Product Review:
Last Software's SketchUp
by Mitchell Levine
Although
I'm not a visual artist by any means, I've had a great deal
of interest in 3D modeling for game design for some time
now. Unfortunately, like most people, limited by my experience:
most drawing tools for three-dimensional design are constrained
by one's ability to think in two dimensions. One's expected
to be able to use the building blocks of plane geometry—lines,
borders, curves, and so on, to create the solid objects that
are of interest in this form of graphics.
SketchUp, on the other hand, allows even an inexperienced
user to quickly create their own 3D primitives, and construct
complex objects from them immediately, a far more intuitive
process than operating from a two dimensional basis. With very
little background in CAD, I was able to produce design objects
in three dimensions, which, while not looking like the work
of skilled professionals, were far from typical novice scratch
work.
The documentation included with the software, which
allows access to a series of Quicktime videos, seems a little
less than entirely optimistic about the speed with which a
typical newbie can round the learning curve, but I'm here to
tell you it's misguided: if I can do it, anyone can. While
the product seems specifically intended for the most conceptual
stages of design, it also offers a powerful set of interfaces
allowing its models to be exported to a formidable array of
third party animation and CAD applications.
For the education user, another aspect of the company's
promotions deserves discussion: the educational program. In
exchange for a post-course evaluation, Last Software makes
available a free instructor's copy of the software, and additional
licenses for only $10 per student and an additional one-time
participation fee. In addition a complete education user's
forum is provided online without subscription.
While not every graphics instructor in the schools
may be planning on teaching the complexities of 3D design,
for those that would like to broach this rich subject area,
or just about anyone else that's curious, it would probably
be difficult to find a more intuitive, well documented, solid
approach for beginners than SketchUp. For a free trial, online
purchase, or information about applying for the educational
trial, log on to the manufacturer's site at www.sketchup.com.#
