Lighting plugin for Sketchup

[Electraglide]

Hi,

 

I've been developing a plug-in for Sketchup that does realtime soft shadows and lighting all inside Sketchup. Its called LightUp and I've just put a new version up on a server from which you can download a free demo.

 

Its at light-up dot co dot uk

 

Its available for Win32 and Mac (Intel & PPC) and you might find it interesting.

 

Let me know what you think.

 

Adam

[Slinger]

I'll check it out when I get home, but could you please give a bit more details on it. Show some screen shots or are they on your site?

[Slinger]

OK visiting your site now. Seems pretty interesting. My only thing is that this is within a sketch-up model. Our firm and my own home use, use Podium for photo-realistic renderings. I am not really sure why we would use your plug-in.

Could you give some more insite into it's use for final models please?

 

 

BTW, you a member on the Podium forums?

[Electraglide]

OK visiting your site now. Seems pretty interesting. My only thing is that this is within a sketch-up model. Our firm and my own home use, use Podium for photo-realistic renderings. I am not really sure why we would use your plug-in.

Could you give some more insite into it's use for final models please?

 

 

BTW, you a member on the Podium forums?

 

LightUp is very much in the spirit of SketchUp; its about quickly exploring lighting possibilities in an environment that is very close - in every sense - to your modeling environment.

 

So first and foremost LightUp is interactive. It runs within Sketchup, but it replaces the Sketchup rendering with its own lit rendering so you can walk around your models and get a real sense of how your lighting rig is working.

Being able to explore a model with lighting "on" like this means you can much more easily experiment with shots that you can then send to a high quality non-realtime renderer like Podium.

 

So LightUp is a complementary tool to your existing rendering technology rather than a replacement.

 

Thats it in a nutshell.

 

Adam

[lionels]

hi i use sketch up for most of my architectural visualizations and i can see where this plugin can be useful as it requires no external rendering and it produces quick output of the quality of the spaces which to me would be a great tool for the design process.

[Slinger]

LightUp is very much in the spirit of SketchUp; its about quickly exploring lighting possibilities in an environment that is very close - in every sense - to your modeling environment.

 

So first and foremost LightUp is interactive. It runs within Sketchup, but it replaces the Sketchup rendering with its own lit rendering so you can walk around your models and get a real sense of how your lighting rig is working.

Being able to explore a model with lighting "on" like this means you can much more easily experiment with shots that you can then send to a high quality non-realtime renderer like Podium.

 

So LightUp is a complementary tool to your existing rendering technology rather than a replacement.

 

Thats it in a nutshell.

 

Adam

Thanks Adam. Now you say it replaces Sketch-up's lighting environment. Is that by deleting out sketch-ups sun settings and such or can we still sue them as well?

[Electraglide]

Thanks Adam. Now you say it replaces Sketch-up's lighting environment. Is that by deleting out sketch-ups sun settings and such or can we still sue them as well?

 

Well you can sue them all you like, but leave me out.

 

Seriously, yes it honors SketchUp Sun position etc, but with a richer rendering model.

 

So this is a vanilla SketchUp view:

[ATTACH]27340[/ATTACH]

 

LightUp in Ambient Occlusion mode:

[ATTACH]27341[/ATTACH]

 

And LightUp with Ambient Occlusion + Direct lights (including sun)

[ATTACH]27342[/ATTACH]

 

The difference being, in LightUp mode, you can walk around these models looking like that.

 

Adam

[AJLynn]

So does LightUp bake the AO and shadows and then let you use Sketchup animation? That sounds pretty cool.

[Electraglide]

So does LightUp bake the AO and shadows and then let you use Sketchup animation? That sounds pretty cool.

 

Yes, and it illuminates not just with the Sun, but with point lights and area lights too:

 

[ATTACH]27343[/ATTACH]

 

 

And yes, you can use Scenes but because LU has full collision you can wander around too which can be useful - I've found soo much dodgy texturing like that!

 

It also does hires screenshots (9000x6000) so you can twiddle in post.

 

Adam

[Electraglide]

So does LightUp bake the AO and shadows and then let you use Sketchup animation? That sounds pretty cool.

 

Something more appropriate to this forum, the Sponza building lit with LightUp and running inside Sketchup:

 

youtube.com/watch?v=KANx9iUqiWM

[Slinger]

Yes, and it illuminates not just with the Sun, but with point lights and area lights too:

 

[ATTACH]27343[/ATTACH]

 

 

And yes, you can use Scenes but because LU has full collision you can wander around too which can be useful - I've found soo much dodgy texturing like that!

 

It also does hires screenshots (9000x6000) so you can twiddle in post.

 

Adam

Now that is awesome...gonna take a look at it this weekend.

[siliconbauhaus]

Brilliant.....going to play with this today

[monkeypoo]

hi i am 14 and i need help with the lighting how do i start it up

[malevy]

Hey everyone this is my son Josh so go easy on him he is just learning sketchup and 3DS max.. Any problems please email me and ill hang him by his toe nails lol

hi i am 14 and i need help with the lighting how do i start it up

[Electraglide]

Oh, I replied to your/son's other thread:

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/31734-lighting.html

 

Adam

[bing1370]

Yes, and it illuminates not just with the Sun, but with point lights and area lights too:

 

[ATTACH]27343[/ATTACH]

 

 

And yes, you can use Scenes but because LU has full collision you can wander around too which can be useful - I've found soo much dodgy texturing like that!

 

It also does hires screenshots (9000x6000) so you can twiddle in post.

 

Adam

 

Ive tried the demo version of lightup but when i use it and follow some tutorials it didnt work the image turn it to black can anyone help me with this?

[Electraglide]

Hi,

 

Not exactly sure what you mean.

 

Do you have any light sources in your model? Perhaps check 'Use Sun' to confirm that you can get some lighting.

 

Which tutorial are you trying to follow?

 

Adam