SU Podium

Easy to learn, beautiful, photo-realistic rendering. Bring your drawings to life faster than ever.

Introducing SU Podium V2.6

SU Podium V2.6 is a significant feature update, adding image-based lighting with HDR backgrounds and incorporating changes to Podium Browser’s interface and licensing. SU Podium V2.6 is a paid upgrade and will also includes all future incremental v2.6x updates.

An SU Podium V2.6 license now includes all Podium Browser “paid” content. Because of this there are two upgrade “tiers” depending on whether you already own Podium Browser paid content.

Upgrading to V2.6 – Already own Podium Browser – Buy Here

Upgrading to V2.6 – Do not own Podium Browser – Buy Here

Render settings are now saved with individual SketchUp scenes

One other update is that SU Podium render settings, including preset, background, output size/format, and lighting settings are now saved with individual SketchUp scenes. This greatly facilitates the rendering process for complex models, and makes it much easier to queue render scripts in models that require both interior and exterior settings.

HDR image-based lighting

SU Podium now supports image-based lighting vis HDRI backgrounds

V2.6 includes five HDRI backgrounds in the installation which can be used as an alternative option to the two Podium physical sky simulations.

These backgrounds/skies contain realistic luminance and tonal data captured directly from real-world environments. Image-based lighting is a versatile, realistic approach to natural lighting, and lets the user easily test a number of different lighting scenarios to choose the one that showcases the project in the best light (so to speak).

Additional HDRIs available in Podium Browser

Only five backgounds are included in the installation to keep file sizes manageable. However, licensed users are entitled to a large library of additional HDRIs that can be added directly from Podium Browser.

Simple, fast, versatile look development

Trying out a different sky and background is as simple as choosing a different Instagram filter. Your reflections, shadows, and color palette always remain in harmony, because all lighting is driven by the HDRI background. Some scenes rendered with different HDRI backgrounds:

Multi-threaded Podium Exporter

We have once again improved speed during the “Processing Scenes” portion of the render process

Before SU
Podium v2.6 the Podium Exporter only used a single CPU core

Since most modern workstations have several cores (at a minimum) this means a lot of potential computing resources sat idle while Podium exported your model’s geometry and textures to the render engine.

The SU Podium v2.6 exporter uses all your CPU cores/threads during the export process…

while this may not reduce your render time significantly for a final image, it is particularly beneficial during the preliminary design phase of complex project, cutting down the time it takes to output multiple iterative test renders. This is especially true with larger SketchUp files.

Podium Browser redesign and license changes

Podium Browser redesign

The Podium Browser interface has been updated to make the process of searching through categories and subcategories faster. Click and drag sliders let you scan an entire category quickly, and new sorting options let users view up to a hundred thumbnails at once.

Podium Browser and SU Podium are now a single license

Starting with V2.6, Podium Browser paid content will be included with the purchase of SU Podium.

That means anyone upgrading to V2.6 will also gain access to the entire Podium Browser library if they do not already own a license. Since many of you already own Podium Browser paid content we are offering two different upgrade prices to compensate; pricing details to be determined.

Note – Because Podium V2.6 is only being released for SketchUp 2017 and newer, Podium Browser will still be sold as a stand-alone plugin for users who are working in SketchUp 2016 and earlier.

HDR editing in Podium Image Editor

Podium Image Editor now supports a 32-bit editing workflow for .HDR renders from Podium. HDR images contain a wider dynamic range of lighting information, allowing users to make dramatic changes to the lighting and tonal qualities of a render in post-processing without quality loss or banding.

Adaptive linear tonemapping – A new one-click histogram normalization function for HDR renders in Podium Image Editor. Automatically normalizes luminance values in the image to cover the full dynamic range while enhancing areas of local contrast in an HDR render.

ProWalker v1.1.5 is out of beta and has been released as a stable build.

This is a significant update with several improvements to ProWalker’s animation tools and workflow. Additionally, this version fixes the LEM Power mismatch between SU Podium and ProWalker GPU, and adds an “LEM Strength” slider to the lighting interface for making real-time adjustments to light emitting material brightness. Find a full overview of new features beneath the download:

BUY ProWalker GPU v1.1.5

Download ProWalker GPU v1.1.5

The following tools and features have been added in the V1.1.5 update:

Fade and crossfade transitions – Transition smoothly between scenes and motion paths, without the need for an external video editor.
Animate shadows – ProWalker can now read date/time from your SketchUp scenes, allowing smooth shadow animation to show the passage of time.
More intuitive control over camera speed – You can now set an exact duration for a motion path instead of using inches/second to set camera speed.
Keyframe easing – Camera motion can ease-in and ease-out at the beginning and end of a motion path, for smoother camera movements.
Improved LEM support – Light emitting material brightness now matches SU Podium more closely, and an LEM strength slider has been added.

Designate render mode, speed, and quality for each keyframe – When rendering animations with multiple motion paths, you can now set the render mode on a per-bath basis.This means you can switch between render modes for different scenes of your video, adjust the sample count/quality for each shot, and speed up/slow down the camera for each path.

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