https://youtu.

be/K1F_8em5wbM

Overview
The native SketchUp material editor supports only a texture and a transparency value – not
necessarily sufficient to create visually stunning images such as the ones our users usually achieve .
This is why we came up with our very own material editor specifically for SketchUp, to make sure all
of our users can enjoy powerful tools such as Bump- and Reflectivity maps.

In addition to this Knowledgebase Article, you can also have a look at this best-practices blog
post by Dan Stine.

Using some detailed Bump- and Reflectivity maps in SketchUp

Accessing the Material Editor
To open the Enscape material editor, either go to Extensions -> Enscape -> Enscape Materials, or
click the Enscape Materials Button in the Enscape Toolbar:

Enscape Material Editor in SketchUp

 This is the interface that will pop up, here showing a project with a number of materials already created,
and also showing the material search facility.
In your case, the window may look slightly different – the reason is that the Enscape material editor
will always display the material that is currently selected in SketchUp – as long as the material
is used in your model.
This way, you can easily choose any material to adjust in Enscape by simply selecting it using

the Sample Paint ( ) tool in SketchUp. The Enscape material editor will switch to any selected
material immediately.
Material Types
In general, there’s four types of materials you can select in the Enscape material editor:

 Default
 Grass
 Carpet
 Water
 Foliage
Default
The “Generic” material type is suited for any materials that aren’t supposed to be rendered as grass
blades, water surface, or have translucency applied.

It gives you control over the color, reflectivity, transparency, surface relief (bump) and light
emission of your material.
This is the default material type and can be used for the majority of all possible materials.
 The Generic Material Interface
Albedo
The Albedo area controls the basic color of the surface you’re designing. You can either select a
color, or choose a texture by clicking the [+] symbol. If choosing a texture, you’ll also receive a “Tint
Color” menu, allowing you to easily change the color of the texture used. Control the amount of
influence on your texture using the “Image Fade” slider. Of course, Enscape will use any UV
information (texture placement) it gets from SketchUp.

The Albedo area with no texture applied

 Albedo area with texture applied

Albedo Texture on Sphere

Self Illumination
The Self Illumination setting, when enabled, tells Enscape to literally handle your material as if
glowing, and emitting actual light. You can choose a brightness between 1 and 100000 candela per
square meter (cd/m²), as well as the color of the light.

Self Illumination area

 Checker texture applied to Self Illumination Color
Transparency
The Transparency area lets you control the opacity of your model, or, in other words, the amount of
light that can travel through the surface, allowing you to see what’s behind it.

The Transparency area

 Texture
The Texture parameter allows you to control the transparency using a 2D image, a map. It
refers to the Opacity value, so a black area (which equals zero) on the image used will result in
a perfectly transparent portion of the surface, while a white area will appear perfectly opaque.
Grey areas will appear partially transparent, such as glass. If you load a colored image,
Enscape will automatically convert it to black and white, so you don’t have to worry about that.
 Opacity
The Opacity slider controls the overall transparency of the surface. If you’re using it combined
with a transparency map, it will define the maximum opacity, so white areas on said map will
appear as opaque as you’ve set using this slider.
 Tint Color
This menu allows you to choose a color that should be added to any semi-transparent areas
of your material. Very much like colored glass.
 Refractive Index
The Refractive Index slider determines by which factor light is being bent when traveling
through a transparent surface. You know this effect from looking at a glass of water, or very
thick glass.
Air has a refractive index of 1.0 – so light rays travel through it in a straight line -, water has an
index of 1.33, window glass 1.52, and, for example diamonds have an index of 2.42 – they
bend light quite heavily.
For further information on this topic, feel free to have a look at the Wikipedia article .
 Frosted Glass
If the Frosted Glass checkbox is enabled, Enscape will blur what’s visible through the
transparent surface. The amount by which it’s blurred is being determined by the Roughness
value in the Reflections area.
 Transition from transparent sphere to one with transparency texture applied
Bump
The Bump option in the Enscape Material Editor allows you to utilize so
called Bump or Normal maps in order to simulate bumps, wrinkles and dents and the lighting of
these.
Bump maps can be any black and white 2D images. They tell Enscape to interpret a surface
as protruding (bright parts of the texture) or recessed (dark parts of the texture).
Normal map are a type of Bump map that require an image with RGB values. These RGB
components correspond to the X, Y, and Z coordinates, respectively.
This is incredibly valuable for realism in your images and this can not be overstated enough!
Bump maps can make for incredible surface detail and noise, without actually affecting or adding
more geometry. You can use this feature for noise on concrete surfaces, wood, tiling, or even full
reliefs! This can go a long way in convincing the viewer that they are looking at a realistic picture.

Textures that are available online, either paid for or free, will generally include a Normal and Bump
or Height map included with the basic Color texture.

Applying a Bump map

 Applying a Normal map

As powerful as this feature is, it’s very easy to setup. Just select an image file using the – button.
A Bump map doesn’t even have to be black & white, as Enscape will take care of that for you.

Normal Maps must have an RGB value in them.

You can switch between using a Bump or Normal map via the Type drop down option.
Select the Intensity (Bum) or Amount (Normal) of the effect, using the respectively named slider.
Negative values for Bump Maps. will invert the effect, causing dark areas to stick out and bright
areas to be pushed in.

The Bump Map Settings options

PRO TIP
If there’s already an Albedo texture applied to your material, you can just
click “Use Albedo“. Enscape will then assign the color texture to the bump
 value. This offers a uniquely streamlined way to set up existing projects for
Enscape: If you want to apply a bump effect to, e.g. an existing wood
material, simply select the material in SketchUp using the tool. Click “Use
Albedo” in the Bump area (and, if desired, in the Reflections area as well),
select the right intensity with the “Amount” slider – Done!
Reflections
This area is all about the microscopic roughness of your material, determining how much of the
environment you’ll see reflected in its surface.

The Reflection settings area

 Roughness
The smoother the material (Roughness -> 0%), the more it will reflect it’s environment. The
rougher the material is, the more it will diffuse incoming light.
 Texture
Again, you can also use 2D Images as a ‘Roughness Map’ to control the roughness value per
location on your surface.
 Metallic
The Metallic-slider tells Enscape to treat the surface either as a non-metallic (e.g. plastic,
ceramic..) reflective surface, or as a metallic one.
Let’s say metallic surfaces behave more like a mirror, reflecting a clear image of their
surrounding, while non-metallic surfaces show more of their actual surface, reflecting the
environment rather vaguely.
 Specular
This value controls the amount by which light is being reflected when hitting a non-metallic
surface at a steep angle, as opposed to light that’s hitting it rather from the side.
If you’re not too familiar with this setting, it’s best to leave it around 50% for realistic results.
 Sphere with checker texture applied as a Roughness Map
Grass
The Grass type material, as seen in the material editor, looks almost the same as the Generic type.
While it’s lacking the Transparency part, it instead features a Grass Settings area. Apart from
the Albedo area, which you can use to color your grass (also using a texture), the Bump–
and Reflections parts are only useful if you plan to toggle the Grass Rendering setting on and off
(this can be found in the Enscape settings -> “Advanced” tab).
 Grass Settings

'Grass' selected as material type

 Height
The Height slider will stretch the sprites being used as grass blades, making them appear
larger, making for higher grass.
 Changing the grass height
 Height Variation
The Height Variation slider adds a random factor to the grass height. This makes for
a wilder looking, ragged grass.

Randomizing the grass blades

 Wind Settings
The Grass material is now also affected by the global Wind setting found in the in the Visual
Settings -> Atmosphere tab. You can adjust both the wind Intensity and Direction Angle,
and this affect can be seen working when adjusting the Intensity slider, as well as when
moving around in the Enscape Viewport and will be included in Video exports.
 Wind Settings in the Visual Settings window
Carpet
The Carpet material acts in the same way as the Grass Material, in that it can be applied to a
horizontal surface only, and the Height and Height Variation are controlled in the Enscape Material
Editor.

Carpet material applied in SketchUp using an underlying texture file in the Albedo slot.
The Height and Height Variation Settings title is amended with Carpet when Carpet is selected as
the Type in the Material Editor.

Carpet selected as the Type in the Enscape Material Editor

 Carpet Material Settings in the Material Editor
Water
Here are the available settings for Water in the Enscape Material Editor.

Setting the Water Type for a material will tell Enscape to treat any surface it’s applied to as physical water,
including waves & caustics.
 Water Color
Choose a color your water should be tinted in. No textures to be used this time – water color is
set globally.
 Separate faces and materials have been used in this image
Wind Settings
Control the water movement. Change the speed and the direction your water is flowing to simulate
e.g. a river.

This can be set using the global Wind Settings to be found in the Visual Setting-> Atmosphere tab,
the same as for the Grass material. These global settings can be overridden for Water however, and
this override is available in the Material Editor when Water is selected as material Type.
 Intensity
Control the speed in which the water is flowing.
 Direction Angle
Control the overall direction water is moving in.
 Override Wind Settings option

ATTENTIONDon’t be surprised, water in Enscape will stop moving as soon as you stand
still and stop moving the camera. This is intentional, and will not happen in video exports or VR.

Wave Settings
Fine tune the look of your waves, whether it’s the overall scale to match the proportions of your
model, or just the height to control whether your water looks rather wild or calm.

The Wave Settings sliders

 Height: The Height slider controls the height – or intensity – of waves in water materials.

Size: The Size slider controls the overall scale of your water. This way you can adjust the water behavior
for various project sizes, close ups etc.
Detail Settings
 Caustics Intensity
Under Detail Settings, Caustics Intensity controls the amount of light that is being refracted
 through waves in water. Control this beautiful effect using this slider. Keep in mind you will
only see this effect as long as there’s a surface beneath the water for the light to reflect off of.

No caustics to 100% caustics visibility

Foliage
When selecting “Foliage” as material type, the Enscape Material Editor interface will look identical to
when selecting “Generic” as type.
The difference this material type will cause is only visible on single-face objects. Please make sure
the object you apply this material to doesn’t have any depth, and also that the material is applied to
both sides of the face.
If these conditions are met, Enscape will apply Translucency to objects this material type is applied
to. This means that, if the Sun (yes, this doesn’t work combined with artificial lighting) is located
behind said surface, it will be illuminated on both sides. This is common in nature for example with
leaves, which is why this is the most common use case for this type of material.
 You can apply a material to two sides of the same face

Regular material on the left, Foliage material on the right

Clearcoat
When selecting “Clearcoat” as material type, the Enscape Material Editor interface removes the
transparency option altogether.
The Clearcoat material imitates the type of paint that you find on car bodies. So, essentially the
Clearcoat is a transparent resin material, and the color is defined via the Albedo option in the
Material Editor window.
This material, therefore, is shiny and reflective by default, although you do have the option to dial
back the reflective properties, as well as add a bump map.
 Clearcoat settings

Clearcoat material with Enscape orange selected as the base color.

Texture Editor
 All texture slots used & their texture buttons above the settings
You can use up to four textures at a time per Enscape material. Textures are being used to
control Color, Visibility, Surface Detail and Roughness of a material.
By clicking any of the texture symbols at the top of the material editor, or any of the blue and
underlined image file names next to “Texture”, you’ll enter the actual texture editor interface.

Here you can

 Choose the image file for your texture

 Change the brightness
 Invert the colors of your image
 Apply explicit texture transformations, if you don’t want to use the ones delivered from
SketchUp
The Texture Editor interface is the same for any texture type. It’s meant to allow for simple image
editing operations without having to leave the material editor.

The Texture Editor

Naming Keywords
Before introducing the Material Editor, Enscape would let you decide material properties using
keywords you simply had to include in the material name. This framework is still included in the
Enscape feature set, and can be used freely alongside the material editor for greater comfort.

These are the keywords to include in the SketchUp Material name to tell Enscape how to display it
more realistically.
 Keywords and their effects
KEYWORD EXPLANATION

Water, Ocean, River Draws the material as a water surface.

Vegetation, Foliage, Leaf Adds translucency to thin surfaces (single face).

Emissive Emissive material based on the material color.

Grass, Tall Grass, Short Grass, Wild Grass Realistic grass material based on the underlying surface

Long Carpet, Short Carpet Carpet like material, either long or short, that take on the underlying c

Keywords and their effects

Those keywords change the material parameters without changing their color. The color is still
defined by the SketchUp texture. The SketchUp default roughness is 1.0.

KEYWORD EXPLANATION SPECULA

Glass, Glazing 0,0

Chrome, Mirror 0,0 M

Steel, Copper, Metal, Aluminium 0,3 M

Carpaint, Polished, Acryl 0,02

Ceramic 0,1

Marble 0,2

Plastic 0,5

Fabric, Cloth 0,8