Google Tools

Ctrl+Awesome

I may be out of the loop on this, but I just stumbled accross one of Google's tools called Google Sketchup. Appaerntly it's their shot at trying to create a user firendly, streamlined 3D application. Mostly I see this more in compotition woth AutoCAD than Max, Maya and the such but knowing that google is an evergrowing company I could easily think something like this could expand in to our modeling and animation softwares. I thought it was pretty a pretty cool attempt and am wondering how it will do in the future.
At first I thoguht it was a 2D sketching application like Alias sketchbook, although im sure that would be something that google would perhaps create later down the line.

Link: http://sketchup.google.com/

Well, so when I saw this I thought of this place and was wondering what you guys thought or of it's anything worth mentioning at all.

Happy Holidays.

skrubbles

Skethup has been around for a while now. It's a cool little application... especially for those that are new to 3D and/or don't have higher-end modeling tools. It's been getting pretty popular in the comic book industry. It seems like a bunch of artists are using it to set up compositions and quickly get perspective shots of buildings to work from... speeding up their workflow.

Ged

Its not bad for a free tool. Quite fun really. have you seen the vray sketchup renders? it must be getting pretty popular with the architecture crowd for a version of vray to be released for it. By the way if your 3D app of choice doesnt support autocad files I think sketchup version 4 had free autocad import and obj export built in too bad the latest versions dont have this feature unless you pay or something

Eric Chadwick

Here's a guy using Sketchup for game assets. Interesting approach.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=39&t=366358

pior

As a matter of fact someone posted an impressive gundam-like all done in Sketchup here on Polycount.

And yeah Sketchup is indeed quite popular amongst the architecture crowd - back at school we used it way before it was aquired by Google. I remember a teacher specialized in wooden frame and buildings actually used it alot for his professional works. Nice little program.

StJoris

Seconded, indeed popular with the architecture crowd. I'm doing bsc 1 in architecture, though it's mainly the new students that don't know maya or max that use it. I have yet to see a proffessor use it in his works though

Jeremy Wright

Yeah, I use this at work a bit. You have to realize, not everyone in the world is as computer savy as they wish they were and a lower-end 3d tool that's easy to use is what they need. We use it for design/pre-design and for interference checking. I just import the 2D CAD plans and go from there (like putting a puzzle together). Here's the most recent thing I did for work, a Holiday Inn in Kemah, TX:

Lee3dee

i used sketchup for pre-production of levels. It's great for quickly creating concepts and showing how the level will progress, then you can quickly change something as opposed to rebuilding the level again.

8FtSpider: that building is kick ass! Did you turn alot of the model into construction groups?

Jeremy Wright

yup, all of the windows, doors, etc are SketchUp components which behave like Max's instance. So, once I've got them in place as just a basic rectangle shape, then I can detail or texture one of them later, and all of them will be updated.

It took me about one 8 hr day to do that model. Importing the CAD files and setting them up (setting up the elevations around the floor plan) really facilitates quick modeling, and since I drew most of the CAD drawings, I was pretty familiar with the building before I started modeling it.

Slum

level designers at raven use sketchup for planning structure and stuff.. in fact i think its a requirement. good stuff, and easy to use

pliang

Used it and still loving it.

Jay Evans

Level designers at Slant Six are using it as well. Pre-vis, layout, planning etc. I think it's in our level designer job description.

Ged

wow that holiday inn looks quite good, I should do some more tutorials in sketchup and figure out how to get the most out of it cause it seems pretty random to me. Can you get the standard 4 views somehow?