Sketchup for Stage Design

I appreciate your comments John! I’m going to try your transparent wall trick…brilliant!

Thanks again!

Pat

Please do keep in touch Pat - I’d be interested to see how your new initiative develops and what your students make of it. John’s right about groups and components, but I’d just like to add that I think you’ll find harnessing layers invaluable. You’ll notice both John and myself have 2D containing walls. (… although, I think your prosc arch should stay solid.) I have a ground plan, indicating wall thickness on a distinct layer. You can switch layers off and on with the selection of different scenes. It’s also essential to use layers when you have scene and set changes. To be honest I haven’t looked at my venue templates for some time, (there are a few glaring anomalies that really need to be addressed - that the sharper students regularly draw my attention to.
This is the most complete template:

Ravensfield Theatre

I try to work in respect of the proffered conventions, as outlined by ABTT (in the UK) and USITT, and name and number my layers appropriately.

Cheers,
Rory

(Incidentally, are you 3D printing model components yet?)

Thanks Rory! I will!

I REALLY dig the transparent walls but I am not finding anything regarding instructions or tutorials…I’m probably just using the wrong search terms. Could you possibly point me in the right direction?!

Last year we purchased a Makerbot Replicator. I’ve printed a ton of proppy sort of things but haven’t gotten into any model items…YET. The possibilities are literally endless!

Thanks again,

Pat

Well I can try to explain as much as I know, but it strikes me there are people here with a far more sophisticated appreciation of the software, and a more savvy grasp of terminology. The way I would explain it is as follows: on the 2D plane use your Paint Bucket tool to colour, (or texture,) to one surface. Now orbit around to the other side of the plane. If you now adjust the opacity on the Paint Bucket window to zero percent and dab that surface it will become transparent without affecting the appearance of the opposing surface. It doesn’t need to be completely transparent tho’ You might like there to be some indication of that surface by setting the opacity to 20 - 40 percent.

Funny - we haven’t printed one prop. I’ve printed heaps of model Steeldeck, some scale scenery and have recently got into scanning our stock furniture - sometimes to print; sometimes to import into SketchUp. It’s a game-changer!

Rory

Hello Pat,

I am a full time scenic designer of 20 years or so based in San Francisco. I migrated my workflow out of Vectorworks and into Sketchup about 4-5 years ago and after some initial growing pains have not looked back. As you know Vectorworks continues to be the common standard in our industry so It’s important to understand the processes of exporting and importing .DWG files effectively, and also the use of Layout for 2d output such as construction drawings. I work with theaters and TDs across North America and Europe without trouble, but I am often converting formats. I have, however, seen a steady increase in Sketchup literacy over the last two years, which is good.

As a brainstorming, design and communication tool sketchup is a fantastic platform in my opinion and clearly native 3d is not going away soon. It’s a good tool for young designers to have at their disposal, and a very efficient way to collaborate with a larger team which is essential to being a working designer. I used to spend hours describing things or redrawing by hand (yes, I’m a dinosaur), now I post a fly thru of the set updates to vimeo and invite all collaborators to view it, saves a lot of conversation.

I use some specific plugins and shortcuts in my workflow, but a truly good understanding of Sketchup is the first and most important thing. I’m happy to make contact off-line.

All the best,

Sean Riley

That’s reassuring to hear Sean. Certainly our successful recent graduate designers focus on SketchUp. I don’t know what it’s like in the US but here in London & the UK our resident “dinosaurs” could do with getting with the programme. Never mind converting formats - it’s always having to adapt (and struggle to interpret!) venues’ flat plans that I find tedious.

Rory

thanks Rory
and thanks also to the rest of the guys on this thread.
My thoughts are similar to Sean’s - although I live and work in Australia. The standard here is VectorWorks - a program which I don’t enjoy using as I find it too complex. Unfortunately SU is mainly used by Architects rather than designers (set or lighting) in the theatres here. This is also true of the corporate theatre and event world…
As most of my work involves conceptual design - I use SU and Sketchbook - moving between the two. I’m lucky that I tend to work within teams of people so I let the specialists either render the work or draw it up in CAD.
Eamon

Yes Rory, I too spend a fair bit of time figuring out and building up 3d versions of houses from 2d. I often find myself building simple versions of venues from blurry .pdf and .jpg just so I can get started. Or I import a .DWG that is a mess of ungrouped lines and takes hours to clean up. Realistically I don’t think Vectorworks is going away soon, and it’s a fantastic program too, plus years of development for companion programs like lightwrite give it a lot of momentum. Really, I think sketchup shines as a brainstorming platform to experiment with ideas and a big leap forward in how designers communicate with others, which is basically what I think Eamon is saying too (Hi Eamon, nice work!). Mostly for me Sketchup has changed the way I share my ideas, and if one does not have a team of CAD elves to help draw things :wink: then Layout is the next best thing to help transform those ideas into something buildable.

I was thinking of other “tricks” I use regularly and although it’s not a plug-in but a built in component of SKup I use WALK and LOOK AROUND quite a bit. A lot of my work is in non-traditional immersive environments and wacky installations and the ability to set an eye height and then actually move around naturally inside a model allows me to check sightlines and “feel” the experience in a way that just navigating with the camera does not. I also use geolocation on outdoor venues to better understand the roll the sun will play at a given place and time. As for plug ins, I think Solid Inspector and FredoScale are essential, I love the ability in FredoScale to flatten anything into a Z dimension of 0.

SR

Hello Pat
Stage designer here as well for quite a bit. Been on the road for many years and now sit on the same chairs day after day. I use sketchup for about 6 years. I’m based in Montreal and my customer productions are challenging me constantly on how heavy a file can become. I’m doing gigantic venue, stage and site and dupplicating component by hundred is not rare. I need to have a method, wich is keeping certain element in multi mode: Lorez, HiRez and 2D. Customer ask you very often to create technical 2D drawing and full rendering from the same model. You can then switch layer according to what you need. Per example, we do skype meeting in full VR, (yes, we there now!) in this case, you want Lorez for everything, so you can fluidely walk through the model. (Hi rez is fun, but too demanding for web connection)

With today advanced automation system, customers ask me to have movement in my model. I worked on the design of an Imagine Dragons tour where many element on stage was in movement. I then used the free plugin Keyframe animation wich become a must.

For Video Projection, you can use SIMPROJ to simulate projection beam and create projection spec documents. A must for the video department who try to know what is the best projo for the gig, or the image creator team who need boundery to start creating image. (Projecting on screen now is boring, we want to project on everything else!)

To do quick render, I use Twilight 2. I have a library of light fixtures with a bulb installed for all of them, so when I insert them in my drawing, I can do a quick render as all my light are already in place. All my fixtures (or almost) are dynamic component. So per example, a moving light have dynamic Yaw and Tilt. Then the light beam fallow those movement. I also have option of degrees (in a ETC Source4) I can then built a full set in a few hours. I ran into problems many times with dynamic light fixture though. When the model is very heavy, the DC doesn’t works well. It’s like DC has not been created for that kind of purpose. In a light design of today Rock’nRoll stage, you easily reach over 100 fixtures in most production. I didn’t quote a forum for that problem because I’m pretty sure there is no fix. And moving the yaw manually is not that hard to do. I do the change in a outside drawing then insert back the component with the right config.

Anyway, if you need more info, you can contact me off forum. My customer are on the fine edge of worldwide technologie and I am very demanding with Sketchup and its features… But next to VW, Acad, SW, 3Dmax and Wysiwyg… Sketchup is far more fun to drive.

Hi There John! I have a couple of questions. I have done an almost total redraw of my theatre and have two questions. The first, you mentioned that my two pillars where “inside out”. Is there a way to fix this or is it only fixed through redrawing the object. My main set of walls is blue and I fear they are not right. Second, is there a tutorial somewhere that talks about the walls with different opacity settings i.e., transparent from outside and opaque from inside.

Thanks much for your time,

Pat

To change the pillars, just highlight all faces, R-click and Reverse faces.

Similarly for your walls.

You don’t need to redraw them (at least, not for that reason).

I got the idea for one-way transparent walls from a post somewhere, not a tutorial. Sorry, it was several years ago, and I have idea now where I saw it.

However, quick Google found this:

:

thanks Joe - all sounds great

Hello all
Im a theater LD from Denmark, where SU is extremely popular with our set designers, and also what is currently taught at the National school of performing arts. I would say that I recieve 70% of all drawings in SU, 10% by hand and 20% by VW or Ilustrator. I love the “3d for everyone” aproach, and I often do a lot of editing to the files I get, or draw construction drawings for any steel or woodwork i need for my light designs.

My current employer has provided me with a VW license + RenderWorks. But eventhough I have had several courses and 2 years expierience with it, I absolutely loath VW from the bottom of my heart. Its buggy, its unnesessary amounts of “Clicks”, but above all else its EXTREMELY slow (and im even using a high end GPU).

I wanted to switch to SU for all my LD needs, since I like to stay in the same workspace as my Set designer. I rarely do much rendering (priviously did a bit i WYG), so mostly im interested in doing a readable plot for my crew and being able to check angles, and spread degrees.

Anyone got any advise on extensions or got any DC that you use often? how could you produce a nice 2d plot with label legends for fixtures

Do you have Sketchup Make or Sketchup Pro? The Pro version comes with a nifty companion program called Layout. Its function is to produce nice 2d plots (and drawings) that can be labeled, dimensioned, and annotated. I am a set designer and use it all the time to present my drawings to the shop and carpenters.

Hi @TheSetGuy

I have LO, and I love using it. But I find it a bit hard doing annotation for each light fixture, each with at least 3 different attributes. And the text annotation dosn´t always follow along, if I move the fixture in the reference file and update. I was hoping for some sort of template label legend, and a quick way to input data to it.

another problem is that to make it more readable I like the fixture layer to be displayed on top of everything else, even though its Z height is obviously below its hang point. This could be circumvented by moving the fixtures up before exporting to LO

I know that SU isn´t a proper lightplot tool like WYSIWYG or VW spotlight. I know im bending the bounds of the vanilla program to fit my needs. I just wanted to know what other users (especially theatrical designers of all sorts) are doing and how they implement DC and extensions into their workflow

You can also create a scene with only the fixtures showing and, in LayOut, put a viewport with that scene on top of a similar view with all the other things. This removes the need to actually move things to get the view you need

Anssi

Hey @Givskov

I’m a production carpenter that tours with a large ballet company with really old/new and massive and small sets. I’ve been systematically drawing and cataloging each show in 3D. I use Keyframe Animation to show how some more complicated and larger sets come together. I use a screen recorder and format the video so it’s easy to share with my crew in which they’re able to show the animations thru their phones to the hired locals. This tool is great when working with a language barrier or refresh our memory on what worked best in assembly.

2 Likes

I know your looking for more plugins for light plots but couldn’t help but share!

thx for sharing - I could really see that come in handy

3 posts were split to a new topic: VWX 2017 to SketchUP Pro