Now if you’ve ever seen the Maya or Autodesk interface it can be a bit daunting. But after seeing the trailer for Mirror’s Edge I couldn’t help but try to recreate the ending city scene. Of course I’d never really used 3D software so I wasn’t sure what to do.

Then I came across Google’s SketchUp.

It was a bit strange finding this program because it seems as though I’ve tried programs before when they cost money and then Google buys them and makes them free. They’ve done this with what came before their Google Earth program and SketchUp.

Now what we’re going to end up making is up to your imagination but here’s what I made in my first attempt, this tutorial won’t have to explain too much as SketchUp is so easy to use.

So first you’re going to need SketchUp, go download it here (opens in new tab) and install it, be careful of the EULA’s this is one is fine but sometimes they’re not so good. Crack it open and we can get going.

Basics

This program is designed to bring 3D to the masses, this can be seen as generosity on Google’s part but it’s also to fill their Google Earth world with 3D buildings. So we start with our little to scale man, you can get rid of him if you like by left clicking on him and pressing delete (backspace/​fn + backspace).

Controls

• Middle mouse button — Orbit around the mouse pointer
• Shift + Middle mouse button — Pan
• Scroll wheel — Zoom on mouse pointer
• Space — Select Tool
• L — Line Tool
• R — Rectangle Tool
• C — Cirlce Tool
• P — Push/​Pull Tool

First shape

Let’s select the Rectangle tool ® and draw out a shape. Left click once and then drag out a rectangle, SketchUp automatically locks to a 1:1 ratio and the Golden Ratio when you near it, this is represented by a dash line from one corner to the opposite. SketchUp automatically fills a complete shape.

Now to bring it into the 3rd dimension select the Push/​Push tool ℗, left click in the fill area, drag up and left click to set it and you’ll have your first 3D cuboid. Now go and make another shape, perhaps a Circle © and use the Push/​Pull tool to make that 3D, whilst adjusting the height hover over the other shape and your new shape will snap to the height of that shape.

Nothing stops you drawing further shapes on top of these shapes. Try drawing a rectangle on the side of one of your blocks and recessing it with the Push/​Pull tool.

If you’re going for precision building SketchUp supports that, start Push/​Pull on a shape and instead of manually dragging type in a measurement like ‘10m’ and hit enter. This building is now to scale at 10 metres tall. This works with negative values.

More things

SketchUp can render shadows too with accurate seasonal changes too. Go to Window > Shadows and it’ll bring up a control for it as well as where the shadows should fall. Fog effects are available too. Mess around and experiment, it’s all good fun. 

Try the Line tool (L) to draw out your own custom shapes.

Fun things

You can change how SketchUp renders your scene as well using a style tool similiar to Illustrator’s. You can find it under Window > Styles.

Further learning

You can see a more thorough overview of the tools and a introductory tutorial here if you want to learn more. I must confess I’m no expert but I hope to open your eyes to an easy to use 3D tool that’s free.

As for the practical uses for it, well you’re the designer, have a think. But some things I can think of are 3D elements to incorporate into a design, or an object to render your design onto, like a box (perhaps with a little more detail than just a simple cube).

Explore the Google 3D Warehouse, it full of loads of already modelled buildings and objects for you to use.

Download

If you want you can download the Cityscape I made that appears at the top of this post. Use it whenever, wherever, but if it appears somewhere I’d love to see it.

Thanks

More of an introduction than a tutorial of sorts but thanks for reading if you’ve come this far. I hope to get a routine sorted out. Inspiration/​Useful Links post for the beginning of the week on Monday, Tutorial/​Resources to play around with over the weekend on Friday. That’s the plan anyway.