Kerkythea | Help and Advice

[Dubai Skyscraper]

ok folks, i decided to start a new thread for help with Kerkythea since the previous one is more than 5 years old and the thread setter is inactive since 2011. this way it will be easy for me to edit the first post, e.g. to add new tutorials

also, if i missed to explain something, please let me know so i can add it to the turorials

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the following tutorial was created for rendering with SketchUp + Kerkythea.

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simple introduction to Kerkythea

1 - what you need
2 - exporting your model to Kerkythea
3 - adjusting your scene
3.1 - sun and sky
3.2 - materials
4 - rendering

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1 - what you need

A. the Kerkythea rendering system
B. the exporter (plugin) for SketchUp

note: the SU2KT exporter must be moved to the folder

"*:\Program Files\Google\Google Sketchup ... \Plugins" on PC,

or

Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Google Sketchup ...... /Sketchup/plugins on MAC.

C. (additionally) skies for Kerkythea

(must be moved to "*:\Program Files\Kerkythea\Globals")

D. (additionally) high-quality materials for Kerkythea

(must be moved to "*:\Program Files\Kerkythea\MaterialEditor")

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2 - exporting your model to Kerkythea

if the installation of the SU2KT exporter was successful, the following toolbar will show up in your SKP application:



if your model is ready to be rendered, press the very left button and press 'Ok' in the new window. your scene will be exported now. note that this step may take several minutes, depending on your CPU speed and the size of your model.

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3 - adjusting your scene

now that your model is converted into a *.xml file, you can open it in Kerkythea. once it's opened, click "View > Adjust > Solid Rendering" to get rid of the wire frame view.

3.1 - sun and sky

to add a sky in your scene, click "Insert > Globals > ..." .

further settings, such as the daytime or the intensity of the global light, can be made in "Settings > Sun and Sky".

3.2 - materials

to improve the quality of your renders, i highly recommend to adjust the materials.

A. glass

right-click the glass material in the list (on the left hand side) and choose "Edit Material". the material editor will show up.



now right-click "Reflection" in the category "Reflectance". choose "Add Color".



open the second tab in the new window and insert the RBG code for a grey color. this color represents the strenght of the reflection. e.g. 0/0/0 means 0% reflectivity, 128/128/128 means 50% reflectivity, and so on.
i recommend to use 190/190/190 for best results.



repeat step #2 for "Refraction" in the category "Transmittance".
this time, use 230/230/230 for best results.

then, set the "Index of Refraction" (just below "Refraction") to 1.000.

click "Apply Changes".
congratulations, your glass material is finished!

B. water

right-click the glass material in the list (on the left hand side) and choose "Apply Material > Basic Pack > Glass #1".



after that, open the material editor, right-click "Texture" in the category "Bump Mapping" and choose "Add Bitmap".



browse for the corresponding water texture in the new window and click "Ok".



click "Apply Changes".
congratulations, your water material is finished!

4 - rendering

if you are finished with the textures, click "Render > Start..." .

in this window, you can adjust various setting such as the resolution of the render. note that a larger images takes longer to render.

for the "Settings", use "Ambient Occlusion" for best results.

if you have a multi-core CPU, insert a number equal to twice the amount of CPU cores in the section "Threads", e.g. insert 4 if your PC is running with a duo-core CPU.
this will increase the rendering speed dramatically.

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so, this was a very quick and basic tutorial for Kerkythea. i hope it is easy to follow and helpful. more tutorials will be added in the future. if you have questions, feel free to ask

[ThomasB443]

Im used to kerkythea after all this time but the problem is when i try to add a sky by globals it doesnt come up with anything? so i have to add it the other way any help on that?

[Dubai Skyscraper]

what is "the other way"? i didn't know there was any...

[ThomasB443]

I add the other sky by going to settings > sun and sky :/

[Dubai Skyscraper]

oh, okay... but i don't think it's your fault, it must be something technical. perhaps a reinstallation could solve the problem, but if it doesn't, there may be no solution at all..

[ThomasB443]

Ok well i will just leave it as it is :P

[JMGV196]

I'm glad you did this!! The other thread had about 30 pages and was really complicated to search for something there...

[cormiermax]

This was great! Are you planning on going more in depth?

[Evrasia 99911]

I need help.
Why in this type of rendering light in the windows is greatly reduced?

What is wrong?



Lights on the floors - settings:


Result:


"Ambient Occlusion":

[artet]

Not a kerkythea user but... The inverse square attenuation is in fact a physical law stating that "a specified physical quantity or intensity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity".

It means that a real light source in the real world looses strength with distance.
You should only use that option to simulate real light behavior, and for those lights you should also use real light unit values, like candela, watt or lumens.

If kerkythea as some kind of physical camera, or some camera that simulates a real camera, you should use it too, so you don't have to increase the light multiplier to make her visible. Just use the camera exposure settings for that.

[Evrasia 99911]

Yes, I understand ...
Me confuses the light of the neighboring buildings ...

Well...

[Dubai Skyscraper]

Originally Posted by cormiermax

This was great! Are you planning on going more in depth?

sorry for the late reply.. well yeah i'm planning to make at lease a part about night rendering but i guess not before christmas :/

Originally Posted by Evrasia 99911

Yes, I understand ...
Me confuses the light of the neighboring buildings ...

Well...

this is an effect of Metropolis Light Transport, it "traces" the light that is coming from the light sources and calculates it's reflection on the surroundings. Ambient Occlusion doesn't do that...

[guy4versa]

any link for download material such cladding,brick and realistic grass?

[JMGV196]

You can make you own cladding, it's really simple
With the brick you just have to add bump mapping to a brick texture.
The grass I guess you could add it with Photoshop

[guy4versa]

yeah...someone already tell me about bump..but i dont know how..thanks for response..

[Dubai Skyscraper]

Originally Posted by guy4versa

any link for download material such cladding,brick and realistic grass?

just use o google (image search) or vistit cgtextures.com to find high-quality textures

Originally Posted by guy4versa

yeah...someone already tell me about bump..but i dont know how..thanks for response..

bump mapping is really easy, there is a section for that in the material editor. have a look at the first post, i explained how to apply a texture as a "bump map" in 3.2 - B.

[JMGV196]

If you're using Kerkythea, this might help:

STEP 1: Create the model in SKP and export.



STEP 2: Once you exported, edit the materials. Bump mapping is in the top right corner.



STEP 3: To select the texture you want to use, right click on "texture", then select "add bitmap". Select the texture you want. Then add a strength. I usually use between 5 and 15 for walls and floor.



STEP 4: When you finished adding the bump mapping, choose "apply changes".







RESULT: Remember this is just a rough example.

[guy4versa]

100x thanks!..new thing for me..usually i used existing material from kerkythea

[JMGV196]

Oh sorry I posted a new tutorial

[guy4versa]

i choose wood material for that wall,but it doesn't appears that way,why?