Rendering in SketchUp

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Part 7: The Photoshop Postproduction Process
Fig. 32.23: 
Rendering of water that is 100-percent reflective
Fig. 32.24: 
Rendering of water that is solid without reflection
Fig. 32.25: 
Rendering of pool steps and basin

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Chapter 32: Detailed Postproduction
To hide the water, in SketchUp, double-click on the water surface to select it, right-click over 
the selection, and choose Group. Then select the Group, right-click, and select Hide. If you are 
using scenes, ensure that the water is not visible again when creating the rendering. To turn 
the water surface back on, go to View 
F
Hidden Geometry. You will see an outline of water sur-
face. Select it, right-click, and choose Unhide.
Make sure you turn off all the detail in the model (vegetation, furnishings, and similar) 
for the nonreflective water and no-water renders. This will speed up the render process. The 
details should be visible in the reflective water render to ensure that they reflect in the 
water.
Open and place the three renderings into a single Photoshop file. Place them in the follow-
ing layer order from top to bottom:
3
3
Nonreflective water
3
3
No-water surface
3
3
Reflective water
Mask and cut out the water surface areas from the nonreflective water and no-water render: 
the only thing that should remain is the reflective water surface and the container (pool, foun-
tain, etc.), bottom, and sides. Leave the reflective water layer as is.
Adjust the opacity of the nonreflective and no-water surface to control what is visible and 
to merge the three layers of water and fountain surfaces. The goal is to get a subtle mixture of 
container surfaces, water texture, and reflection (Fig. 32.26).
Fig. 32.26: 
The combined images

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