Jason T Clark.net

Well, I’ve started working on my first Sketchup build.  As promised, I’ve decided to blog about it.  With no textures, I simply imported a topographical image from Google Earth into Sketchup, then used that as my basis for building out the foot print of my build:

As you can see, the building that I’m trying to make a build of is the *infamous* Cameron indoor stadium, the place where your illustrious Duke Blue Devils call home court.  Currently, the build has no textures applied, since finding outside pictures of the facility has been somewhat difficult.  But, my main dilemma is finding out the proper elevations for the building itself, in an effort to ensure that I’ve got the correct heights for the model.

So next steps for me is finding out how to effectively get reference points for the various heights of the building, and then applying the textures to the individual faces of the build.  If need be, I may just run over to Durham and take the pictures myself.

Stay Tuned!

Hi all,

It’s been a few days since my last post, so it’s about time for me share *something* with my “public” (all 8 of you). Since building up my expertise on the wonderful technology behind Multiverse (by the way, look out for the next episode of “Experimenting with Multiverse”), I’ve since seen some interesting models created using a tool called Google Sketchup. I’m sure you’ve heard of it- it’s Google’s 3D modelling tool that’s typically used for creating models for Google Earth- however, it’s become more than that. Game Designers, and Modelers alike have found that Sketchup is a quick way to get your ideas fleshed out with minimal investment. In combination with Google Layout, you can use Sketchup to not only create models, but to also create vivid presentations and storyboards.

You can come up to speed fairly quickly with Sketchup. It took me close to the length of a 5min YouTube video to learn how to create a decent chair model in Sketchup. As the models become more complex, you can employ various techniques to get your models shaped correctly. I’m learning that as I go…..

One neat idea that I liked was the fact that you can model buildings to entire cities for use on Google Earth. For example, someone used Sketchup to create this model of the Eiffel Tower(pictured on the right):

Then, they were able to export it from Sketchup to Google Earth (pictured on the left). Pretty nifty, no? (OK, bad attempt to sound French) Anyway, all this stuff most people in the know….know. Let me get something cool modeled in Sketchup, and then I’ll come back and WOW you, OK?