What's New with SU Podium V2 for SketchUp

What's New with SU Podium V2, September 26, 2012

1. Photo-realistic rendering series of articles - Part 4

A photo-real image can convey to you and your customer what your SketchUp model will look like in reality, with sun light, artificial light and reflections. SU Podium, photo-realistic rendering, is both a visualization-design tool and a way to inspire your customers with your SketchUp design. Part 4 of Jim Allen's series how detailing your model detailing the model.

When working out how much detail to add, you also need to think about exactly what you want to achieve. The more realistic you want to get, the more detail you need to add, but the longer your scene will take to render. I think that for most people, a simple principle is to use only as much detail as you need.

2. Podium Browser Paid Content more stuff for August

SU Podium Browser is a part of SU Podium V2. The $49 (USD) Paid content category now has nearly 3,000 Podium V2 render ready components and materials. August saw an increase in over one hundred new Podium Materials including aluminum, various new wood materials, etc. Also a huge influx of new household furnishing interior components. All Podium Browser components are render ready materials with properties assigned to them so you do not have to decide reflection, refraction, blur, bump values. Coming in September is more components and an interior design painting category.

Check out our Facebook account which focuses on new components here - SUPlugins Facebook.

3. Designing Kitchens?

Podium Browser has you covered. There are so many render ready materials and kitchen components in Podium Browser Paid content now, you will find detailing your design with lights, chairs, sinks, refrigerators, materials, kettles, micro-waves, clocks...has become a matter of positioning items in your model.



Click on image to view much larger resolution.

4. SU Podium V2 Gallery image of the month

This month's Podium Gallery image is from Jameson Torraco and is an exterior rendering.



SU Podium Forum gallery is a great place to see what others are doing with SU Podium V2 pick up some ideas for your rendering. Click on the Gallery Forum.

5. Podium Walker - 0.2.1 Beta released. Mac version has been released.

Beta 2 now LEM support, Mac beta released. Download the free beta here.

What the heck is Podium Walker? Cadalog, Inc. has released so many companion products to SU Podium V2, it does get confusing. Podium Walker is a two year development project that integrates the simplicity of SU Walk, real time animation with SketchUp. In other words, real time animations as a SketchUp plug-in that reads Podium V2 reflections, lights, bumps automagically.

Click on the above image view a large resolution created by Aikin Design using Podium Walker Beta, Podium and SketchUp.

Podium Walker Mac update - Mac OS-X Lion beta has been released.

6. SU Plugins Store specials - SU Animate and SU Podium V2

This month's webs store specials

a. SU Animate 50% off.

b. 2nd license of SU Podium V2. Here's your chance to get your 10% Plus discount from your second or third license.

Two new books that provide comprehensive information and useful tips to quickly grasp SU Podium V2 have been released.

• Professor Jim Kenney's Podium V2 Quick start was released last month and is available on Lulu.com. This book is a three-part, self-paced introduction to Podium, easily completed in six hours or less with 13 tutorials. Cost is $24.95 for the perfect bound full color version and $9.95 for the PDF e-book version. Purchase from Lulu.com. Type in Podium Quick Start in either the books section or ebooks section. Please read more about it here.

• Nicolas Harvey's SU Podium V2 Reference Guide is 48 pages that starts with a quick look at all the basic features of SU Podium V2. Then the books moves on to very useful tips on how to use natural and artificial lighting and material properties to create high quality, photo-realistic images. It also includes tutorials on how to effectively use post processing. The Reference Guide is available in the Books section of www.suplugins.com. Read about it here. Ce guide de référence a été traduit en français et est disponible dans la boutique en ligne SUPlugins.

Also keep in mind Professor Jim Kenney's very comprehensive Essentials: Rendering with Podium V2. This 137 page book comes not only with a full guide to Podium V2 but with many tutorials and sample models. Also available on Lulu.com. Also translated to Japanese.

Read more about the three books on SU Podium V2 and where to purchase them here - Books about SU Podium V2

8. What Cadalog, Inc. is working on - SU Podium V3

SU Podium Version 3 development work has begun in earnest. What will V3 be? Here is a partial list of what we are planning:
• A much faster way to process scenes. The speed difference will be noticeable in large models.
• A updated user interface which is based on native Windows or Mac OS. Some minor changes to the UI for advanced features.
• Instancing.
• Advanced material properties for metal and glass and better caustic effect.
• A integrated 2D image editor with color filters. This is pretty awesome. Lots of 2D color filters.
• Faster raytracing and global illumination and even higher quality output.
• A new user interface for the Podium Browser that will allow for easier content searches.
• Many other new features.
• We do not have a release date for either the beta or final version yet but we will keep you informed of our progress.