You can be a Hot Dog with SketchUp

Even if you're not a computer hot dog, you won't need your courage mustered with SketchUp. Most of us don't relish the idea of digesting new software, but the online tutorials are quite easy to stomach, and you'll be able to devour them without biting off more than you can chew.

Okay, I'll stop.

Recently, I was asked to write a how-to article about Sketchup 7.0 for a special edition of LinuxPro Magazine. SketchUp is a free 3D modeling application available from the benevolent behemoth, Google. You have heard of Google, right?

The problem with such an assignment is that SketchUp doesn't seem difficult enough to warrant much instruction. It's so easy to use that I had difficulty thinking of more than one sentence to write: "Open SketchUp and start drawing stuff."

But I was being paid by the page, so I knew I needed a more robust approach. Besides, there are countless online forums, blog posts, and video tutorials that describe pretty much everything you need to know. With such a vast support network, even Pepe Le Pew could build a model of the Eiffel Tower before you could say, "Freedom Fries."

So I considered writing the article about how to build models of typical residential rooms and furniture in case the readers wanted to see how new counter tops or cabinets might look in their kitchen. That idea left me with visions of my daughter rolling her eyes at me with, as the song goes, "her finger and her thumb in the shape of an 'L' on her forehead."

I knew my project had to be something fun to build. It had to demonstrate SketchUp's usefulness not just to hobbyists and woodworkers, but also to professional artists. It had to be fun and relatively simple to build. But most importantly, it had to be totally unverifiable in the real world.

So I decided on a Googlebot. Read on...



As much as I'd like to claim it, inventing a physical form for Googlebot is not my own idea, nor is it new to the online community of bored bloggers. But I don't think I've seen an interpretation that crosses the Spyder three-wheel motorcycle with Disney's Wall-E. This little guy could sniff out a relevant anchor tag from fifty paces, even if it were hopelessly buried under a deep heap of bloated code.

Building a Googlebot step-by-step would hopefully show how 3D modeling can be a valuable tool for facilitating an artist's creativity and imagination, not just project planning for an armchair architect. The usefulness of a lightweight, flexible program like SketchUp comes from quick and accurate insight into the nature of 3D objects: the play of light and shadow on their surfaces, and the effect that various perspective viewpoints have on them. For my own work, having a tool that helps me quickly block-out the rough shape of an object so I can experiment with lighting and texture effects is priceless. And the fact that SketchUp is literally priceless doesn't hurt either.

To keep the article relatively simple, several of the major pieces and parts of my Googlebot were built ahead of time: I made the model of the wheel while the binoculars were made by a SketchUp user with the screen name Birdman. Both models are available through Google's 3D Warehouse.



Although the article is rather matter-of-fact in its description of how to use the Move, Scale, Rotate, and Push/Pull tools to build the remaining components of the Googlebot, it also reveals a few insider tips and tricks to make these tools do more than they you might expect. The Scale tool, for example, can be manipulated into becoming a mirror tool, an explicit function that SketchUp lacks.


The free version of SketchUp is not intended for modeling with a high level of accuracy or detail. Both are possible, but if you're after photo-realistic renderings worthy of gaming or fantasy art, better stick with SketchUp Pro, Swift3D, 3DS Max, or any of the dozens of other mighty titans in the industry. I own a copy of Swift3D, and SketchUp will never replace it, just like my computer will never replace my pencil. Use the right tool for the right job.

With that in mind, it's imporatant to realize that all surfaces in SketchUp are either purely planar or are made up of a series of faceted planes. Arcs, circles, and curved surfaces are not really curved; they are polygonal. They may appear curved but that's only because the number of faces on the polygons are high enough that your eye doesn't pick them up. On the plus side, that keeps computations to a minimum. But it also prohibits highly accurate modeling of undulating surfaces like the curvaceous hood of a '53 Mercury. Those things can still be represented, but only with a series of interconnected triangular patches that only approximate the surface. You can soften the edges between the triangles to further improve the appearance, but the results are still approximations that don't stand up to close scrutiny.

But no matter. Accuracy isn't the point here; it's expediency, visualization, and insight. And SketchUp is masterful at all three.

So check out the articls online or pick up a copy of the Linux Pro Magazine Special Edition at newsstands everywhere.

Now, back to the drawing board.

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It's a Back Alley Brawl, Y'all

Here's a family feud that car fanatics have wrassled over for nearly 40 years:

Two cars from one car company, both archetypal muscle cars of the late 60's and early 70's, both designed and marketed to lure torque-starved gearheads away from hot-selling Mustangs and Camaros. These two cars are so embedded in automotive lore that arguments over the superiority of each is the subject of bar stool ballyhoo and online forum fights to this day. In a time when design sensibilities change so rapidly that it's an insult to say, "that's so 2004," the fact that this argument has survived across a generation is a testament to the timeless appeal of these classic cars.

Charger vs. Challenger. Read on...




This illustration is an expanded version of a simpler one I made for my graphic design partner Justin Kite for the promotion of the upcoming Gear Grinder car show in Kansas City, MO on April 17th and 18th. The poster version loses the background buildings to give Justin more elbow room for his design. Limited edition prints of both the promotional poster and the full illustration will be on sale at the show.

For dynamic scenes like these, my usual process would normally have started with a series of thumbnail sketches showing varying points of view, car orientations, and lighting schemes. After selecting the one that the client and I liked, I'd work up a pencil rough of the entire scene before inking, scanning, and embellishing with digital enhancements. Using this process, a scene like this would take, on average, six to eight hours to finish. That's not out of the ordinary for illustration work, but I've been working recently on updating my workflow to reduce the number of early thumbnail sketches I need to get the design layout established. It's hard to call any process that includes a scanner and Photoshop "old school," but that's pretty much what it's becoming.

I now use Google SketchUp to build rough, block models of the major components - in this case, the three cars and the buildings - and push them around the scene until I get the pose I like. The models aren't at all detailed; I'm just careful to locate the wheels at the proper wheelbase and track width, and I try to model the basic body proportions so that they match the car model and year I'll be drawing. To add a sense of motion, I can steer the wheels and roll the bodies against the direction of the turn. I can even change the shadows by varying the sun angle and time of day, all before graphite ever hits paper.

Once the scene is defined in SketchUp, I can print out a low-res .jpeg that I export from the model and use it as an underlay for the detailed sketch. For this scene, I used the same model for all three cars - the Charger, the Challenger, and the cop car in the background. Dozens of photo references of the real cars helped me make the final drawings look accurate. The SketchUp model even provided rough locations for the buildings so I could quickly overlay details like bricks, windows, exhaust hoods, and flying trash cans.

For now, I'm not saving much time in the overall process because of the front-loaded time suck involved in building the models. But once I have generic block models of a few trucks, hot rods, and muscle cars, I'll have a handy kit of parts for any new project.

Now back to the drawing board.

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Two New Cool Tools

For my latest logo design, I've added two new arrows to my quiver of illustration tools: Google SketchUp and The Complete Color Index by Jim Krause.

The logo job was for a new software application called Topshelf. According to the software authors, Topshelf is a "lightweight framework for building Windows services using the .NET framework." This means nothing to me. But programmer, web developer, and beefy flinger of heavy steel billets Dru Sellers asked me to design a logo for the new app. Read on...



To get the basic layout, I used Google SketchUp to build simple masses for the shelf, bottles, and text. This free 3D modeling program has become my go-to tool for quick perspective and shading studies. (I'll be writing a lot more on how I use SketchUp in the next week or so.) After spinning the model around to get the POV I wanted, I sketched over a printout of the model, and then added details like shapes for the bottle caps, the liquid inside, the labels, and the white glassy highlights.

For the color scheme, I cracked open my new copy of The Complete Color Index by Jim Krause. It's a fan-friggin-tastic reference for quickly scanning and finding the perfect combination of colors. Dru told me ahead of time that he wanted greens to be prominent. That was enough to go on, but had this been a big job, I probably would have toted this compact, two-volume treasury to the kickoff meeting and guided the client through several color combinations. As it turned out, the very first combo I picked was enthusiastically approved.

In the final design, Dru and his cadre of creative code-cronies decided on a slightly simplified version, but the basic design is intact.
Now back to the drawing board.

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