This article provides a detailed guide on how to create and apply texture materials to a 3D model using SketchUp. It explains the process of importing images, adjusting their dimensions, and using projected materials to create a realistic texture on a 3D model.
Key Insights
- The article guides the reader through the process of creating texture materials in SketchUp by importing images from a computer and adjusting their dimensions to fit the model.
- SketchUp allows users to create a variety of materials for different parts of a model, such as the body and head of a fish, and apply them to specific areas. This is done using the create material dialog box and the paint bucket tool.
- Projected materials are used in SketchUp to apply a texture across an entire 3D face rather than individual sections. This method helps to avoid a fragmented look on the model, creating a more realistic texture.
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Alright, so now that we're done with our fountain, we will save our file and then go to File.
Open, and we're going to find our C drive. Then go to our SKP 101 file downloads folder. Double click that and go to koifish.skp. Now click Open.
This file version was originally built in SketchUp 17, but we're using SketchUp 2022, so it's giving you a warning that this model was opened in SketchUp 2017. If you save it in 2022, you will no longer be able to open it in SketchUp 2017. I will click Don't show this message again. Select OK. Now you’ll see a completed model for the koi fish.
However, it does not have the characteristic koi fish scales and colors. Let's add them as texture materials. If we go to our Materials dialog box,
You can see that if we hit the Home button right here, there are four basic materials in our model. These are basic colors, and I’ve applied those elements to the koi fish.
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However, we are now going to build the materials for the koi body and koi head using texture images. The icon here is the Create Material icon. When you click this icon, the Create Material dialog box will open.
In this dialog box, we can do things like rename our material, choose our color from either the color wheel or different color sliders, or we can choose a texture image. If we click this button, it will bring up an area where we can load an image from our computer. Then we can adjust the opacity of the image, which we previously discussed when working with the water.
Let's begin by changing the name of our material to Koi Body Left, so we can type in here: Koi Body Left. We will not be using color for the material, so instead let's check Use Texture Image.
You will now see a File Explorer window open. Navigate to your C drive and go to your SKP 101 file downloads. You can see that under All Supported Images, all the images are listed—koi body left, koi body right, and koi head. Select koi body left
And click Open. You will now see a preview of our texture appear in this box. Also, under the Texture dialog box (Texture Image), you can see that there are dimensions. SketchUp will automatically resize your texture to the proportions at which the image was created. I would like to change these dimensions from one foot to one foot three inches.
And you can see that the dimensions automatically update because they are locked to the aspect ratio.
So I will click OK. Now let's make a new texture. Now let's call this one
Koi Body Right. We will follow the same process. In this case, I can click this button here, which is Browse for Material Image, and I can choose koi body right. You will now see this image updated to the right side of the koi fish.
We do not need to change our aspect ratio dimensions, as we’re going to keep them the same as the other one, so I will click OK. Now let's repeat this process one more time for the koi head. So I will click Create Material
And name it Koi Body Head.
Then I will click Browse and select the koi head.jpg file, which is this gray one right here. Now click Open. This time,
We can see that because we were still selecting the previous material, our dimensions are wrong. We want this to be a square, but now it’s more of a rectangular shape.
So I want to change this dimension to six inches. When I change it to six inches, you can see that this automatically changed the other dimension to three inches because the aspect ratio was locked.
So I will click to unlock the aspect ratio and change the vertical dimension to six inches as well. I will click OK.
Now you can see that we have all three of our texture images in our In Model section in the Materials dialog box. When these are selected, we can also click Edit to change the name and make some adjustments without using the Create Material dialog again.
So that's our way of editing a material that's already in the model. And the color shown here is essentially the average color from the entire image.
Alright. Now I will go back and click my Paint Bucket tool. Then go back to Select.
I want to paint. Which side should I paint first? I want to paint the head. So I click this koi body head
And I paint the head. When I zoom in, you can see that the image is all broken and fragmented into various shapes. Similar to the fountain, curved shapes are composed of triangles.
It's just a matter of whether or not they are softened. In this case, because this image was applied to those triangulations, it created a fragmented look.
That's not the look we want. We’re going to try to use projected materials to create a nice material projection onto the koi fish. If I go to View > Hidden Geometry,
You can see all the triangulations I was referring to. Then go back to View and uncheck Hidden Geometry. Textures are not applied across hidden geometry boundary lines,
But are applied to the individual 3D faces. If we want the texture to be applied to a 3D face as a whole, we need to use projected materials.
So I will undo my texture—click this Undo button—and then go to the Layers dialog box,
Which has now been renamed to Tags. It may be a little confusing if you're used to an older version of SketchUp, since they renamed layers to tags.
So I will click Tags. You can see here that I have a tag named "Textures" that is currently non-visible.
The visibility is indicated by the little eyeball on the left. If the eyeball is visible, the tag is shown. If it’s empty, the tag is hidden.
So I can click this eyeball, and we’ll see that now I have these rectangles that have appeared. We're going to take our three textures that we created
And paint each of these rectangles with the corresponding materials. So I’ll go to my Materials,
Click Koi Body Left, and paint the left side of the fish right here: Koi Body Left.
Then I will select Koi Body Right, orbit around, and paint this plane—
The Koi Body Right material. And finally, I will paint Koi Body Head at the top right here. Alright.
Now we have all of these planes with these materials. We're going to pause and pick this up in the next video, where we will project these materials onto our fish.
So I will save my file.
