Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual

Controlling the Strength of the Shadows

For all the valuable information shadows communicate about position, depth, and distance, they also have an aesthetic value. In that role, it's important that you, the designer/artist, can control the visual effect. In some cases, you may want strong, midnight-black shadows, while in other cases a lighter touch is needed. SketchUp provides two slider controls that affect the appearance of the sunlight and shadows. To see these sliders, click the triangle shaped button in the upper-right corner (Figure 11-10). The Shadow Setting window expands to show more controls, including sliders for Light and Dark.

• The Light slider controls the quality of the sunlight. Drag the slider to the left, and the sunlight becomes weaker. Drag the slider to the right, and the sunlight becomes stronger. This control has the greatest effect on surfaces that are not in shadow.

• The Dark slider controls the quality of the shadows. Drag the slider to the left, and the shadows become stronger and darker. Drag the slider to the right, and the shadows are weaker and lighter. This control only affects the parts of the modeling area that are in shadow.

If you don't want to use the slider, you can type values directly into the box to the right of either slider.

Figure 11-10. Click the triangular Expand button at the upper right of the Shadow Settings window to see additional options ...