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Lets get started!
1. In SketchUp, save a Scene under View>Animation>Save Scene, that you want to use for the illustration that way you can get back to the same view later if need be.
2. Switch the Face Style to “Hidden Line”. Under View>Edge Style, check “Display Edges.” Make sure Shadows are off.

Step 2. Change Face Style

3. Go to File>Export>2D Graphic and save the image as a JPEG.
4. With the Face Style still set to “Hidden Line”, turn on Shadows and again export the image as a JPEG.

Step 4.Turn on Shadows and Export Image

5. Now, switch the Face Style from “Hidden Line” to “Shaded with Texture.” Again, export the image as a JPEG.

Step 5. Change Face Style to Shaded With Texture

6. With the 3 images complete, it’s time to combine them in Photoshop. Begin by opening the first image (SketchUp export with only line work, no shadows) in Photoshop. Right click on the Background layer (Click in the space next to name of the layer) and choose “Duplicate Layer”.

Step 6. Duplicate Layer

7. At the top, select “Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur”.

Step 7. Apply Gaussian Blur

8. When the dialogue box appears, choose a Radius of about 6.5. This number may need to change depending on the resolution of your image.

Step 8. Choose Radius

9. With the lines now blurred, we need to darken them. I prefer to use Levels although you can probably get away with adjusting the contrast. For Levels, go to “Image>Adjustments>Levels”. Move the left black triangular slider to the right until the line work darkens to almost black.

Step 9. Adjust Levels

Below, is what the image should look like at this stage.

Image so far

10. Next, duplicate the layer just created and move the new layer to the top. This duplicated layer will be blurred again using the Gaussian Blur filter. However, use a higher Radius such as 35 this time.

Step 10. Duplicate Layer and Apply Gaussian Blur

11. I want the original line work Layer to show through the two, now blurred Layers just created. To do this, select the two blurred Layers and set the Layer blending mode to “Multiply”.

Step 11. Set Blending Mode to Multiply

12. The next step is sort of the “secret sauce” of the tutorial.

a. Open the SketchUp exported image that showed both the line work and shadows.

b. Drag the new Layer to the top of the layer stack. Set the Layer blending mode to “Hard Light”.

Step 12a. Open Line Work and Shadows Image

Step 12b. Move to Top and Change Blending Mode

13. Add some color to the image.

a. Open the SketchUp exported image that had the face style “Shaded with Textures” turned on.

b. Drag the new Layer to the bottom, just above the “Background” Layer.

Step 13a. Open Shaded with Textures Image

Step 13b. Place Layer above Background Layer

14. I like to add color overlays to my illustrations to give them more of a mood. Create a new Layer and move it to the top Layer. Select the “Brush Tool”, and adjust its settings to have 0 Hardness as well as lower the Opacity down to 25 to 30%. Begin painting in areas where you want more color.

Step 14. Add Color

15. Set the Layer blending mode to “Overlay”.

Step 15. Blending Mode to Overlay

16. One last thing, I want the shadows to be a little more darker. To do this, select the Layer with lines and shadows that was set to “Hard Light” in Step 12 and “Duplicate” it. Now, select the new duplicated Layer and change the Layer blending mode from “Hard Light” to “Multiply”. You can adjust the Layer Opacity if the shadows are too strong.

Step 16. Duplicate and Change Blending Mode to Multiply

For the final shot below, I added some vignetting (Tutorial Here). I also overlayed another exported SketchUp image with the face style set to “X-Ray” mode for more detail in the light areas of the illustration.

Final Image

That’s it! It may seem like a lot of steps, but I think once you go through them a few times, you will realize they are relatively simple and the whole illustration can be created in a matter of minutes. I hope you found this tutorial useful and you can maybe introduce it into your own workflow, especially when you need something really quick and simple!
Thanks for reading..

Alex Hogrefe

To get started, 3 images will be generated which will be used in Photoshop. Two of them will be exports from SketchUp, and one will be a basic rendering from the free rendering software Kerkythea.
1. First Image – Base Image
a. In SketchUp, save a scene that you want to use for the illustration. That way you can get back to the same view later if need be.
b. Switch the Face Style to “Hidden Line.” Under View>Edge Style, check “Display Edges” and “Profiles.”

Base Image

c. In the Styles dialogue box, select the “Edit” tab, choose the “Edge Styles” icon, and check “Extensions.” Set the length to 8 pixels.

d. Export the image as a JPEG by clicking on “File>Export>2D Graphic.”

Styles Dialogue Box - Check Extensions

2. Second Image – Guides

The point of this second export will be to imitate guidelines seen in hand drafted illustrations back in the good old days.

a. Select “View” and check “Guides in SketchUp.”

Check Guides

b. With guides turned on, begin creating guides that accentuate important axis or angles in the image. To create guides, measure something with either the ruler or the protractor. Whatever is measured will then turn into a guideline.

Create Guidelines

c. With the guides in place, go to File>Export>2D Graghic and save the image as a JPEG. Again, use the Face Style “Hidden Line” and leave only “Display Edges” checked for the Edge Style.

3. Third Image - Basic Kerkythea Rendering
This Kerkythea rendering is very basic with minimal setting changes. The rendering itself only took 10 or 15 minutes to finish because of the limited use of materials.
a. To begin, export the model from SketchUp using the Kerkythea plugin. Be sure that Shadows are on and that the view you want is set. In the export options, follow the settings below double checking that “Clay” is set to “Yes.”

Kerkythea Export Settings

b. Open exported model in Kerkythea. At the top, select “Settings>Scene.” In the scene settings dialogue box, choose “Inverse” in the attenuation drop-down box. The setting will give you soft shadows similar to what you would get on a cloudy day.

Scene Settings

c. That’s the only setting that needs to be changed. Time to render. At the top, select “Render>Start.” In the dialogue box, Do Not change the resolution. However, do change the “Settings” to “07 PhotonMap – High+AA03.”

Kerkythea Render Settings

d. Let the rendering cook for a few minutes. To preview and save the final rendering, choose “Window” at the top and check “Rendered Image.” With the preview box open, select the “Save” button to save the image to your hard drive.

Save Rendering

4. Photoshop Work

a. With the 3 images complete, it’s time to combine them in Photoshop. Begin by opening the first image (SketchUp export with extended lines) in Photoshop. Choose “Image> Adjustments>Invert.”

Invert First Image in Photoshop

b. Next, open the Hue/Saturation dialogue box by going to “Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation.” In the dialogue box, first check “Colorize.” Move the “Lightness” slider to the right to lighten the black background to a grey color. Next, move the “Hue” slider until you end up with a nice blueprint color.

Create Blueprint Color

c. Place (or copy and paste the image on top, it will line up perfectly then) the other SketchUp exported image with the Guides and make sure its the top layer. Again, “Invert” the image so that the line work becomes white on a black background.

Place Image on Top and Invert

d. With the Guide layer still selected, set the Blending Mode (drop down box top left in the layers pallete) to “Screen.”

Set Blending Mode to Screen

e. Open the Kerkythea rendering and drag it to the top layer (or copy and paste). Desaturate the image by choosing “Image> Adjustments> Desaturate.”

Desaturate Image

f. The image is a little flat. Adjusting the Levels will fix that. Adjusting the Contrast would also work, but I prefer Levels because of the added control. Choose “Image>Adjustments>Levels”.

Adjust Levels

Move the sliders until you end up with lighter and darker tones similar to the image below.

Levels Adjusted

g. Making sure the Kerkythea rendering layer is on top, set the Layer Blending Mode to “Multiply”.

Set Blending Mode to Mutiply

h. The illustration is almost finished. The last step is to add some texture to imitate the texture created from the blueprint chemical process. To do this, I just went online and found a “grunge” texture similar to the one below. Open the texture in Photoshop and move the layer to the top.

Grunge Texture

Finally, set the Layer Blending Mode of the grunge texture to “Overlay”.

Set Blend Mode to Overlay

That’s it. The first time I created this illustration, it took me about one and a half hours to make, including testing different settings and waiting for Kerkythea to render. Now that I have the workflow down, I’m guessing it would take about 30 minutes to create subsequent illustrations. The techniques are pretty basic, but it’s finding the right combination of layer blend modes and textures that give the final illustration a unique character.

Final Image

I hope you found this tutorial useful and interesting. Maybe introduce it into your own workflow, especially when you need something really quick and simple!
Thanks for reading..


Alex Hogrefe

1. Given a SketchUp model from the client, the image below is a raw-color only export with the final viewpoint. I can use this image as-is for setting up most of the selection sets that I will need later. Right now it is pretty sterile – the client is looking for a warm image, so there is a lot of work to do!

1. Raw Color Output Image from SketchUp

2. With the viewpoint locked in, I look at different times of the day to get an interesting shadow play. For this project, I used the Shaderlight plug-in for rendering. The materials came through pretty well, although I had to turn off the glass completely to get the effect I wanted. The fish pattern at the upper right is actually in the glass so I left them turned on, but there are a couple of spots where they are floating on top of the mullions. There are also a lot of rendering artifacts that will need to be cleaned up – but its a good start. The ray-traced reflections in the sphere exhibits in the lower right are especially nice. I sent this image to the client for initial approval – once approved I am off to the races!

2. Image for Initial Approval from Client

3. The first thing to do is clean up some of the artifacts that I mentioned, and add some new detail at the desk – all painted within Photoshop. Much faster than going into the model and trying to fix it there. I also adjusted the exposure in the far right exhibit to get some of that detail back.

3. Adjusting Exposure and Adding Some Detail

4. Next I attack some textures at the desk. Standard wood materials are applied via the Overlay blending mode, scaled, distorted and warped to match the perspective. It is worth the effort as I can change the strength of the material as well as make various hue, saturation and levels adjustments to the texture right up to the end. The water bubbles on the desk are built up in a similar manner using “non-destructive” blending modes to keep the original render from being covered up. Signage above is added as Text with a Layer Style applied to create the thickness. The “Canadian Waters” sign in the far exhibit uses another Layer Style to get a glossy effect. I have also cooled the ceiling and cleaned it up.

4. Applying Blending Modes and Layer Styles

5. The large wall above the desk and entrance is a theatrical screen for projecting images. During the day it is designed to be a backdrop, with stock footage of water and caustics patterns. The intent is for these images to have a tropical quality with cyans and turquoise colors throughout. Because of the curve in perspective, I broke up the screen into the foreground and background segments. As with the wood textures, I use Multiply, Overlay and Color Dodge blending modes to maintain the shadow pattern from the rendering. I also added a blue glow to the ceiling panels and dropped in a couple of can lights.

5. Blue Glow to Ceiling and Added Lights

6. Now it is time to move on to the sky. I tend to work from the back to the front. At this point it is pretty garish, but I know I will be adding trees and the glass plane itself on top of the sky group and that will tame it quite a bit. The sky wash is created in a similar fashion to a watercolor “wet in wet” technique. I start with a gradient from deep blue to a canary yellow. Then I drop in some green and purple colors and use the Smudge tool to push the color around until it feels right. In general I try to have cooler colors in the distance to suggest atmospheric perspective. Using the Smudge tool creates a more painterly effect than just sticking to gradients alone.

6. Sky Wash

7. With the trees and clouds added, the sky is feeling much better. Still, there is a little bit of the purple and green showing through. Next I will tackle the large glass surface at the right.

7. Trees and Clouds Added

8. Still working from back to front I added a simple glass rail and a few people outside. Then with the glass area selection I fill in a flat blue color for the glass surface itself. A custom Layer Style is added to simulate the glass thickness and also a hint at a slight “ambient occlusion” that would occur at the corner of the glass panel and the mullion. The sky wash has become pretty subtle by now.

8. Dealing with the Glass Area

9. Reflections can really help the glass come alive. The mullions are painted in via flat selections on a new layer set to a Soft Light blending mode. Verticals are white and the undersides of the horizontal mullions are nearly black. The background water image is copied and transformed to create its reflection. This time Normal blending mode, but at 50% opacity, does the trick. By setting the mullion reflections on top of the screen reflection in the layer group I do not need to worry about additional layer masking.

9. Adding Reflections

10. Glass panels are painted in via the same technique at the back wall and at the entrance stalls. Next the fish mobile is added, leaving the material somewhat abstracted. They are meant to be translucent with some internal light scattering to help them glow day and night. To create them in Photoshop, I set up a custom brush with the shape that was supplied by the client. Set to scatter, it created the random pattern desired. It took a couple of tries to get right, but went very quickly. Reds, oranges and yellows were chosen to compliment the predominately blue scene. Once approved, I made a copy of the close mobile for its reflection. It does not need to be physically accurate, but it is important that it is there.

10. Fish Mobile Added

11. At this point we get a slight revision to the floor pattern design. Blue and purple granite swirls are to help guide visitors to the entrance. From a sketch, these swirls were painted in perspective and quickly approved. With this out of the way I added a granite texture (non-destructively) with a lot of white flecks to help it “pop”. A tiny bit of ambient occlusion is added as well to help it set into the rest of the scene. The joint pattern is brought in via a lines-only export from SketchUp set to Multiply blending mode and then masked to the floor area.

11. Floor Pattern Design

12. Now the fun part! With some guidance (and some reference photos) from the client, I build up the exhibits. The three spheres at the right are meant to be hands-on for visitors to explore while waiting for the gates, etc. As with the rest of the texturing, the images, glows and washes are all added via non-destructive blending modes to keep the glassy look from the original render. Additional color is added to the inside of each sphere to differentiate. Distant exhibits behind the gate are developed with the same technique. A deep blue glow is added in the far exhibit for atmosphere.

12. Building up the Exhibits

13. Next the people are added to the scene. Careful attention is given to there placement. On the one hand you want a lot of people to sell it as an active space, but you also do not want to cover up important design features. With this in mind, I set up “view corridors” so that the entrance and the far exhibits are still visible. Children are postioned at the sphere exhibits to reinforce their “hands-on” quality.

13. Adding People to the Scene

14. People shadows and reflections are added, as well as a host behind the ticket desk. Reflections are kept simple, and emphasized in areas of shadows.

14. People Shadows and Reflections are Added

15. Getting close now! The next effect was to add a dense color pattern on the floor to indicate overhead lighting passing throught the mobile. Colors are cast on the people and desk as well. I also added a copy of the left mobile in Color blending mode to indicate secondary reflections from the mobile on to the screen in the background. With this effect, I could get more warm colors in areas that were feeling too cool.

15. Overhead Lighting and Secondary Reflections

16. Now we are into the final adjustments. I had several gradient washes to darken the edges of the image and provide additional color balance. Texturing is added via the Overlay blending mode. I like to use a Pattern Adjustment Layer for this effect so I can tweak the scale, rotation, etc. without any loss of quality. With a Levels Adjustment Layer, I added more contrast and “punch” to the image.

16. Adding More Contrast to the Image

17. I have been working on a new technique incorporating the Art History Brush tool. Once I am happy with the image overall, I make a flattened copy of all layers on top of the stack (the keyboard shortcut for this command is Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E ). Using the Art History brush I zoom into 100% and scribble out any artifacts, any “jaggies”, really anything that still looks “computer-ey”. After a few minutes, it usually looks a lot better at full size. If the effect is too strong I can mask it out or dial down the whole layer’s opacity. This step really helps the image feel like a painting. It is hard to see the effect at this scale, so I have included a couple of blowups of the image at 100% (see below).

17. Blowup of Mobile

17. Blowup of Sphere Exhibits

Thanks for reading this “‘making of” and I hope you have learned a few more tricks to add to your work-flow.

By Scott Baumberger

Scott Baumberger has been offering a high quality professional service to architects, designers and developers for many years. He uses a digital process to produce imagery that ranges in technique from photo-realistic to simulated watercolor effects. His illustrations have been featured in numerous industry professional publications and Scott has also won numerous awards for his work. In this step by step guide Scott shows us his work-flow in producing a digital watercolor. Software used includes SketchUp, Shaderlight and Photoshop.