getting-started kerkythea

Ver. 1.01 © Kerkythea 2007 GETTING STARTED

Written by: The KT Team

Date: February 5th, 2007 of 25

GETTING STARTED

KKeerrkkyytthheeaa 22000077 …focused on SketchUp users, but useful for all…




GETTING STARTED Preface: With the introduction of the new SU2KT exporter, it has never been easier to export your model from Google SketchUp and render it to photo realistic images using Kerkythea 2007. The following 6 steps are just to show you how easy it can be to use SketchUp (SU) and Kerkythea (KT), once you are more familiar with the program. 1.) Open your model in SU. 2.) Apply the materials, components sun & shadow and scenes (pages in SU5) 3.) Export your model using the latest available SU2KT exporter (ruby-script). 4.) Open the exported XML-file in KT. 5.) Adjust materials as needed (reflection, specular, clip mask, multiple layers etc.). 6.) Choose the camera position, the resolution, the render preset and Hit the render button. It is really as simple as that! But - of course - you can improve/tweak your settings much more and create awesome photo realistic images of your 3D models in Kerkythea 2007. Like the heading is saying, this is a Getting Started “step-by-step guide” and it’s designed to get you started using Kerkythea 2007. Of course it can be an advantage, but fact is that it’s not necessary that you have any experience with rendering software prior to get aboard KT. Trust us – you’ll adapt very quickly. This guide will cover what we interpret as being the basics, which is essential to get you started. For more advanced settings, we advise you to visit our web-site at http://www.kerkythea.net and look through some of the other tutorials available. Likewise, we also advise you to visit the KT Forum, where you can find many resources and useful tips and tricks posted by fellow KT users.

IMPORTANT NOTICE! If this is the first time you’re rendering a model, we recommend that you start with a fairly simple model. As the saying goes – You need to learn how to crawl before you can learn how to walk.




GETTING STARTED

Table of Content: Topic: Page:

PART 1. GOOGLE SKETCHUP TO KERKYTHEA. 4

1. FRONT AND BACK SURFACES:.............................................................................. 4 2. CHECK TO SEE IF YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES: .................................................... 5 3. PURGE ALL UNUSED MATERIALS AND COMPONENTS: ..................................... 5 4. APPLYING GLASS MATERIALS: ............................................................................. 6 5. CREATING A MIRROR: ............................................................................................. 7 6. APPLYING SUN & SHADOW: ................................................................................... 8 7. APPLYING LIGHTS: .................................................................................................. 9 8. APPLYING CAMERA POSITIONS: ......................................................................... 12 9. EXPORTING TO KT: ................................................................................................ 13

PART 2. APPLY SETTINGS IN KERKYTHEA. 14

10. OPENING THE XML-FILE AND RUN FIRST TEST RENDER: ................................ 14 11. IMPORTING STANDARD MATERIAL LIBRARIES:................................................ 15 12. APPLY/AMEND MATERIALS IN YOUR MODEL: ................................................... 16 13. FIND MATERIALS IN YOUR MODEL/SCENE:........................................................ 18 14. CREATE YOUR OWN MATERIAL:.......................................................................... 19 15. APPLY/AMEND THE SUN & SHADOW SETTINGS IN KT:..................................... 20 16. HOW TO APPLY SPHERICAL SKY IMAGES: ........................................................ 21 17. POINT- AND/OR SPOT- LIGHT SETTINGS IN KT: ................................................. 22 18. SELF LUMINANCE LIGHT SETTINGS IN KT:......................................................... 23 19. SHIFTING BETWEEN CAMERA POSITIONS: ........................................................ 24 20. CHOSE THE RENDER PRESET:............................................................................. 24 21. RENDER YOUR MODEL: ........................................................................................ 25




GETTING STARTED

PART 1. GOOGLE SKETCHUP TO KERKYTHEA.

1. FRONT AND BACK SURFACES: 1.) Make sure all surfaces are showing the front. When modeling in SU you have a front- and a back-side.

The front-side is a tan/beige/creamy color and the back- side is purple/blue.

If a face becomes purple after having used i.e. the 'Push/pull' or 'Follow me' tools, you simply right-click on the surface and choose "Reverse face".

The reason why this is important is that if you want to render an image it's very important that all surfaces in the model show the front side. Otherwise the rendered image will fail. I.e. material colors and/or textures will disappear. Moreover, it’s good practice when modeling that you only have front-face surfaces. Don’t fear back-faces! All trees, scrub etc. will show back-faces. The important thing to know is that if you place a texture on a back-face, it may look correct in SU, but it will disappear when rendering. If you apply a color or a texture on a front-face, this will be recognized and also shown on the back-face.

In order for you to see if the surfaces are oriented correctly, select View > Face Style > Monochrome (in SU v5 – View > Rendering > Monochrome) Or click the “Monochrome” icon in the “Face Style” bar.

You might think that this model won’t render correct because of all the immediate back-face problems on the tree.

You can’t see in SU when textures are turned on…

But it will render correctly, because colors and textures have been applied on the front-faces of the leaves.




GETTING STARTED

2. CHECK TO SEE IF YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES: In order for you get the most optimum result, make sure that you have the latest SU2KT ruby (curr. ver. 2.2) installed on your computer and in the correct folder. (...Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins) 2.) Open Google SketchUp 6. 3.) Click Plugins > Kerkythea Exporter > About SU2KT. 4.) Make sure that the number of the version you have installed exceeds ver. 2.11.

IMPORTANT NOTICE! If you have an old version of the su2kt ruby, or if you experience that your model won’t export, it’s most likely caused by the fact that you don't have the appropriate ruby installed on your computer. Make a search on your hard-drives for the file “su2kt.rb” and delete all files you find. Download the latest SU2KT ruby from http://www.kerkythea.net and install this instead.

3. PURGE ALL UNUSED MATERIALS AND COMPONENTS: This is just to ensure that all unused materials and components will be removed from your model. This is to avoid having materials and/or components in your model that are no-longer in use. 1.) Click Window > Model Info 2.) Choose “Statistics” and click “Purge Unused” 3.) Close the Model Info window




GETTING STARTED

4. APPLYING GLASS MATERIALS: 1.) Open the Materials window and click the “In Model” icon. 2.) Edit the name of all transparent

material in SU so that it has a “TG_” prefix enabling KT to interpret these as Thin Glass materials.

To do this, you need to double-click on the material you want to edit and then rename the material with the “TG_” prefix. Click the “Select” tab and repeat for as many transparent materials you have in the model, where you want it to be a Thin Glass material in KT. Please note that if you use colored translucent materials in SU, the glass will also get colored in KT. Windows should be “white” in color, and the “Opacity” should be set to 80. If you’re not satisfied with the glass material once you render, you can amend the material in KT.




GETTING STARTED

5. CREATING A MIRROR: It’s well known that you can’t create a mirror/reflective effect in SU. But you can in KT and you need to make a material in SU enabling you to create the mirror effect in KT. 1.) Create your mirror component/shape in your model. 2.) In principal you can choose whatever color you want.

Here we’ve chosen Color_001 (light gray) since we feel it also shows nice in the SU model, despite the missing mirror/reflective effect.

3.) Apply the color to the surface. 4.) Click the “In model” icon and double-click the color you’ve just applied enabling you to rename it making it easier for you to recognize in the KT material editor. Here we’ve renamed it to “Mirror”

Here we have applied the ”Mirror” color to a shape on the wall, which will become our mirror in KT. Later you’ll see how this is done, as well as what the rendered image will look like.




GETTING STARTED

6. APPLYING SUN & SHADOW: The Geographic Location will get exported to KT and it’s a good idea that you make sure that you have the right location chosen in SU. You can change the location once imported to KT. 1.) Click Window > Model Info 2.) Click “Location” 3.) Choose Country and Location 4.) If needed correct the “North angle” 5.) Close the Model Info window Apply the time of the day, the month and the shadow settings according to your preferences. Please note that the settings you apply in SU will get exported to KT. This includes the location (country and city) and the solar orientation. The way you see shadow castings in SU will be identical in KT

If you want the sun to be turned ON when rendering your model, you simply click the “Display Shadows” button prior to exporting your model. You can “enable” and “disable” the sun light in KT, if you forget to turn it on or off in SU.

IMPORTANT NOTICE! Avoid the use sky-domes or sky-images in models you want to render. Later in this guide you will learn how to apply spherical sky images in KT. If your model contains a sky-dome, we recommend that you place it on a separate layer and turn off this layer prior to exporting the model.




GETTING STARTED

7. APPLYING LIGHTS: Apart from Sun/Sky Light (Physical Sky, SkySphere Bitmap - normal or HDRI), Kerkythea is capable of handling several different types of light. This guide will provide you with some basic knowledge about light in KT. A new guide focusing on lights and the more technical parts will be available soon. In this section we will focus on the Omni/Point- and Spot- light, which you can apply to your model direct in SU, but we will also show how to make Emitter/Self luminance light. In the KT section of this tutorial we’ll cover Physical Sky and Sky Sphere bitmap. Point- and Spot- light: If you have downloaded the SU2KT zip-file, you will find a skp-tutorial where the following Point- and Spot- light components are being used. You can take these and save them as components. 1.) To do this close SU. 2.) In your component-folder (.....Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Components) you can create

a new folder named i.e. SU2KT, Kerkythea or whatever you prefer. 3.) Open the skp-tutorial from the zip-archive 4.) In your Components window (Window > Components) click the "In model" icon. 5.) Right-click the "su2kt_pointlight.skp" and choose "Save as" and save in the folder

you've just created. 6.) Repeat step 5 for the "su2kt_spotlight.skp". If you have downloaded SU2KT installer, you will get a new component library with various types of light components – including the Point- and Spot- Light components. 1.) Open the Components window and chose the KT Lights library. 2.) Select the Component you want and place it where it’s supposed to fit in your model.




GETTING STARTED 7. APPLYING LIGHTS – (continued) 1.) To set the light power, right-click The Point- or Spot- light component. 2.) In the context-menu select: a.) SU2KT: Edit Pointlight b.) SU2KT: Edit Spotlight 2a.) Enter a name for the light name.

(this will enable you to recognize this specific Point light in KT.) And enter a value in the Light power field. (Start using a value of 3-5. You can adjust in KT)

2b.) Enter a name for the light name.

(this will enable you to recognize this specific Spot light in KT.) Enter a value in the Light power field. (Start using a value of 3-5. You can adjust in KT) Enter a value in the Hot Spot field. (Start using a value of 15-20. You can adjust in KT) And finally enter a value in the Falloff field. (Start using a value of 90. You can adjust in KT)

You can create your own Point- and/or Spot light components easily in SU. If you're using su2kt ver. 2.1, you can create a component and name it "su2pov_spotlight" or "su2pov_pointlight", but remember that you can only have one component/shape with that name meaning that you can't create two different shapes, right-click it and choose "Make Component" and name both of them the same name. If you create a shape and "Make Component", name it i.e. "su2pov_pointlight" then you can right-click it and you will see the context-menu "Edit pointlight" enabling you to enter a KT name and the light power. If you try making two different components with the same name, SU will automatically name one of them i.e. "su2pov_pointlight#1" and you won't see the "Edit Pointlight" in the context-menu when right-clicking the component. If you’re using the su2kt exporter above ver. 2.20, it will recognize any components starting with "su2xxx_pointlight_yyy" or "su2xxx_spotlight_yyy ", where the “xxx” represent either “kt” or “pov” and where you can enter whatever you prefer in the “_yyy” fields. i.e. "su2kt_pointlight_no1" etc... It can be difficult to determine exactly how much “Light Power” to apply in SU, but after having played with the settings for a while, you will be more familiar with the settings. Moreover, you don’t need to worry. In KT you can adjust the strength of the light.




GETTING STARTED 7. APPLYING LIGHTS – (continued) Emitter/Self Luminance light: 1.) Create a shape (I.e. a square in the ceiling) 2.) Open the Materials window and pick a color (In this example we’ve taken a light yellow color E05) 3.) Apply the color to the shape you’ve created 4.) Click the “In model” icon and double-click the color

you’ve just applied and rename it. If you include xxxxEmit[#] where the “xxxx” Represents the name and the “#” the light power.

IMPORTANT NOTICE! When using the Point- and Spot- light components in SU, the component itself will be visible in SU, but invisible in KT. When using a “Self Luminance” or “Emitter” material, it will light up the model, but remain invisible. We know that a light bulb has a spherical shape in “real life”, but avoid the use of spherical shapes. Using spheres as emitters will increase your render time considerably, since the spherical shape needs to build up substantial numbers of triangular mesh faces. Moreover, you can’t see the shape when rendering.

In the example to the right, we’ve first created a circle and used the Push/Pull tool to add a depth. In the bottom of this cylindrical shape we have drawn a square shape, which we’ve grouped. (right-click > Make Group) Finally we have applied the color we’ve created. Subsequently we have copied the cylinder shape containing our light, and placed it in our ceiling as shown below




GETTING STARTED

8. APPLYING CAMERA POSITIONS: It’s very easy to apply camera positions in SU. The scenes (pages in SU v5) you make in SU will be your camera positions in KT. Apart from these pre-defined camera positions, you can also apply additional camera positions in KT and/or orbit your model and render an image from whatever angle and position you desire. 1.) Orbit your model to a angle/position you want to preserve as a camera position in KT. 2.) Click View > Animation > Add Scene (in SU v5, click View > Tourguide > Add Page) 3.) Repeat step 1 and 2 for as many positions you want.

These 10 scenes will be camera positions in KT. Remember in SU you can rename and change the order sequence of your camera positions Window > Scenes (in SU v5 - Window > Pages)

IMPORTANT NOTICE! Please note that Section Planes are NOT supported in KT. If you’re using Section Planes in SU to view i.e. through the roof of a house, it won’t be recognized in KT. If you want a top-view of a house without the roof, you can place the roof construction on a separate layer, turn off this layer and export your model to KT.




GETTING STARTED

9. EXPORTING TO KT: Like mentioned previously, please make sure that you have the latest SU2KT exporter and that it has been installed in the right “Plugins” folder. 1.) Click Plugins > Kerkythea Exporter > Export Model 2a.) Click OK 2b.) If you have selected a surface in your model

Either by accident or on purpose, the Export Options window will have an extra field. If it was by accident, choose NO in the pull down menu.

3.) Once clicked the OK button, you need to select a folder where you want to save the

XML-file in as well as a file name.

IMPORTANT NOTICE! Please note that KT does NOT support Unicode – meaning that it won’t recognize special letters in your file name. To be “on the safe side” we recommend that you only use the English alphabet when naming your files. Please note that this also applies for textures used!

You can see the export progress in the bottom left corner of SU. When the export has completed you will get the following window.

4.) Click the OK button and exit SU.




GETTING STARTED

PART 2. APPLY SETTINGS IN KERKYTHEA.

10. OPENING THE XML-FILE AND RUN FIRST TEST RENDER: 1.) Open KT 2007 and open the XML-file you’ve exported.

You can switch between “wire frame” or “Solid” view, by hitting the “V” on your keyboard. Or by selecting View > Adjust > “Wireframe Rendering” or “Solid Rendering”

2.) Click the “Start Render” icon. 3.) Select the Camera position. 4.) Select the Resolution. (since this is only the first test, we

recommend that you choose a low resolution like 800x600) 5.) Select the render Settings / Render presets (in the initial phases you should only use a low setting like the

03. PhotonMap – Quick) 6.) The Threads refer to the number of processors you

have on your computer. For the time being, select ## Custom Settings ##

7.) Click the OK button to commence the first render of your model. (you can see the progress in the Top bar and likewise you can see a Quick view in the bottom right corner)

8.) Click the “Image” icon to view the rendered image in the full resolution you’ve selected. (This is also where you can Save the rendered image) You can stop the render process at any time. In the initial test phase you don’t need KT to complete the render process. What you will find out in this initial render is what parts you need to adjust. It might be that you need to change some of the materials used or in- / de-crease the light power.




GETTING STARTED

11. IMPORTING STANDARD MATERIAL LIBRARIES: At the download section at http://www.kerkythea.net, you can download various types of standard materials that will be very useful. First you should download these libraries, and then… 1.) Click File > Install Library 2.) Select the Material library you want to install and click OK An alternate method to the above is to 1.) Click Settings > Materials… 2.) In Current library click the Open button. 3.) Click the Import button 4.) Select the Material library you want to install

and click OK.




GETTING STARTED

12. APPLY/AMEND MATERIALS IN YOUR MODEL: 1.) Click Settings > Materials… 2.) In the Scene Material list containing all the materials

you’ve applied in SU, right-click and “Select All” 3.) After having selected All, click Rebuild Selected

4.) Click the Get button.

After having rebuilt all materials, the scene materials will look something like the image to the left. Select a material (i.e. the chrome) and double-click it.




GETTING STARTED 12. APPLY/AMEND MATERIALS IN YOUR MODEL: (continued) 1.) Select the material you want to apply from the libraries you’ve installed. An alternate way of applying material is to click Settings > Materials… In the “Current Library” click the Open button and select one of the material libraries and click OK 1.) In the Scene Material window select the material you want to change with a single click. 2.) In the Current Library window Select the material you want to apply with a single click. 3.) Right-click and select the Apply to Left Pane.




GETTING STARTED

13. FIND MATERIALS IN YOUR MODEL/SCENE: We have shown you how to change/apply material names in SU, however, we also acknowledge, that you will import components, where you don’t change the material names. These materials can sometimes be difficult to recognize once exported to KT.

By using the “Select” tool in KT, you can click on any object in your model/scene, and the corresponding material will be highlighted in the material list.

You can also double-click the name in the material list and the corresponding object in your model/scene will get highlighted. Once you know the name of the material, you can apply the material as explained in Section 12. To de-select the material you can click another area of the model/scene or by double-clicking the highlighted material in the material list.




GETTING STARTED

14. CREATE YOUR OWN MATERIAL: You can also create your own materials, and here we will guide you to create a “Mirror” material. 1.) Click Settings > Materials… 2.) In the Scene Material window select the “Mirror material” you created in SU and double-click it.

3.) Right-click the [Matte / Phong] in the Shader And click the [Dielectric / Glass]

4.) Change the Reflection Color to 100% white. 5.) Un-tick the Fresnel. 6.) Click the Apply Changes and Close Editor. You have now created your 100% reflective mirror material.

IMPORTANT NOTICE! You will discover that not all materials need to be changed. In this guide we’re not going to cover creation of materials in details, and we refer you to the download section at http://www.kerkythea.net, where you can find tutorials covering this subject.




GETTING STARTED

15. APPLY/AMEND THE SUN & SHADOW SETTINGS IN KT: If you have turned on the shadows in SU prior to exporting the model, Physic Sky will be turned on in KT. But you can also enable or disable the Sun Light in KT. In the left side of the KT window, you can find a list with all the materials, lights and cameras If i.e. there’s a light bulb with a red cross, it means that light is turned off. You can turn it on by selecting it, right-click and chose “Enable”. To turn a light off, you simply chose “Disable”. As you will note you can even Show, Hide, Select, Unselect, Enable, Disable, Delete and Rename… Select “Enable” the Sun light. 1.) Click Settings > Sun and Sky… 2.) The Location, Date and Time should be identical to

what you’ve applied in SU. If you’re not satisfied with the settings, you can Change them now.

If you have turned on the shadow in SU, the Physical Sky will also be turned on in KT. If need be, you can change the “Intensity” and the “Turbidity” and click the Finish button.




GETTING STARTED

16. HOW TO APPLY SPHERICAL SKY IMAGES: You can get some really nice and free spherical sky bitmaps at BlenderArtists.org, Evermotion or Continuum Skies. You can find the links to these sites at http://www.kerkythea.net

1.) Click Settings > Sun and Sky… 2.) Choose the location for the scene/model and click Next. 3.) In "Sky Type" choose "Spherical Sky" 4.) Click on the Map/Color 5.) Click the Browse button and select your spherical

Sky-images (JPG's or HDRI-files are supported) 6.) Select the Sky and click OK. 7.) Click the "Finish" button to finalize the "Sun & Sky Wizard" Now will be a good time to run another quick test render. Just to see how things are turning out. 8.) If the image turns out too dim or too strong light, you can click Settings > Scene... 9.) Adjust the "Multiplier" value up or down depending on your needs 10.) Start a new test render and repeat point 8-9 if needed.




GETTING STARTED

17. POINT- AND/OR SPOT- LIGHT SETTINGS IN KT: You may have applied Point- / Spot light components in SU and you’ve also applied light power, but it can be difficult even for experienced users to determine the value. In many cases you either apply too much or too little. But you can change the settings or even disable the point- or spot-light. In the left side of the KT window you have the material, light and camera list. 1.) Double-click one of

your light components to make it visible.

2.) On the top right corner you can see two sliders, where you can adjust the Hot Spot and Fall Off settings.

To adjust the light power, click Settings > Scene… 1.) Adjust the Multiplier value up or down depending

on your need. (adjust by 1.000, meaning if adjusting up in the example shown, the value should be set to 3.000)

2.) Adjust Fall Off if needed. 3.) Adjust Hot Spot if needed. For Point lights you can only adjust the Multiplier value. After having made adjustments, it will be a good idea to run another quick test render. Repeat step 1-3 if needed.




GETTING STARTED

18. SELF LUMINANCE LIGHT SETTINGS IN KT: In the Section 7 we also showed how to apply a material that can be used in KT as a Self Luminance material. Now that you’ve imported your model/scene into KT, you’ll learn how to make this material act like light. 1.) Double-click the material you want to act like light. 2.) Select the Advanced tab 3.) Set the value of the Color to i.e. 5 (don’t use the slider, change the number in the field) 4.) Click Apply Changes button 5.) Click Close Editor. Notice that when making a material a self luminance, a small light bulb will appear in front of the material name in the material list. Run a quick test render and see if you need to in- / de-crease the value.

IMPORTANT NOTICE! When using Self Luminance, the render time will increase. Sometimes it may even increase considerably. Using Point- and/or Spot- lights as a much faster way of illuminating a model/scene.




GETTING STARTED

19. SHIFTING BETWEEN CAMERA POSITIONS: To switch between the cameras you’ve applied in SU, you simply use the “Cycle” tool. Apart from the camera positions you’ve applied you can use one of the following tools: 1.) Click the “Cycle” tool to choose the camera

position you want to render. 2.) Click the “Start Render” icon Now you’ll see that KT has automatically chosen the camera you’ve selected. There are a number of various preset resolutions you can choose among in the pull down list, but please also note that you can enter a resolution yourself in the Resolution field. All you need to do is overwrite the resolution by entering the resolution you want.

20. CHOSE THE RENDER PRESET: The list of pre-defined render settings is immense and contain Path, Ray, PhontonMap (GI), Bidirectional Path Tracing (BiPT), Metropolis Light Transport (MLT), Clay, Mask and many others.

To begin with we suggest that you play with the various types of render settings. Use the no. 3 PhontonMap – Quick to make your test renders and when satisfied with applying materials and light, you can try one of the higher settings.

Rotate/Orbit

Pan/Move Dolly/Zoom

Roll vertically Top Front (S) Left (W)

Bottom Back (N) Right (E)




GETTING STARTED

21. RENDER YOUR MODEL: KT is also capable of utilizing Dual Core processors. If your computer has dual core, you’ll see this in the Threads pull down list. Especially if rendering images using BiPT or MLT, you can use the “Dual core” option to take advantage.

Remember the bathroom scene, where we applied the mirror material? Well – here’s the result.

For further questions we recommend that you visit the KT web-site and Forum.

getting-started kerkythea

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