There was a trick previously using a ceiling plane with one side painted transparent, that allowed you to do internal sun penetration studies, but I can’t seem to get this working. Does anyone have a tip on how to do this now?
Are you still using sketchup 2020? You can make sun studies using the predesign tool, but i don´t know if it´s available for you, there are other tools for that like Sefaira, it´s not free but it can make quite accurate light studies.
You need to paint the top face side of the ceiling with a transparent *.png texture.
(inside the ceiling can have its own paint)
See attached screenshot and model:
Shadow studies.skp (241.4 KB)
Transparent image below to be used in your model:
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That’s not really the result I’m after, as the ceiling isn’t casting a shadow!
Mate, you are a champion!!! That’s exactly what I was after!!! You’re now in god status!
Thank you!
Interesting. In the past, I built a big flag the way I might do it in a real world photo studio like this:
Also, in the past I was frustrated that transparent parts of PNG files still cast shadows when I didn’t want them to, but this takes advantage of that for a slick trick!
Here’s where I wanted transparent PNG to let the light through:
VRay does let light through the PNG, but VRay also lets you render a section without the sun coming through the open section.
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Yeah, I completely forgot this PNG trick, I just couldn’t recall it. It’s been around for about 20+ years. But it is a seriously cool feature of PNG’s!