As a not-so-artistically-inclined individual, the relatively simple task at hand of creating a rough-sketch of my childhood home felt daunting, to say the least. While I would consider this assignment difficult, I certainly still ultimately enjoyed myself, and appreciate the opportunity to push myself out of my comfort zone.
By and large the biggest challenge I faced when developing my 3D model was Sketchup’s tendency to try and predict what I was trying to highlight, and where I was trying to move it to, and more specifically how its predictions were, more often than not, wrong. I’m left wondering if there’s a way to “unstick” one’s cursor in Sketchup so as to try and alleviate this issue.
From a humanistic perspective, my mind instantly jumps to Sketchup’s potential as a means of visual storytelling. From a pedagogical perspective, activities such as designing the scenary from a book that a student is reading, or perhaps simply allowing students to illustrate their own stories using 3D models seems like a natural progression from the 2D pen and paper illustrations to which many of us are accustom.
To those that are just beginning with Sketchup, as I am, I would suggest beginning with simple, general shapes, and slowly chisseling away at and editing them, rather than immediately going for the “final product” geometry. I’ve found that maintaining this philosophy helps not only makes the entire process easier, but it also breaks down the design process into bite-sized, iterable cycles, limiting frustration while also making it easier to pick up where one left off were one unable to finish the entire project in one sitting.
I love your home! I can definitely imagine it in real life. After reading your post it seems we both struggled with some of the same things. Highlighting specific things was tricky, especially at some angles, which led to me spending a lot of extra time, but I hope you enjoyed the process.