Architectural_Design_with_SketchUp

Architectural Design with SketchUp
TIP
When creating renderings with difficult light situations (as in this case, where we show
the inside of a room that is artificially lit as well as the sunlit exterior), it is a good idea not
to create renderings that are “too perfect.”
One approach is to look at photographs with similar light situations and evaluate the
imperfections, then try to apply a subtle effect that is at least similar to the rendering.
Don’t overdo it, though, or your rendering will look fake.
Examples are:
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Overexposed exterior backgrounds for interior renderings
Light blooming in interiors (overexposure of light sources)
Vignetting (a fuzzy darkening toward the edges of the image)
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Lens flare (a flare within a photographic lens caused by a point light source with high
intensity—e.g., the sun)
Typically, you can apply many of these in postprocessing in your image-editing software
more effectively than in the rendering software itself. However, some rendering software
lets you add these effects automatically.
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Night Renderings
Figure 5.34: Night rendering (top: only artificial lights and dark
blue sky color; bottom: gradient background, light blue low-intensity
sun to simulate moonlight)
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A common problem with sky renderings occurs when we
want to render night scenes. In these scenes, we typically
rely on artificial lights such as point or spotlights for
illumination. However, when we use only those for our
renderings, we generally find the result to be dull, badly
illuminated, and uninteresting. You can see an example of
this at the top of Figure 5.34.
The bottom of Figure 5.34 illustrates a solution to this
problem. Instead of using a solid background or sky color,
this rendering uses a subtle gradient image. Furthermore,
the scene is illuminated not just by the artificial lights but
also by the sun—in this case, doubling as moonlight. After
all, the night sky is seldom absolutely dark.
This approach gives the image more depth and general
illumination. While this method isn’t always appropriate,
it is easy to execute. Just set the sun intensity very low
in your rendering software and apply a bluish color to it.
You may have to experiment a bit with the settings, but
it is quite easy to create a moonlight effect using the sun.
Alternatively, you could go with an evening mood in
your rendered image instead of a night shot. Try to create
a sky that looks like the sun has just set, and start illuminating
the scene from there.