Concept Art Techniques - Google SketchUp Workshop: Modeling, Visualizing, and Illustrating - page 249

and scaling the resulting geometry. Again, this would look very con-
trived on a real creature, but is perfectly in keeping with a mechanical
construction.

The head and neck were created by duplicating and repeating groups of
much simpler shapes, and the silhouette I had in mind was built up. From my
original rough sketch, I know that the heads are largely going to be backlit,
and the outline of the silhouette is going to be the most important feature of
the design.

Step 7: Composing the Scene

Goal : To compose the scene and choose a camera angle.
Inputs : All the previously created geometry, my original rough sketch.
Tools : SketchUp, Film, and Stage plug-in.

I now take all the separate elements I have created in steps 1-6, and
combine them to make my finished scene. The Scylla head is made into a
component and duplicated six times, and I have
added a standard 3D figure (from the Components
browser window) to judge the correct scale of the
elements.

This is where I experiment with different camera
positions and fields of view (i.e., different lenses)
to decide the final framing of my painting. I also
experiment with different lighting directions, work-
ing out where I want the shadows to fall and how
I am best going to match the atmosphere of my
original sketch. I use the Film and Stage plug-in for
this step so that I can view my camera positions as
3D movable objects.

FiG 14.16 Positions of cameras 1, 2 and 3 (from left to right).

FiG 14.18 View from camera 3.

FiG 14.17 View from camera 1.