Below is a quick break down of the illustration and the simple process I used to create the aerial forest.

1. Base Rendering

I first setup the view in Sketchup and rendered it out using V-Ray. I also dropped in some trees (hidden in this view) to cast some shadows on the roof. I could have Photoshopped in these shadows but decided to go the 3D route because of all of the geometry happening on the roof.

2. Ground Vegetation

Next, I setup a new group in Photoshop and added in some ground vegetation. I wasn’t too concerned about how clean the Photoshop was on the vegetation because it was largely going to get covered up with trees. The texture is made up of about three images Cloned Stamped together.

3. Ground Shadows

The first thing I typically do when setting up the ground shadows is to extract the shadows from the base rendering. In this case, I grabbed the shadow that the building was casting on the ground, brought it into my “Ground Vegetation” Group, and set the layer blend mode to “Multiply”.

Since there will be a lot of trees covering the site, there will also be lots of tree shadows on the ground. Therefore, I created a tree shadow by taking one of my cutout trees, darkening it, giving it a blue tint to match the ground shadows of the base rendering, and finally added some motion blur. Once I had the tree shadow ready to go, I simply copied it untill the ground was mostly covered.

One quick tip, I setup a new group to contain all of the shadows including the ground shadows from the base rendering. All of the Layer Blend Modes of the individual shadow layers were set to “Normal” so that they did not multiply on top of themselves. I then set the group Layer Blend Mode to “Multiply” to get the final effect.

4. Adding Trees

I compiled five cutout trees that were more or less the type that I need for the forest. Some were older and some were younger for some more diversity. I then copied them throughout the site making sure that I was angling the trunks to match the perspective of the image. Since I only had five different trees, I did a lot of flipping and toning to avoid the trees feeling too copied.

I created a tutorial a while ago going into more depth on this idea of avoiding that copied look Here.

5. Roof Gardens

The steps used to add in the roof gardens were identical to those used to add the ground vegetation and shadow. I compiled a group of textures, stitched them into the illustration, and then multiplied the base render shadows on top. I also reworked some of the glass and brought in a few people.

6. Final Toning

Finally, I adjusted the toning of the image. Not much was done here though. I adjusted the contrast, ran some Topaz filters to pull out some detail, and added a slight atmospheric haze over the entire image.

Some quick notes: I am using a slightly older version of Sketchup (2015) and V-Ray 2 for this tutorial. The settings I am describing are somewhat universal and translate similarly in newer and older versions of both Sketchup and V-Ray. For example, we are using the latest versions of both Sketchup and V-Ray (3) in our office at Design Distill and these settings remain largely the same though the interface is different. The important thing to take away from this tutorial is not the specific settings but the larger ideas of workflow and where to spend and not spend your time. Like I said, I am providing what I think are the most critical ideas that led to the creation of the this image and am not trying to get lost in the weeds of render settings.

1. Sketchup Grouping

Since this project scale is small, the way that I organized the 3D Sketchup model is a little different than some of my other models. I grouped it by system so that the ground and terracing was one group, the glass and interior walls was another, then the wood screen, the steel structure, and finally the roof system. Within these groups are another several levels of groups and components. However, the five main groups allow me to get to each system quickly and really helps me to keep everything neat and clean and also very editable. I created a time lapse a while ago showing me constructing one of my models here.

2. Textures

Since the view is so far out, the textures are not as important as say a view from inside or really close up. I really only have about four textures that I am using; two woods, a metal, and a glass. I built the wood textures by editing some textures that I found on textures.com. I don’t like textures that show tiling, so I tend to build larger textures from smaller ones that don’t repeat as often. I also toned them and removed the harsh dark joints. The wood tones were important because these would read from far away and would significantly affect the “warmth” of the image as I drop in lights.

3. Night Settings

Now that the modeling and texturing is complete, I need to start setting up the lighting of the scene. Typically, I really push the coloring and lighting of the illustration in Photoshop, therefore, I am just trying to get something close in 3D without spending too much time. I am more focused on setting up things that are difficult to adjust in Photoshop such as shadow direction and softness as well as artificial lighting. This scene is lit by an HDRI sky which means I use the image to generate the light instead of using the V-Ray sun and sky. This can give the scene softer shadows and provide more control over specific lighting scenarios. In this case, the scene is close to night with the sun below the horizon and lots of blues throughout. To do this, I turned off V-Ray sun and instead uploaded the HDRI image. The sky was downloaded from Vizpeople and is at a high resolution.

To set all of this up, I opened my V-Ray option editor and expanded the “Environment” tab. Under GI (Skylight), I chose the icon with the letter “M” on it. In the V-Ray Texture Editor dialogue box, I set the left dropdown to “TexBitmap” and then uploaded the HDRI sky next to “File”. Finally, I set the UVW Type to “UVWGenEnvironment”, and set the Mapping Type to “Spherical”. To rotate the sky thus rotating the direction of the light, I edited the Horizontal rotation to “280”. Repeat this for the letter “M” next to Reflection/refraction (background) in the “Environment” tab.

4. Lights

The wood louvers on the exterior facade are an important part of the design concept. I wanted a lot of light inside bouncing around to play up the screen effect, therefore, I dropped in a bunch of V-Ray spot lights. Since the view is far away from the building, the lights were dropped in a little more casually and were placed based on the view angle.

When you drop in a spotlight, you can then right click on it and choose “V-Ray for Sketchup>Edit Light”. This brings up the V-Ray Light Editor where you can adjust some of the settings. I usually set the color to something warm such as light orange. The intensity number is really based on the camera exposure settings as well as the environmental lighting.  However, in this case, I set the Intensity to “150” and set the Units to “Radiant Power (W)”.  For the Cone Angle, I set it to “1.3” which will widen it slightly and then set the Penumbra Angle to “0.75” which will soften the edge a bit. Finally, I set the Decay to “Inverse Square” which will cause the light to fade much quicker as it moves further from the light source.

5. Other Option Editor Settings

Under the “Camera” tab of the V-Ray option editor, two settings were adjusted. For daytime shots, I don’t adjust much with the camera and leave most of the defaults. However, for night shots, it’s good to lower the shutter speed and f-number. This is helpful so that when you are dropping in V-Ray lights, you don’t have to substantially increase their strength.

Under the “VFB Channels” tab in the “V-Ray Options Editor” I turned on a few more channels. For this illustration, I highlighted RGB Color, Alpha, Material ID, Raw Light, Raw Total Light, Reflection, and Refraction.

Finally, under the “Output” tab, I setup the resolution and ratio of the image. I checked the “Override Viewport” box, then set the Width to “6000” px and set the Height to “5000” px. This gave a ratio of 1.2 which is the ratio that I wanted, so I chose the “L” button to lock it. I am going with a 1.2 ratio because it matches the ratio of my next portfolio I am producing. Otherwise, I typically use 1.77 which is the more common 16:9 aspect ratio.

Under Render Output, I checked the “Save Output” box and browsed to a location to save the files when they are finished rendering. This is also where I setup the file type to be saved which I set to .tif.

6. Setting Up the View in Sketchup

Finally, there are a few things that need to happen in Sketchup before hitting render. I need to setup the camera at eye height which I use the “Position Camera”. When selected, I can click anywhere on the ground in the model and Sketchup will place the camera at that point at eye height. This ensures that I am not accidentally setting the camera at an awkward height of 3ft or 10ft.

Next, I set the view to Two-Point Perspective by going to “Camera>Two-Point Perspective”. This ensures that all of my verticals are corrected.

Finally, I chose “View>Animation>Add Scene” to save the view in Sketchup.

7. Render

Finally, I can hit “Render” and let V-Ray generate the high-res image along with the extra channels. It took V-Ray less than an hour to complete the job on my desktop. The final output gives me a solid base to work from in Photoshop and gives me everything I need to make proper selections, add textures, and tone the image.

I will spend part 2 of this tutorial in Photoshop bringing the rendering to life by breaking down each step and describing how I added the sky, ground textures, color, atmosphere, and entourage. Stay tuned.

1. Setup Base Photoshop File: Individual Options

1.A – Getting started, I setup a Photoshop file that would house the different facade options. The “BASE” folder contained the base images that I would overlay the different facade options onto. For this illustration, I used an exported Sketchup image with some thickened ground lines and profile lines.

1.B – From there, I started testing out some different facade options. Each move was saved within a group so that I could easily toggle on and off different options quickly and start to play around with different combinations.

1.C – Two other groups were created that would turn the image into a night scene when toggled on. This would allow me to view each option in both a daytime and nighttime setting to study how the reading of the facade systems change.

1.D – Finally, when I finished experimenting, each option and combination was exported as a jpeg in both day and night versions.

2. Setup Master Photoshop File: Layout and Textures

2.A – Next, a new Photoshop file was created that would serve as the “Master” Photoshop file and was setup based on the size and resolution I needed for printing. I began by dragging the first facade option jpeg into the new Photoshop file. When the jpeg is dragged in, you will see a bounding box around it letting you know that it came in as a smart object. From there, I scaled it to the size that I wanted and then hit the check mark at the top to finalize the move.

2.B – It is important to keep all of the options exactly the same size. Instead of dragging in each option and scaling the best I can to match the other options, I am going to use a different method. I right-clicked on the first option layer and chose “New Smart Object via Copy”. This creates a unique copy of the smart object.

2.C – Next, I right-click on the new copied smart object layer and choose “Replace Content”. In the dialogue box that appears, browse to a new facade jpeg option and choose “Replace”. The old option was replaced with the new option while maintaining the exact same size. I repeat these steps until all of the options have been placed on the canvas.

3. Apply Textures

They reason why I didn’t use a program like InDesign to layout the different options is because I like to paint and add texture quite a bit over the entire spread at the end of the process. For this diagram, I compiled a few sketchy textures and began overlaying them on top. I also painted in smudges and roughed up some of the line work. I used some of the methods described in this really old post about creating the “Sketchy Look”.

Final Images

Setting up your files in a smart way will lead to cleaner images and huge savings in time down the road. As much as this illustration is Photoshopped and textured, it can still be edited quite easily. If later on, I come up with some new options, it will take no time to insert them into the spread or simply swap it out some other options.

Just Not the Same

A relatively new site containing a mid-size collection of diverse entourage.  justnotthesame.us

Escalalatina

A large collection of entourage with a focus on Latin Americans. escalalatina.com

Nonscandinavia

A large collection of diverse entourage from around the world. nonscandinavia.com/originals. Because of specific copyright issues, they also have a new section with an interesting graphical approach to their cutouts: nonscandinavia.com/cutouts/

Cutout Life

A mid-size collection of diverse entourage. cutoutlife.com

Clipped

A large collection of entourage along with other misc. items mixed in. clipped.io

Diaz Paunetto

A small but good collection of entourage by an office out of Puerto Rico. diazpaunetto.com

Tony Textures Free Set

A small collection that is downloaded as one file making it easy to drag into your own files: Tonytextures.com

Cutout Mix

A  small abstracted collection of entourage with a cool graphical style. cutoutmix.com

3NTA

A collection of the “unique” stuff from famous architects to the cast of Breaking Bad:  3nta.com

Pimp My Drawing

A medium sized group of vector cutouts for your illustrator and CAD drawings. pimpmydrawing.com

Projectalog

A very small but well conceived collection of abstracted figures. projectalog.com

It is important to note that not all of the cutout people in these websites are setup for commercial use. If you are using these cutouts for educational use, you are probably okay, however, it is still important to read and understand the usage rights of each website.

1. Compile Base Images and Renderings

Sketchup Line Work

V-Ray Ambient Occlusion Rendering

V-Ray Clay Rendering

Three Layers Combined

I used three base images to compile the bulk of the illustration. I used a line work export from Sketchup, an ambient occlusion rendering from V-Ray, and a clay rendering from V-Ray. I then combined them in Sketchup to get the above image. The line work and AO pass add detail that help articulate what is happening with the geometry. Since I am going for more of a diagrammatic image, I leaned on these passes more than the clay rendering.

2. Poche

The focus of this illustration is to describe the floor plan design. Therefore, I want to play up the cut of the section. To do this, I painted the section cut in Photoshop with black paint.

3. Extra Details

I ended up painting the floor a dark grey to create more of a contrast between it and the walls. I also abstractly introduced sticks representing trees to give a some texture to the illustration.

4. Stretch

At this point, I stretched the image to make it a plan oblique before I add text. Again, the process of creating a plan oblique image from a Sketchup model can be seen here. 

5. Annotation and Final Coloring

Finally, I dropped in some annotation and did some quick color editing using Topaz. I expect coloring may change again once I start developing final page spreads for the project.

So what is a Smart Object in Photoshop? When you create a Smart Object, you are telling Photoshop to save the original characteristics of the source image. When you edit a Smart Object such as adjusting the levels or hue/saturation, Photoshop will turn these into Smart Filters allowing you to undo these changes later. Scaling and distorting a Smart Object also does not degrade the layer as shown a little later on. Another advantage is that copies of Smart Objects create instances of each other. This is similar in concept to how blocks work in AutoCAD or components in Sketchup. Updating one instance will update them all. Most importantly, changes to a Smart Object are non destructive which is crucial for sharp and editable Photoshop files.

1.  Creating a Smart Object

Option A

There are a few ways to create a Smart Object. The first is by simply dragging a file directly into a Photoshop file. I am using Photoshop CC so this method may not work on older versions of Photoshop. When you drag an image file such as a .jpeg or .png into an open Photoshop file, the image will come in as a Smart Object and have a bounding box around it. Hit the check mark at the top to accept the Smart Object into the file.

Option B

In some situations, you may already have a layer in Photoshop that you want to convert into a Smart Object before making adjustments such as toning or scaling. To turn a layer into a Smart Object, right-click on the name of the layer in the layers palette and choose “Convert to Smart Object”.

After choosing “Convert to a Smart Object”, you will see a small icon on the layer which lets you know that it is now a Smart Object. Photoshop has now saved the state of the layer and changes made to this layer will now show up as Smart Filters underneath the layer in the layers palette. Changes up to this point will be able to be reversed back to the state of the layer at the time of the conversion to a Smart Object.

2. Scaling

Scaling is one of the biggest reasons to use Smart Objects in Photoshop. This example shows two red bushes, one is a Smart Object, the other is just a simple rasterized Photoshop layer.

Often in architectural visualization, objects such as plants and entourage are scaled many times when trying to place them in a composition. In this case, I decided to push the red bush into the distance, thus I needed to scale it much smaller.

When both bushes are scaled back up, the Smart Object maintains the original sharpness because it is still referencing the original stored information of the image. The non-smart object’s quality has been significantly degraded. The more times that the non-smart object is scaled, distorted, and rotated, the quality will continue to degrade. The Smart Object will always maintain the original sharpness no matter how many times it is manipulated.

3. Smart Filters

Similar to resizing, elements like vegetation, entourage, and base files often require lots of toning adjustments. With Smart Objects, the toning adjustments are automatically turned into Smart Filters. This means all of the color adjustments, level and curve changes, and other tone adjustments are saved right next to the layer, allowing you to tweak, add to, or fully remove the adjustments at any time. In this example, I added a red bush and turned it into a Smart Object.

Later on, I decided to move the bush into the shadow, so I darkened the bush using “Hue/Saturation” and I adjusted the “Levels”. You will notice under the “Red Bush” layer in the Layers Palette, that these adjustments appeared in the order in which they were created.

Later, I again decided to move the bush back into the light. I wanted to revert back to the original tones of the bush, so I simply turned off the Smart Filters. You could also delete the filters altogether. If the bush was not a Smart Object, it would have been very difficult to get the color back to its original tones and I would have most likely needed to reinsert it again.

4. Copying As Instances

You can use Smart Objects as instances of one of another similar in concept to blocks in AutoCAD or components in Sketchup. This means after a Smart Object has been copied several times, the image can be replaced with a new image, and all of the instances of that Smart Object will automatically get updated. In this example, I copied the red bush several times by holding down the “Alt” key, clicking and dragging. For the bushes in the shadows, I added some Smart Filter adjustments to darken them. I also horizontally flipped the bush on several occasions.

Next, I want to replace the red bush with a brown bush. To do this, I first opened the original red bush image, turned it off, and brought in the new brown bush. I then save the brown bush as a new file. It is important that the new image file is exactly the same size in pixels to the original image file used to create the Smart Object.

Back in the illustration file, right-click on one of the Smart Object instances in the layers palette, and choose “Replace Contents”. In the pop-up window, browse to the new image that will replace the current Smart Object file. In this case, I am browsing to the new brown bush file.

All instances of the red bush have now been replaced with the brown bush. All of the scaling, Smart Filters, and horizontal flipping remain.

6. Turning your base files into Smart Objects

Bringing in all of your base rendering files as Smart Objects can save a lot of time later on down the road if you plan on making a lot of edits. For one, there are many times when the base renderings need to be distorted to match a photograph or drone image. It can be next to impossible to exactly match how a base rendering is distorted with a new updated rendering. With Smart Objects, this is no longer a problem. At Design Distill, we are constantly making changes to the model, and then rerendering new base files to be updated in Photoshop. Using Smart Objects, we simply replace the old base files with the new ones and all of the color adjustments and scaling gets carried over. In this example, I have brought in a base rendering of my research lab design. The first thing that I do is turn it into a Smart Object by right-clicking on the layer name and choosing “Covert to a Smart Object”.

Next, I distorted the base rendering similar to how I would if I was trying to match it to an existing site photo. I also added some color adjustments which are shown as Smart Filters underneath the layer in the Layers Palette.

Next, I want to replace the base rendering with a new rendering that I created that shows the exterior panels turned off. To do this, I right-click on the layer name, and choose “Replace Contents”.

The original base rendering has now been replaced with the new rendering showing the panels turned off. All of the color adjustments remain and the image is distorted and scaled exactly like the old rendering. If Smart Objects weren’t used here, I would have had to guess the exact color corrections and eyeball the best I could to match the distortion and scaling.

6. Creating a Unique Copy

You do not always want to copy a Smart Object as an instance. In other words, sometimes you don’t want the copy to be updated with a new image when other instances of the Smart Object are updated. In this example, I want to make a copy of the base rendering so that I can reuse the exact distortion and scaling changes. But I also want the Smart Object to be unique, so that it does not replace all instances of itself. To do this, right-click on the layer name, and choose “New Smart Object via Copy”.

Now I have a copy of the first Smart Object along with all of its scaling and color adjustment properties. I only need the scaling adjustments and not the color adjustments, so I deleted those Smart Filters. Next, I right-clicked on the new layer name and chose “Replace Contents”. I then browsed to the new image that I want to replace the existing rendering with. Again, it is important that both the old and new images are exactly the same size in resolution.

What I am left with is another Smart Object layer of my Material ID Channel that is distorted exactly like the other base rendering. I can use this same technique with all of my rendering channels ensuring they are all exactly distorted and scaled the same way.

As great as Smart Objects are, there are also some negatives. With Photoshop files that have hundreds or even thousands of layers that are Smart Objects, the file tends to run slower than layers that are all rasterized. There have been times where many of the Smart Objects in my file needed to be rasterized to help Photoshop run more smoothly.

Also, you can’t use tools like Burn and Dodge, Clone Stamp, or Paint Brush on a Smart Object nor can you use the Eraser Tool. Instead, you have to use masks to erase or rasterize the layer to use some of the other tools. To rasterize a Smart Object, simply right-click on the layer name and choose “Rasterize Layer”.

There are obviously many uses for Smart Objects, and I only covered a small number of them here. If you have a unique way that you have implemented them into your workflow, please leave a comment below. Im always looking for new ideas.