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Working away on the map for this month's adventure! This is a model made in Sketchup. You can't really tell, but it's a terraced village on the side of a mountain. At the top is a sacred pool, which contains the entrance to the home of the "chalk mermaids".

I make models like this from time to time; in this case it's because I wanted three-point perspective, but with complex shapes it's not always obvious how to rotate things ahead of time so it all fits properly into my text columns. That means I need to rotate it around to play with different views.

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Mikey Mann

Do you have any videos or process stuff showing how you make things in Sketchup? I would love to start modeling in Sketchup but it all seems a bit daunting.

Michael Prescott

Mikey, nothing with any level of detail. One technique I have found useful is to scan in a 2D map of the place you're modelling, import that into Sketchup as a flat plane. Then I trace the rooms with simple polygons, and use the 'Push' tool to extrude them into 3D shapes like boxes. Then, use the 'Move' tool to loft them vertically to the correct altitude. This is what I did for the Tomb of the Timeless Master map: <a href="http://blog.trilemma.com/2015/09/making-3d-map-part-1.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://blog.trilemma.com/2015/09/making-3d-map-part-1.html</a> Sketchup is easy to get started but kinda fiddly. I bet it would really annoy 3D professionals. Like, snapping together the Mermaids' dungeon in the air was pretty haphazard. For that matter, so was moving the houses into place. I often have to rotate the camera this way and that a few times to get things where I want them. I'm basically a Sketchup amateur, I don't feel qualified to teach all my bad habits to others! All I can say is roll up your sleeves, get in there, make a mess and Google the solution, then do better on your next attempt. The nice thing about Sketchup is that there are lots of tutorials online (esp. YouTube), so if I'm pulling my hair out re: how the bloody Rotate or Move tools work, it's easy to get a bit more information.