How Do I Get Close Up Street Level (Pedestrian) Views Of My New Building When Using Google Earth & SketchUp Model

[TS Yong]

Hi All -

Real new to this forum so I apologize if this is an old topic.

When I place my Sketchup Model in Google Earth, it's all fine as long as I stay in a "bird's-eye" point of view. Once I zoom in, the way that the textures are mapped on Google Earth's base massing model, they get all funky. The term that repeatedly comes to mind is "marshmallow-y".

And I can't lower my view point below say around 50 ft above ground. BUT, when I go to street view, which is awesome, my sketchup model disappears. I have noticed that Google Earth v 6 allows sketchup model in street view, b/c the texture mapping doesn't exist in area of NYC where my site is yet. I haven't tried in Manhattan, but I've been told it works. Perhaps a different algorithm or something is used?

So anyway, while "flying around" your 'new building' is great, it's not very realistic in terms of what views one would really get. Street, or eye-level, to be more precise, is how it sometimes needs to be presented. Unless I'm trying to persuade a flock of pigeons to approve my construction budget.,.,.,.,it's not really that helpful.

I've successfully created some imagery of a roof-top terrace re-modelling project, but a new 25-story tower? Completely flummoxed. And yes, this is for a real building in a real city with a real 8-figure budget. Which means flocks of pigeons, while prevalent, are not helpful. In the slightest.

Any thoughts?

An initially enthused, but now thoroughly disappointed architect........needs help.....

[Randy]

Excuse my ignorance, but why does this matter?

When you go into street view, you are seeing images that were taken from a camera mounted on the top of a moving vehicle. Unless your sketchup model was present in that spot at the time the photo was taken then there is no reason you (are anyone) should expect to see anything other than what was physically there at that time. Do you think if you walked out your front door and into the street you'd be able to see yourself on street view?

If you can't lower your view point below 50 feet above the ground, then YOU ARE NOT IN STREET VIEW.  When you are in Street view, you should see photos of  buildings taken from the vehicle's roof top camera which is only a few feet off the ground.

If you want eye-level view of your building then use the "Walkthrough" feature of Sketchup. If you want to tour anything that close then what difference does it make what's next door?

Of course, you could build models of the surrounding building to show it in context.

[TS Yong]

Seriously? I thought forums were for one to ask questions, and hopefully get answers from more experienced, and helpful people. Not completely useless responses stating the perceived ignorances and claiming the unimportance of the OP's question. Now, with all due respect, and your clear ignorance notwithstanding, allow me to clarify - this is about a proposed building. So with that in mind, try and note the following:

1. When one proposes to make an intervention or addition to the built environment, one needs to show how it will affect the experience of most people's perception. This perception is almost always represented at street level, as that is where most people's daily experiential perception will be affected by your proposed building. Unless they're in neighboring buildings of similar height & scale. Or to put it in terms you used - when you walk out of your front door, I would like to show you what my proposed building might look like if City Commission, and the Neighborhood Development Council that you may be sitting on, approved. All clearly said hypothetically.

2. With that being said, let's have a look at some basic geometry - a building that is 300 ft tall, when observed from directly across, say a 30 ft wide street.....no, let's be generous and call that a 50 ft wide avenue, would require one's view point to be at 80.5 degrees elevated from the horizontal - basic trigonometry (arctan 300/50) = 80.538 degrees. In this condition, how much of the surrounding buildings do you think one would see? Not much.

3. So, given points #1 & #2, when one proposes to build something of this nature and scale, the views most often presented to the City's Planning & Zoning Commissions is one taken typically from 2-3 blocks away so the scale and effects to the urban fabric of an existing neighborhood can be demonstrated. Now, when one takes a view from 2-3 blocks away, at street level, the intervening urban streetscape between the camera and the proposed building should be shown. That's what I'm trying to accomplish. Without, of course, modelling 2-4 blocks worth of buildings, and mapping facade textures onto them.

Lastly, if I were, as you indicated, taking a view so close that even the directly adjacent neighboring building was not seen, I would estimate that view to be off not much more use than perhaps inspecting window mullions or tile grout lines.

Now with all that out the way, perhaps you could offer me some advice on how to achieve what I would like to. Because that was really why I asked the question. 

Thank you. TS

[Google Craig]

Hi TS Yong, I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to achieve, but here are few things that might help.

First, in Google Earth 7.1 you can go into Street View and then turn on "Ground Level View" by clicking on the little building icon. See screenshot.*

If you're seeing the 3D Imagery Buildings (instead of the legacy, or user created/SketchUp 3D Buildings), then you can turn on Historical Imagery, or go into 3D View options and turn off the 3D Imagery buildings.

Now, if this still doesn't give you the control you want, for 3D street level views, then hear are my recommendations.

1. Use the Google Earth Plugin API to create your own 3D Layer in a custom Google Earth instance that can be shared via the web or viewed locally.

or

2. Download the neighboring buildings into your project in SketchUp and then create scenes to fly to specific street level views.

*

I hope that helps.

     - Craig

[Tom Doubleday]

This technique might be what your after, but its a bit of a work around and its accuracy is questionable. These are some draft visuals I produced for a uni project, with a geo-located Sketchup model loaded into GE 7.0. The image is made using several separate images and finished in Photoshop.

First, load the 3D model into GE and find the 'Street View' you need. When you switch to 'Ground-level View' you can see your model orientated *roughly* in its proposed location. 'Print Screen' and save the image.

Then without adjusting the view, switch back into 'Street View' and there will be a fading transition. You need to 'Print Screen' between these views to get an image showing both your model and some of the 'Street View' image. If you then layer these up in Photoshop you can use them as a template to construct the visual.

I used the same (but cleaner) Street View image from GMaps merged with a 'Print Screen' of the 'Photo-realistic' settings in GE for the building.

It took about half hour each to produce for this (rather poor) quality, but with more time you could use the template (with photos and/or 3D renders, etc) to get a much higher quality visual.

Hope that helps.

[Billy Sastard]

Not sure if its what you're after but, I find that using the keyboard to navigate can give more accurate control of the camera view as opposed to using the mouse. Pressing and holding the Ctrl key while using the Arrow keys will pan the camera, as if it were on a tripod. Pressing and holding the Shift key while using the Arrow keys will move the camera in an orbit around the centre of the view. Pressing and holding both the Ctrl and Shift keys allows zooming. Using these, it is possible to place the camera virtually on the ground. hth

[Buch]

Good suggestions...  maybe mine is too simple...

[TS Yong]

Hi Tom - yes I've already tried something similar in GE 6.2 using massing grey models of the surrounding context and using the snippet tool to copy the scene and then turning off the buildings and showing just my skp model to create yet another shot and then overlaying into photoshop for post-production, Attached a rough version below.

TS

[TS Yong]

Hi Craig - first, thank you for your response. I have GE 8.0 & GE 6.2 loaded, so I will try GE 7.1 next.

Nonetheless, I am very interested in learning more about the other options you mentioned. Can you elaborate  a little on how to use the GE Plugin API, and also how to download the neighboring buildings into Sketchup, please? Really grateful for the help - this has been a major issue, and I don't even have the time during the workday to deal with it. So forgive me if my answers come erratically.

Many many thanks in advance!

TS

 

On Sunday, November 3, 2013 4:32:28 PM UTC-5, Google Craig wrote:

Hi TS Yong, I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to achieve, but here are few things that might help.

First, in Google Earth 7.1 you can go into Street View and then turn on "Ground Level View" by clicking on the little building icon. See screenshot.*

If you're seeing the 3D Imagery Buildings (instead of the legacy, or user created/SketchUp 3D Buildings), then you can turn on Historical Imagery, or go into 3D View options and turn off the 3D Imagery buildings.

Now, if this still doesn't give you the control you want, for 3D street level views, then hear are my recommendations.

1. Use the Google Earth Plugin API to create your own 3D Layer in a custom Google Earth instance that can be shared via the web or viewed locally.

or

2. Download the neighboring buildings into your project in SketchUp and then create scenes to fly to specific street level views.

*

I hope that helps.

     - Craig

On Saturday, November 2, 2013 10:46:18 AM UTC-6, TS Yong wrote:

[TS Yong]

Mr Craig, and anyone still watching this thread - 

I am fast realizing that the only way ends up in Photoshop.

Attached another view I threw together in the last 20 mins using transparency masks to bleed through a portion of the existing built condition that obscures my sketchtup "masterpiece". If anyone has better processes, please let me know. Of course I'm only inserting a simple massing model at this time. NDAs are preventing me from going further into actual facade design & rendering, but I need the advice of more experienced people here.....

Thoughts, please? I need to critiques, and advice. 

Thanks all.......

TS

On Sunday, November 3, 2013 4:32:28 PM UTC-5, Google Craig wrote:

Hi TS Yong, I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to achieve, but here are few things that might help.

First, in Google Earth 7.1 you can go into Street View and then turn on "Ground Level View" by clicking on the little building icon. See screenshot.*

If you're seeing the 3D Imagery Buildings (instead of the legacy, or user created/SketchUp 3D Buildings), then you can turn on Historical Imagery, or go into 3D View options and turn off the 3D Imagery buildings.

Now, if this still doesn't give you the control you want, for 3D street level views, then hear are my recommendations.

1. Use the Google Earth Plugin API to create your own 3D Layer in a custom Google Earth instance that can be shared via the web or viewed locally.

or

2. Download the neighboring buildings into your project in SketchUp and then create scenes to fly to specific street level views.

*

I hope that helps.

     - Craig

On Saturday, November 2, 2013 10:46:18 AM UTC-6, TS Yong wrote:

[Google Craig]

Hi TS, a few things.

First, GE 8.0 doesn't exist, so you must be thinking about something else...most probably GE 7.1.

The ability to add buildings in SketchUp is as easy as downloading the buildings from the 3D Warehouse and then importing them into your SU Model. That's exactly what you should be doing for this project. And then create "Scenes" within SU to get the proper camera angles and lens field.

Cheers,

    - Craig

On Monday, November 4, 2013 12:58:44 PM UTC-7, TS Yong wrote:

Hi Craig - first, thank you for your response. I have GE 8.0 & GE 6.2 loaded, so I will try GE 7.1 next.

Nonetheless, I am very interested in learning more about the other options you mentioned. Can you elaborate  a little on how to use the GE Plugin API, and also how to download the neighboring buildings into Sketchup, please? Really grateful for the help - this has been a major issue, and I don't even have the time during the workday to deal with it. So forgive me if my answers come erratically.

Many many thanks in advance!

TS

 

On Sunday, November 3, 2013 4:32:28 PM UTC-5, Google Craig wrote:

Hi TS Yong, I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to achieve, but here are few things that might help.

First, in Google Earth 7.1 you can go into Street View and then turn on "Ground Level View" by clicking on the little building icon. See screenshot.*

If you're seeing the 3D Imagery Buildings (instead of the legacy, or user created/SketchUp 3D Buildings), then you can turn on Historical Imagery, or go into 3D View options and turn off the 3D Imagery buildings.

Now, if this still doesn't give you the control you want, for 3D street level views, then hear are my recommendations.

1. Use the Google Earth Plugin API to create your own 3D Layer in a custom Google Earth instance that can be shared via the web or viewed locally.

or

2. Download the neighboring buildings into your project in SketchUp and then create scenes to fly to specific street level views.

*

I hope that helps.

     - Craig

On Saturday, November 2, 2013 10:46:18 AM UTC-6, TS Yong wrote: