Hey, what is up, nation?
In this session I'm going to be taking you through four
takeaways that I learned through modeling the moon house in Sketchup.
So one of my favorite videos that I've ever made is modeling the moon house and
Sketchup. And a lot of people seem to really like it. It's pretty different,
it's not what you see every day in Sketchup. So a lot of people really
enjoyed seeing something that's more artistic designed, and doesn't have, you
know, these straight corners. And I really enjoyed it, but the video is kind
of fast, because it's like many hours of modeling sped up and condensed into a
few minutes. Because I didn't think anyone wanted to sit through multiple
hours me modeling. But there are a few takeaways that I really just want to
touch on. And explain what I learned through modeling in this way. You can see
what if I click over here, that I get my photo match that I modeled from. And if I
rotate it up a little bit you can see what I ended up with. And I just really
want to dive into to a few different takeaways. So the first thing, and I'm
just gonna start with this and be honest, is that this is like completely not like
what I think it should look like. And that's because I use photo match, and
I would do things differently if I was to model again. So this angle looks
really good and you can rotate it around a little bit, like I do in that image.
When you start to rotate to this side, you can see this there's a huge lean.
I didn't model this side, and I tried to fix it as much as I could. But in my head
I don't think this building is actually this leaning. I think it's more straight.
But what happens, is, let me just put this off to the side for a second. Just move
it over a set distance, I'll say a hundred. What happens is, you can draw
like this shape here, right? So I'm just gonna draw this shape and say this is
roughly. That what that looks like. So that's one
instance, right. What I kind of think that looks like. And then..and I'm using photo
match. So okay, now what I can do here is do the same shape. So let's say this.
Now I could have this be up here on us. So it's like vertically, you can see the
shadow. But what happens like, you can kind of like take this to like infinity
on us. So this is like not on the ground plane, but I can make it on the ground
plane. Well, like make it look like it's kind of
on the ground plane, but it's much higher. So then when I do this, it's a
little bit different. It's like not what I kind of think. It actually is but it
visually looks similar to what that other thing that I had was. But if I group this,
and put these two side-by-side, and see that they're like very different
geometries. And that's sort of what happens is like: because you can, like
they're in very different places, like it's just like you can make this, if I
use this and put it, you know where I think this sort of goes. They sort of do
similar things, but they're very different. And they're in very different
locations, and there...it just sort of like compounds on itself when you're modeling
in photo match, because there's essentially an infinite amount of ways
that it can look. So what I would recommend for anyone using photo matches to,
is to always be coming out of photo match and assessing if your model looks
like how you think it does in 3D. Always sort of revisit that, like if it doesn't...
...if you don't think it's rectangular, if it's more square. Then stick with that.
And this sort of leads well into my other shape is, or my second point is
to make sure that you start with like pure geometries.
You start with like the really simple shape and don't go straight to curves. I
think the tendency is that you want to make things look really like they are. At
least that's the tendency for me. I want to make this look like this warped piece
of wood, right? But what happens when you do that and you start with like a shape
that's all like sort of beat up and none rectangular - is your drawing in like
different planes. And it just sort of gets out of whack. So start with really
basic geometry. You know, like I have this vertical plane here, and maybe I come out
a teeny tiny bit for the rest of this, you know, and this is where I guess what
I'm what I'm talking about. Like, I'm gonna line this up. And then how do I get
this, like what's going on. It looks like it's off. Like if I make a shape here and
it comes to here, you know what has happened? Is this is this line curved, is
that important for me to translate through? Is it angled? It's just part of
the artistic interpretation? How important is that? You can see like what
I put in here. Is like so completely and insanely similar. It's like almost too
much. You know, like it lines up almost perfectly, you know. And I really tried to
stick to that photo match, and that's cool, right? I mean, it's cool to be
able to do something. You can see here, I was just like "I can't get it to work. I'm
just gonna get that idea crossed", and put something in there. But like for the most
part everything lines up pretty spot-on. And that's like, I think, a Fida itself,
and being able to do that, and get something that looks like what I'm
modeling. But, yeah, just really like start with those shapes and always
be visiting the three dimensional aspect. Don't get so bogged down in the photo
match for you. Obviously, continue referencing it, but but always sort of go
back to the 3D view and say "Hey, is this leaning this much? Is it angle visit?". You
know, what have you and stick to pure geometries.
The next thing is just...try not to use so many plugins! I think, the plug-in
that I think I used like two plugins for this whole thing. And it's pretty
complicated! And that the two that I use I think are probably the most important.
The first one being the round corners plug-in, so I use that a lot because
there's so many geometries in here. It's just like really subtle wrap
rounding of corners, makes a huge difference in softening everything. And
so I highly recommend that for anything that you model. I also used, I think the
only thing that I used other than that was curve aloft, and that was for like
this little ring thing. That's going on. You use two shapes and just curve a lofted
between them. And maybe these things and, they're so weird, they sort of ended up
not what I think this would look like. I think it would be, you know, obviously
supporting. Not angled this way. And that's sort of like the stuff that I was
getting into, like "Oh, no! I can't figure out what this is actually doing and I'm
too deep". So, I sorta have to make this up at this point. A little bit. Or trying to
get it as close as I can. So there's that. And then I think the last thing that is
probably the most important. You can see like these little cacti are really like
neat looking. And what else. These these shapes here. What I learned through this
whole process, and these little these little guys is that start with, like I
said, start with your geometries and build them, but also like cylinders are
so powerful. So if I make a cylinder here, I take the cylinder and I move it down.
And hit the forward slash icon let me just move this tray let me dock it so
you can see what I'm doing. Forward slash. And then it five, five, forward slash five -there
we go! I get these dividers through here. Now what's really awesome with these is
that you can then scale them. And that's exactly how I made
these. You can just like push and pull these in the right direction. So what's
cool about that. I'm gonna you guys so towards the top, you just sort of like
make that really tiny. And you know, maybe change the scale a little bit, so maybe
this is a little bit more. There's fewer,
let's say, there's three here, let's just make this really small. Now you just get
this really smooth shape. And then you come back with the eraser tool, we'll hit
ctrl and you hide these lines. Right, so you get this like kind of like organic
shape, and obviously you spend more time doing this, but you can use that, sort of,
that idea to really change those shapes of anything that's like rounded. So like
here, what I did is I just took this top piece. My turn hidden geometry back on.
Just took that top piece there and rotated it. So with a combination of
rotating and scaling, you can get some like really cool shapes that are very
organic, very curved. And that's what I would recommend. And I if you're doing
anything that is rounded, and there's an another video that I saw on a YouTube
after I did this. Where someone models a shark. And they use this sort of exact
method for making their shark, because it's a very organic shape. But you can
construct it based on a bunch of, like, little circles. So it has many uses and I
highly recommend it. So hopefully this helped!
If you like this video and you like the moon house
and wanted me to model more things that are like that,
please let me know in the comments below. If you had any specific
questions about the moon house that I didn't address, let me know in the
comments below and I'll be sure to address them.
Hopefully you guys like this video, if you did, don't forget to hit that like
button and subscribe. Share this with your friends and as always, happy hacking!
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