Future of Handmade Models

I was just catching the end of the live press conference "The Next Dimension of Google Maps." What they showed looks very cool-- a high res automated 3D model of San Francisco, complete with modeled trees, buildings, and terrain.

Unlike the current situation, where many user generated models of varying styles with different lighting schemes collide in a potluck of 3D goodness, the new style map, or the new Google Earth, is modeled as one unified seamless mesh. It's as if you're looking at the real thing.

I'm not sure where that leaves us geo-modeling enthusiasts. Maybe the large cities will receive this 'next dimension' treatment (rendering our current handmade models obsolete)-- but possibly the countryside will be ours to model yet?

Maybe maybe maybe. It's all speculation on my part but I am very curious to know what this new direction, and the sale of SketchUp along with it, means to me and other geo-modelers worldwide.

EDIT: Read the official statement in the 3D modeling for Google Earth and Maps Forum

Hell's Kitchen Model: It's RAW! (Still)

I've been working on this model of Chef Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen TV studio / restaurant in Culver City, California on and off for months-- hoping to get it done before tomorrow's US series premier of Hell's Kitchen season 10. Not happening!

But-- I am posting some screen shots of what's done so far. Since the real building is found in sunny southern California the architecture allows for some hybrid indoor/outdoor spaces-- hence the transitional interiors. Hope you like it. I'm trying to get this done within the week.

EDIT: With the official transfer of SketchUp to Trimble, and the announcement of auto-generated 3D cities for Google Maps, I'm not sure if I should continue work on this model, with the objective of getting it on Google Earth. Certainly Los Angeles will be one of the first cities to experience "Autopocalypse™" (I'm not totally against it, actually interested in it-- but all the same, it's weird).

Anyway this model, ironically, demonstrates exactly what the new models won't be able to with partial interiors, etc. I thought people would have fun looking around the insides a bit. I'll have to do some serious thumb-twirling and think this one over before continuing...

Hall to contestants' lounge

Hall to contestants' lounge II

Contestants' lounge minus patio furniture