Indigo Renderer Forum

I was wondering if anyone knows some good tricks on how to render successfully landscape scenes (e.g. a building with a garden). I am trying to find some vegetation components in SketchUp that render well but I have been unsuccesssful so far.

Hello, I´m new here too, but also using Sketchup and Indigo.
I found this site with very nice plants, http://xfrog.com/category/XB.html
The files are in .3ds but you can import them into Sketchup, they are heavy but nice to render...

Also here, a good collection, small plants but good for render.
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ ... revstart=0
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ ... revstart=0

If you need smaller size plants try searching for 2d rotating trees and plants in Sketchup components.

There is a program (which I have never used) to create stunning landscapes, here is the link.
http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vu ... /complete/

I hope this helps...

Thank you

..OR you can use the new feature of SkIndigo which allows the use of externale meshes. I find that obj files work very well, and there are some free models you can download from the xfrog site.

Use Whaat's rapid guide to link the external mesh to a simpler Skethup object (to make the SU scene lighter, if possible..)

Pibuz wrote:..OR you can use the new feature of SkIndigo which allows the use of externale meshes. I find that obj files work very well, and there are some free models you can download from the xfrog site.

Use Whaat's rapid guide to link the external mesh to a simpler Skethup object (to make the SU scene lighter, if possible..)

Here's what Pibuz is talking about.

This has changed slightly since 3.0.15 as now you target the external mesh from the "object editor" window.

Rendering landscapes is very time consuming! I've been trying to get around to finishing one for ages but I haven't been able to justify burning the time on it.

Thanks for the topic & the link.
We have instanced grass but not trees.
We do a lot of rural projects with lots of landscape & our modeling of it is just ok but not realistic (see recently posted projects)
We have been using lots of 2d plants & textures for ground cover with marginal success & even those increase SU's file size beyond manageability (200-300mb)
So we need to try instancing trees and some other kind of ground covers.
Thanks again!

davidbaird wrote:Thanks for the topic & the link.
We have been using lots of 2d plants & textures for ground cover with marginal success & even those increase SU's file size beyond manageability (200-300mb)
So we need to try instancing trees and some other kind of ground covers.
Thanks again!

Hey David,

I think you'll find that even with regular instancing your files will become unwieldy. You'll need to try using external references for all your vegetation to get all those files out of sketchup. It's still in "beta" so to speak, but it works. Be warned that the workflow is enormously time consuming but once you get it setup it'll work like a charm.

Yes, I saw the post about external referencing & I need to test that!

A recent finished Indigo art work that uses 3d trees, plants & ground cover makes our images look like grade school work.

I don't think we have a choice but to figure it out & start using 3d landscape components!!!

Thanks