SketchUp: How to use the Face-me Tree Components

3D vegetation and tree components in SketchUp can produce amazing results, but the rendering process is significantly slowed by them. There are times when you need a good result quickly. Trees are an ideal use for SketchUp components. This is similar to using a cutout image of a tree on a plane that can be displayed in your scenery. Because it can be defined that this plane always faces the camera. It means you no longer need to align all trees you use to the camera that's currently active.

2D Tree SketchUp Components

2D vegetation, on the other hand, is more efficient, enabling us to create beautiful scenes with less RAM consumption. It does not work for 2D renderings. Animating with 2D vegetation may seem like a sin to most designers since the effect of rotating the camera view as it moves is very obvious.

3D renderings pose a different challenge. As well as providing the instant effect we want for our renderings, 2D vegetation can also tend not to captivate the attention of the audience as much as highly detailed 3D models. Unless 3D vegetation files are used properly, 2D vegetation files can still be used for making unrealistic renders that can be used for site planning renders or conceptual renderings since 2D vegetation files take the only 1/10th of the time to render as 3D vegetation files.

Choose High Quality Cutout Trees for Face-me Components

Shadows are an issue with 2D vegetation. It won't have the realistic feel of grass leaves casting shadows on the floor, reflecting on the glass in our project if the model isn't detailed enough. That isn't an issue in theory if you're not working with realistic scenes. It is quite the opposite.

It can be a mistake to render a highly detailed scene in a place where your sole goal is to convey an impression of what it would be like to live there. It's important to remember that the level of detail in photorealistic renderings can only draw the user away from the concept of the project and focus on the graphic results. Failure to create photorealistic graphics will result in the project looking like something that does not give enough attention for creating.

Alternatively, when the scene is more like a cartoon with an eye-catching area, it draws the user's attention to the point of interest through the power of info-graphics rather than causing them to disagree with what the project is about initially.

Finding Cut out Trees for SketchUp

You probably find 2D trees now that you have decided to work with them. You can find them at several places, but this is the first thing you need to notice:

1. You must use the PNG image format for the cut-out trees.
2. Transparency is vital. The render will display white backgrounds, which is unrealistic.
3. Cut-out tree images should reduce to your specific requirements.
4. You will only increase the file size by using multiple files at the same time. You may experience problems during rendering, like running out of memory.
5. 2D trees with good details are best.
6. The detail of the leaves is good. The trees should be part of your project primarily if they are a good fit for the project.

SketchUp face-me Object

Face-Me is flexible because it moves with the camera, so wherever the camera goes, it will face you. That is a valuable property in renderings since you naturally ask yourself questions when you are doing them. Face-Me components provide further details that are not present in 2d vegetation without Face-Me components.

Component of free Face-me trees for SketchUp

In SketchUp, you can then choose which file is going to be your Face-Me model and begin to work on it. You prefer to use 2D grass in this render, as it will have 2D trees to prevent giving them a flat look as 3D grass would.

1. As a first step, import the image of the cutout tree. Scale the tree to your liking and position it at your convenience.
2. Once that occurs, you choose the Explode option by right-clicking the object. The image can then be selected and turned into a component.
3. A component can be created from the image. Don't forget to always check Always face cameras.

Realistic Shadow

With the freehand drawing tool, you can right-click on the Edit Component and draw a figure around the tree. With right-click plus erase, delete the unwanted areas. After you've copied the tree, you will need to paste it into your scene.

Using Cut-out tree components for rendering Architecture Scenes

Your tree model is now complete, and you have added a camera view. The loading time of 2D trees may be a bit longer than 3D trees in the rendering engine, but they render faster than 3D trees. In addition, SketchUp may not be able to load all elements if there are several trees in the scene. You can even have a bigger library than you would with 3D models, so long as you take the time to find the right image, make an alpha channel, and adhere to the steps.

To learn more, watch the following video tutorial.

Video Source: TheSketchUpEssentials

Final Thought

You can prepare your cutout trees by hand drawing them and then cutting them out. It's a bit more challenging to make the cutout if you scan the images, but once it makes, you can add black-and-white hand-drawn trees and then adjust the style of the scene to resemble a sketch. In this way, your work can appear almost as if it was hand-rendered, which is a great way to show it off.

SketchUp: How to use the Face-me Tree Components