Dear SketchUp Island: Street View Imagery Texturing

Dear SketchUp Island:  I hear that SketchUp version 7 has the ability to texture using Street View imagery. Is this true? How do I use it? Signed, Street Smart in Bellmore, NY

Dear Street Smart: Smart you are indeed! Google Street View imagery can be used to texture SketchUp models in a few easy steps.

A Leap Back 986 Years

Have a look at this post by blogger and modeler Aerilius.

It's a final look at a series of reconstructions he has done of the Limburg monastery.

The post includes roll-over photos of the ruins that "reveal" the reconstructed building (done in SketchUp and then beautifully rendered, and stitched seamlessly into the photos).

Some New Collections

I've been adding some new collections of 3D models to the 3D Warehouse. You can check out all the collections here.

The newest additions include 2010s (found with other decade collections in Models By Decade), Elementary Schools, My Google Earth Models, In the Movies, and More Good Models.

Frozen Britain

Britain covered in ice

I came across this remarkable image on the BBC News website.

It is Great Britain, seen from space, in its current frozen state. Looking at all that ice I had to wonder to myself, where are the cities? Where is London? Birmingham? Leeds? Grasmere?

How about Carlisle? And Dublin, Dundee, Humberside?

Get a Manicure: Make Your Thumbnails Pretty

Today's post deals with sharing your geo-models in the most attractive way on the Google 3D Warehouse. I offer my opinion about the best ways to do it, and hopefully this will lead to more views for your models.

When I receive a model suggestion that doesn't fit in a collection, I either send an email suggesting ways to improve the model presentation, or else I add the model into the More Good Models collection (a collection for models that are good but not matching my other collections).

This is my own model of the ABC Television Building posed in various ways. I'll use it to compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of thumbnail illustrations (click image for larger view).

2010 Whistler Games in 3D

Google has created a set of very highly detailed models for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Check out the one above and all the others here.

Burj Khalifa Opens Today

Burj Khalifa, new record-holder for world's tallest building, opens today, January 4, 2009, in United Arab Emirates. Apparently there has been a name switch from the previous "Burj Dubai."

I imported a model of a previous record holder, The Empire State Building (by Google), into a model of Burj Dubai/Khalifa (by Fadlulloh) for comparison. It's quite a large building.

Read more about it HERE.

Sprucing Up and Zapping Halos

Modeler Aerilius has a handy post about eliminating the pesky "halos" around your PNG transparency textures in Google Earth. According to him, grouping sections of the model will make them "immune" to the halos around PNG textures, halos which cause the viewer to see, x-ray style, straight through the building. See the post here.

In the model above, which is already accepted to Google Earth, I tried this technique to avoid the PNG railings I had created from burning through the rest of the building.

I also corrected vertical height and replaced transparent JPEG windows with PNG files so that the interior can be seen through the windows. (Apparently the transparent bucket colors in SU don't appear transparent in GE). I simplified some geometry, corrected some accidentally softened edges, and lastly added in Princess and the Frog posters where the empty marquis spots had been.

Hopefully the improved version will replace the old one.

Argentinian New Year

Clever firewirks model created by NESUA, modeler from Argentina:

Happy New Year/Collection

There's a new model collection on the block called "2010s"... and it's empty!

Please visit the collection and make suggestions via the link. You can see the 2010s collection right here. It's also part of the "Models By Decade" collection. 

I'll be adding my personal favorites and ones that match the criteria outlined in the collection called "My Favorite Thumbnails."

Happy New Year (and decade).

EDIT: Empty no longer. I added this nice model by Fadlulloh of the Burj Dubai aka the Burj Khalifa, tallest building ever built and opening January 4, 2010 in United Arab Emirates.

Ways To Explore SketchUp Island

Just a quick post about the Island... as a young blog, a significant percent of the Island's visitors are new viewers.

Since there is so much good stuff to look at, I'd like to point out ways you can easily explore the blog.

These exploration options are found in the side column or beneath each post:

• Recent comments. Jump to any comment with one click.
• Archive. Click on the archive if you'd like to browse all archived posts.
• Search boxes. This will point you to your query results here on the blog, on items linked to and from the blog, and on the web.
• Labels. Found below each post and in the side column, labels group posts by category (example: "SketchUp Island Adventures")
• Subscribe. Keep up-to-date with new posts and comments by subscribing to the feed or by adding our gadget to your iGoogle home page.
• Reader Comments. Often readers leave remarks, news, and links to items of interest. Click on "comments" below the posts or leave your own. No spam, please!
• Blogs and Feeds of Interest. Run out of things to read here? Then check out some of my favorite blogs and feeds, constantly updating in the side column.