I did some combing of the internets and found some tools that allow me to do some high quality SketchUp renders. I tried out two of them; VRay and Podium. One problem though – both of them do not render camera moves from scene to scene. So no animated 3D camera moves (unless I find another solution).
VRay/SU composite (bad mix of two light sources)
Podium/SU composite
Max
The podium one owns v-ray, but I still think the pure Sk version is better- the colours work nicely. You could probably fix that, over time, and it would be nice to have more detailed versions (you could sell prints), but couldn’t you use kerkythea for that, because I know that’s quite nice, and it supports sketchup
JPB
First of all congratulations : you are doing an amazing job.
I really like the Podium render, more than the latest Vray because I think this ultra simple comics rendering is really your style. It’s in some way similar to “Renaissance” animation movie or “Persopolis” animation movie : style above realism.
I’m afraid you could loose this spirit with more and more realistic renderings. Well that’s only my 2 cents.
I wonder if you shouldn’t try some kind of, real or fake, motion blurring ? Because 3D based data based comics tend to be very “still”. But it would be a pity to lose all this crazily detailed models. Maybe just in some crash pictures to increase the sense of motion ?
I can hardly believe you output characters with a software made for architectural drafting ! I hope you will reach printing “Fuel & Fire” and if so I will definitely buy your comic !
Keep going !
kman
podium is ok as it is an in-house renderer, but why not check out kerkythea (google it) its a nice stand alone renderer thats a bit more advanced than podium, having the ability to tinker with bump and normal maps, as well as do some sexy stuff with the camera’s focal length for some nice blurry backgrounds. theres a lot of help for beginners and even better, its free! check it out anyway, and keep up the awesome work.