Day: 3 October 2023

Before we get started, it’s important to understand the concept of rounding corners in SketchUp itself. Rounding corners is the action of rounding, or smoothing, angular corners or edges. The level of realism contributed by such techniques is significant and adds true aesthetic appeal to your designs.

Removing the angularity of corners and edges creates a more natural feel to your 3D designs. Applied to architectural structures, prototypes and objects, rounding corners can be one of the more important steps in SketchUp, out of many, granting remarkable results.

Given that we now understand the importance of rounding corners in SketchUp, we can consider some different approaches to doing so.

Perhaps at this point, it is important to note that V-Ray is not compulsory for rounding edges in SketchUp. However, if you are specifically searching for information on the rendering extension, V-Ray, please click here. 

V-Ray for SketchUp is a transformative tool for any interior designer. It can take your work to the next level with its massive arsenal of capabilities and features. Take a look at just some of the brilliant features on offer:

• Global illumination, accurate light simulation, and ray tracing all combine to create highly realistic and visually stunning renderings.
• V-Ray can accurately reproduce and map a whole host of textures, reflections, and refractions. All of this leads to photorealistic renderings that accurately capture the behaviour of light as it interacts with materials, giving surfaces a true sense of depth.
• V-Ray’s interactive rendering feature provides real-time feedback that allows you to preview the scene as any adjustments are made. This allows you to truly fine-tune every individual aspect of your design, safe in the knowledge that V-Ray has the capacity to handle extremely complex scenes with ease.

Let’s take a look at how you’d go about lighting an interior scene using V-Ray for SketchUp:

• Assess the Scene

Evaluate the space you’re working in and determine what type of atmosphere you’re trying to create with the lighting. Consider the purpose of the space, and what its defining features are.

• Choose Light Sources

V-Ray for SketchUp offers a wide variety of lighting options, so make sure to select the best source based on the scene requirements. Consider how a space like yours would typically be lit, and replicate the musing V-Ray’s deep library of light sources.

1. Adjust the Light Intensity

Start with moderate values and then adjust as needed. Pay close attention to the light’s intensity in relation to its distance from objects and surfaces to achieve realistic illumination. Experiment with different intensities to create the desired ambiance and balance of lights and shadows.

1. Fine-tune Light Color and Temperature

Consider changing the colour temperature of the light sources to match the desired mood. For natural lighting, warmer colours simulate the sun’s glow during morning or evening, while cooler colours represent midday lighting. Adjust the colour and temperature using V-Ray’s settings to achieve the desired effect.

• Utilise V-Ray Light Types

Leverage V-Ray’s light types for specific scenarios. For natural lighting, for example, use a Dome Light with an HDR image to replicate the sky. For artificial lighting, use Rectangle Lights or Sphere Lights to mimic common light fixtures. Experiment with different light types to achieve the desired lighting effects.

• Add Light Bounces and Global Illumination

Enable Global Illumination in V-Ray to simulate indirect lighting and light bounces within the scene. Adjust the settings to control the amount of indirect light and its impact on the overall scene. Global Illumination enhances realism by bouncing light off surfaces, creating subtle shadows, and improving the overall lighting distribution.

• Fine-tune Materials and Reflections

Consider the interaction between light and the materials in your space. Adjust material properties to ensure they react realistically to light sources, creating accurate reflections and highlights. This step enhances the overall realism of the scene and contributes to a more convincing lighting setup.

Of course, there’s so much more to V-Ray for SketchUp. The next step is to produce a rendering, and it’s extremely important that you optimise your settings to achieve the most realistic results. To do this you’ll need to do a whole host of steps, but here’s the basics:

1. Determine the desired output resolution, trying to strike a balance between quality and time.
2. Adjust the sampling settings to control the quality. Higher values will mean a smoother rendering, but they’ll also take longer to render.
3. Check the Global Illumination (GI) parameters. Experiment with some of the different GI engines available in V-Ray to achieve the best looking result.
4. Optimise your materials by choosing appropriate texture sizes, and by using efficient reflection and refraction settings.
5. Take advantage of V-Ray’s denoising feature to reduce noise in your rendering. This should improve render quality without impacting massively on the time.

Finding the optimal rendering settings is more of an art than a science, and it will often take numerous tries before you get it right. Make sure you regularly test and evaluate your results and try different settings to achieve the best results.