Sketchup to Unreal (via Blender)

Transcript

Hello – and welcome, or welcome back to the channel. I’m going to be using some Sheffield buildings I found on 3D Warehouse, and importing them into my Unreal map. With them using imagery from Google Earth, I can’t actually use them in the game – but for a sense of where things should go, and how they should look – they’re a lot more useful than the grey blockout buildings you see on the screen. The building we’ve just ran past is Montgomery Theatre on Surrey Street.

I’ve got 3D Warehouse open, and I’m going to use Sheffield Library for this example. So, I download the Sketchup file. I’m going to use the 2023 version, because I’ve downloaded the latest Sketchup – and activated a 30 day free trial of Sketchup Pro – the reason for this is that the Free version of Sketchup doesn’t allow you to export files like we’ll need to do.

I should also apologise for the ReStream overlay, I wasn’t expecting this to come up while I was recording offline screen activity – and don’t feel like re-recording the footage.

Once I’ve opened it, I’ll go to File → Export, and save it as Collada DAE Remember to select Options and ensure that ‘Export texture maps’ is enabled.

I’ll jump over to Blender, where I have a map of Sheffield from the blender-osm plugin, and find the Library. In this map, I’ve coloured all the Sketchup imports yellow, so that I can identify them later – and I’ll search for Library. Once I’ve found it on the Outliner, I’ll press Numpad full stop, or period – to jump to the building on the map

I’ll go into edit mode, select the roof – and Shift S → Cursor to selected, and back to Object mode.

Now when I’ve imported the .dae file, I’ll press Shift → S again and this time ‘Selection to Cursor’

This will snap the imported Sketchup file to the approximate region of the actual building on the map

I’ll eyeball it so it lines up with the map, and select Origin → To Geometry

You’ll be able to tell when it has worked, because all the elements will have those orange dots on them.

Once that’s complete, click File → Export – and this time you want to export to an FBX file.

Now I’m going to head over to Unreal, and import the building.

Open the Content Drawer

I’ve got a subfolder for each building, because they are made of a lot of different parts of mesh.

And I’ll drag the FBX file into the newly created folder, and select Import All.

I’ve got a search filter enabled to only show Static Mesh, and I’ll Select All, and drag them anywhere onto the scene.

To put them into place, I’ll reset the Location and Rotation with the backwards-facing arrow button – and then ‘F’ to jump to the building on the map.

This building actually has quite a bit going on; the yellow mesh is the previous Library I had there -but untextured, so I’ll be replacing that. The dark grey building is The Graves Gallery, which occupies the same building as the library.

I’ll open the content drawer, and I want to adjust the collision for all these mesh elements -so I’ll open a row at a time, to keep track of which I’ve done.

From the panel on the right, I’ll search for Collision to filter out the settings, and change the Collision Complexity to ‘Use Complex Collision as Simple’

Now I need to do that for all of the tabs open.

File → Save All

Now I can delete the yellow mesh-only library, and you can see the textured version in place.

I’ll click Play from Here, and see how it looks in-game.

It’s above ground level, and that’s to be expected – I need to model in the walkway, and the library actually has stairs up to it to access the entrance.

And then if we come up to the roof, you can see how the two buildings are merged.

Let’s have a little run across the rooftops, to make sure the collision is working

And while we are here, we can enjoy the view.

From up here, we can see one of the University buildings straight ahead, and if I run over here – we can see a building I’d prepared earlier – the Millenium Gallery.

I’ve done it again with the City Hall. This time I’m going to let it play out in realtime, so you can see what I’m doing.

If we have a quick run around it, we can see that it’s raised off the ground – but in actual fact it does have steps raised up towards it, so it won’t be flat on the ground – again, I’ll have to put the walkway in for it.

This is why it’s so important to set up the collision on the mesh elements – you’ll see on some parts, the player seems to be walking on the air.

How to Create 360° Videos with Blockade Labs (and Blender)

With Blockade Labs, you can create stunning 360° videos that can be used for a variety of purposes.
This video tutorial will teach you how to use Blockade Labs to create 360° videos that are perfect for social media, marketing, and more. After watching this video, you’ll be able to create professional-grade 360° videos quickly and easily!

Resources

Blockade Labs:
https://www.blockadelabs.com/

Spatial Media Metadata Injector:
https://github.com/google/spatial-media/releases

Robopsychosis – Cybermarket [Deforum Animation]

Step into the world of Cybermarket with Robopsychosis’ latest musical masterpiece.
As an audio architect, Robopsychosis expertly blends retro synth sounds with futuristic beats to create a truly unique and immersive experience.

Inspired by the iconic Blade Runner, the Cybermarket music video takes you on a journey through a bustling metropolis filled with neon lights, towering buildings, and advanced technology.

The expertly edited visuals perfectly complement Robopsychosis’ audio architecture, creating a fully realized cyberpunk universe that draws you in from the very first note.
Whether you’re a fan of Blade Runner or just a lover of cutting-edge music, Cybermarket is sure to transport you to a world of audio-visual wonder.

Check out Robopsychosis’s music at:
https://share.amuse.io/album/robopsychosis-experiment

Robopsychosis – Tronic [Deforum Animation]

Robopsychosis dropped their new album on all your favourite music streaming services today, and I had made a video for one of the tracks, Tronic.
I’m proud to finally release this video to coincide with the release, and definitely think you should check them out on the link below.

Music

Check out Robopsychosis at:
https://share.amuse.io/nMK0ukGT2Hpd

Axel Oliver x THEBOYWITHSPEC – Survive [Deforum Animation]

Unofficial anime-style music video for Axel Oliver x THEBOYWITHSPEC – Survive made in Deforum/Stable Diffusion.

Resources

Guide I used is by the awesome  @lewingtonn  :
If you want to make your own, I definitely recommend checking out his video

Music

Song: Axel Oliver x THEBOYWITHSPEC – Survive [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds
Free Download/Stream: http://NCS.io/AOSurvive
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_o2R5jtO1g

Madras Motor Race Track (Irungattukottai) – An update

An update of the story so far with an Assetto Corsa track I’m trying to build, of the MMRT in Irungattukottai, Chennai, India.
WIP track can be downloaded from the Downloads page – completely free.

Resources

The Blender 3.x tutorial I mention by  @DriftKingNFSS 
I could not recommend this tutorial enough. I binged watched it on loop, and took notes. If you are using Blender to make AC tracks, this is the guide to follow.

Race Track Builder on Steam: (💲)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/388980/Race_Track_Builder/

A Series of Interesting Stable Diffusion Models (#2)

The second instalment of showcasing some of the publicly available checkpoint files for Stable Diffusion.
This is a Christmas prompt special, since it’s festive season.

Models

00:00 – Prompt Parameters
00:04 – ChromaV5 – https://huggingface.co/SomaMythos/ChromaV5
00:37 – Kurzgesatish – https://huggingface.co/Imakemodels/Kurzgesagtish
01:01 – Woolitize – https://huggingface.co/plasmo/woolitize
01:29 – Ghibli Diffusion – https://huggingface.co/nitrosocke/Ghibli-Diffusion
01:58 – PopupBook – https://huggingface.co/RayHell/popupBook-diffusion
02:24 – WavyFusion – https://huggingface.co/wavymulder/wavyfusion

Music

Song: Severin & Like Lions – I Hear Sleigh Bells [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds
Free Download/Stream: http://NCS.io/IHearSleighBells
Watch: http://youtu.be/He3KWmrLUfo

A Series of Interesting Stable Diffusion Models (#1)

The past few months have been wild for Stable Diffusion models.
With the ability now that allows anybody to train their own models using tools like Dreambooth, and publish them online – I decided to take a look at a few.
To keep results consistent, I’ll use the same subjects: a real person, a fictional person, an inanimate object and location, and be sure to use the same seed for each model.

Models

Openjourney:
https://huggingface.co/prompthero/openjourney

Redshift:
https://huggingface.co/nitrosocke/redshift-diffusion

Knollingcase:
https://huggingface.co/Aybeeceedee/knollingcase

Inkpunk:
https://huggingface.co/Envvi/Inkpunk-Diffusion

Van-Gogh
https://huggingface.co/dallinmackay/Van-Gogh-diffusion

Music

Song: Mendum & Abandoned – Voyage (Feat. DNAKM) [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds
Free Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/Voyage
Watch: http://youtu.be/uzwUNS0IjC8

A Very Brief Introduction to Render AI for Blender

In this very brief video, I’m going to give you a very brief introduction to Render AI for Blender.
I’ll show you how to create a basic render using Render AI and then discuss some of the features and benefits of using Render AI.

If you’re new to Render AI or Blender, this video is a great way to get started.
By the end of this video, you’ll have a basic understanding of how to use Render AI in Blender and be able to create basic renders quickly and easily!

Tools used

AI Render
https://blendermarket.com/products/ai-render

Automatic 1111
https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui

Lexica
https://lexica.art

Music

Beave – Talk [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds
Free Download/Stream: https://ncs.io/Talk
Watch: https://youtu.be/uZi8_rnqgHg