First batch of renders with AO for SketchUp

AmbientOcclusion
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entrance door_sm.jpg984×472 384 KB

front of house_sm.jpg984×472 530 KB

rear of house_sm.jpg984×472 395 KB

I’ve created these images with AO for SketchUp, which I’m reasonably happy with.

I have a few issues though … the door handle has rendered virtually black - any ideas why?

With the absence of being able to include a background … I tried using SU’s watermark but that didn’t render. I also tried using a dome over the model with a sky texture on the inside. The dome is set to cast no shadows, but AO doesn’t recognise this either … will there be a fix for either of these issues?

Many thanks

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Very nice images!
For the door handle, the reason might be the following: AmbientOcclusion uses only the front material when rendering, so it might be picking up the wrong material when rendering. Can you try applying the same material on both the front and back faces? Another reason might be that there are some overlapping faces, causing some self-occlusion.

We are adding support for a background image very soon. In the meanwhile, can you try again with the dome, but at the same time reduce the “Occlusion Distance” paramenter, to something like 5-10?

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also, if you save the images in .png, the alpha channel is retained, and you can compose the image with a background in photoshop

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Nicola
Thanks for the speedy response.
I made that door handle some years ago, so I checked the orientation of the faces (which were a mess!), made sure all front faces were facing out and then re-applied a colour to the external (front) faces. There could potentially be over-lapping faces so will check that. Interestingly, the handle appears to have rendered correctly in the more distant shot of the front door.
With regards the sky dome … do you mean reduce or increase? the occulsion distance is set to 1.75 for the model.
Thanks again.

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Nicola

scheme 2 new views_16e31_ambocc.jpg984×486 521 KB

skydome test.jpg984×486 541 KB

I tried the OD at 5, and reduced the gain to 2 … as you can see no shadows.
I’ve attached the SU output with skydome in, so you can see what I am trying to achieve. Happy to send the model directly to you (as long as you don’t distribute the model or content), if you want to experiment? Will need your email address?

Many thanks

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Yes, please contact us directly here and I will send you back the email address: http://www.fluidinteractive.com/products/sketchup-extensions/ambientocclusion/contact/