Building simple 3D model with Google SketchUp

I use Flash and Photoshop from time to time for web-page use, but 3D modeling is totally an alien language to me. I used to try 3D Max on Windows a couple years ago. Upon request, I will simply use Photoshop to create 3D-like 2D graphic. However, this time I will need to draw a 3D graphic on the set up I used for one of my Physics lab. Well, I could spend hours to get the job done; however, I was technically delayed to start my report (oops, ), so I didn’t want to spend too much time wasting on drawing and editing the graphic with Photoshop.

So I browsed around online and hopefully I could get some help; Google’s Sketchup came to me. Google Sketchup comes in Windows and Macintosh versions. You can pay to have the Sketchup Pro or you can download Sketchup 7.1 for free and give it a try first. It’s called Google Sketchup, but the software bundle actually comes with LayOut, Sketchup and Style_Builder. Let me show you how you can draw a chair using SketchUp; this is also introduced on Google’s SketchUp Training site.

This is the interface you should be able to see when you start up SketchUp:

I selected the rectangle tool to draw the base of the chair:

Then I choose Push/Pull Tool to pull up the shape from the base:

Since this is a 3D model, you can always use Orbit tool to rotate your 3D image and give you a better view of all aspects of your creation:

Now let’s go ahead and cut out the parts we don’t need.

I first rotate the 3D image to the side and I will draw a rectangle on the it:

I will go back to the push/pull tool and push the rectangle I just drew all the way to the other side:

Using the same method, I can take out any parts I don’t need and you will get a simple model of a chair, here is what I got:

Google’s SketchUp can do far more than building a chair; if you are interested, once again, take your time and visit Google’s SketchUp Training site, and I am sure there are tons of awesome tutorial out there. Surprise you or not, the 3D building you see in Google Earth is using the same technology/tool.

If you have any questions on building this simple chair even after watching those tutorials online, let me know and I can give you a hint. If you came up with a nice piece of 3D creation, if you don’t mind, share it out and let me take a look.