue Dec 02, 2008 2:40 am

thanks for our reply!

about question 1
i mean when i download a material in your material database of this site.
it has another file naming.
not .mat

where do i save them?

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Pibuz
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Post by Pibuz » Tue Dec 02, 2008 3:02 am

Oh: wherever you want on your C:
Then, you should IMPORT them into the scene, but i quite sure you can't import materials from database with SkIndigo stable version 1.09...

hockmen
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Post by hockmen » Tue Dec 02, 2008 6:30 am

i realy don't get it. :-(

i download a .pigm file on my C
but what after that?

press load in your skindigo material editor?
or
what?

realy don't understand the rendering module.

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Pibuz
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Post by Pibuz » Tue Dec 02, 2008 11:34 am

I tell you: i don't know. Never used that feature. Try to LOAD it and see what happens. It may take a while importing a pigm mat, 'cos i remember that skindigo splits up the sub-components of the imported material, still mantaining their hierachy. Then, once imported, try appplying the root material to your object (the diffuse map only). And see what happens. I'm really not the right guy to ask importing mat stuff to..sorry...

What about the rendering module? Make yourself clearer, so i can help you in some way...

hockmen
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Post by hockmen » Tue Dec 02, 2008 9:15 pm

how do you work than?
you never add a texture or material to your objects?

rendering module.
my renders are crispy en pixelated.

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Pibuz
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Post by Pibuz » Wed Dec 03, 2008 2:12 am

Of course, i add textures and materials!
Simply, i never import pigm from a downloaded database, that's all. I work with parameters and presets from time to time, for every material. I don' like re-using a mat, i prefer by far making new materials each time.

Simple question: you already know that you don't have to load a pigm material if you don't want to, but you can set every material from scratch starting from sketch materials, do you?


BTW, I can't help you in any way about the crispness of your render until you post an example, hock.

crojack
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Post by crojack » Wed Dec 03, 2008 11:23 am

start here-

http://www.indigorenderer.com/joomla/fo ... sc&start=0

and than come back with questions.

:)

rogal
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Post by rogal » Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:54 pm

about the "graininess" of the output picture. that's how unbiased renderers work: the longer you render the lower the noise. cant help it.

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